running MSI afterburner with standard (non admin) account?

[lanceuppercut]

only recently found out about the MSI afterburner program which lets me clock down my 8800gts whilst in windows and back up when in a game which is brilliant.

however, the one annoying thing i've noticed is that it needs an admin level account to run but as i run with a standard user account, i'm quite reluctant to run as admin all the time.

[mrt9888]

If you haven't changed the voltage you use the ATI overdrive that comes with the driver or nvidia system tools.

[lanceuppercut]

not touched the voltage, downloading the nvidia system tools now..

i currently have it clocked down as low as possible whilst in windows then back up when in game, curiously it doesnt let me overclock the 8800gts, always seems to clock back to its default settings.

edit: if anything the nvidia tools seem overly complicated (i have to load a profile then unload it when a game plays?? --much prefer afterburner's 2d/3d modes) and on top of that, required admin priviledges and didnt work. i might have to resign myself to using afterburner and typing the admin password in every reboot :/

[Agent]

You can run just MSI-AB as admin as opposed to the entire logged in account, even on XP.

[lanceuppercut]

You can run just MSI-AB as admin as opposed to the entire logged in account, even on XP.

thats what i'm going to have to do, but i'll need to enter the password in each time i run it which is what i wanted to avoid.

[Agent]

It's been a while since I looked at this, but I think you can do it in a hackery way through the security policy.

cmd > secpol.msc > Local policy > Security Options > "Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only" - set that to disabled.

If you now have an admin user without a password, you can run that program as that user without getting the password prompt at all.

Again, it's been a while, so give it and try and let us know

[jim]

thats what i'm going to have to do, but i'll need to enter the password in each time i run it which is what i wanted to avoid.

Task Scheduler should do the trick

[Phage]

Nah - I had the same problem, and setting up a task with highest privelige, and it still asks for the password.

[lanceuppercut]

It's been a while since I looked at this, but I think you can do it in a hackery way through the security policy.

cmd > secpol.msc > Local policy > Security Options > "Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only" - set that to disabled.

If you now have an admin user without a password, you can run that program as that user without getting the password prompt at all.

Again, it's been a while, so give it and try and let us know

that kind of defeats the point of not running in admin mode surely? or does that limit the no password thing to just a specific program?

[Agent]

that kind of defeats the point of not running in admin mode surely? or does that limit the no password thing to just a specific program?

It limits it to a user with no password. Any other users with a password remain unaffected.
As for a specific program - it will limit it to the program you set to run as that admin user.

Could other programs elevate themselves to this other admin user? possibility - but it would require a specifically crafted file aimed at your system, knowing the username of that user.

It really is a case of security vs convenience here if you want it to run as an admin under a limited user account. There is no simple 'this program should always run as an admin / do not request a password for it' when running as a limited user account.

If you're on Vista / 7 though, UAC was mostly made for this reason - to tell you when a program is requiring admin rights. Even if you're running as a local admin account, with UAC on and set to a reasonable level (I use high on most machines, because I'm paranoid), then you're going to be alerted to program elevation requests. It then simply becomes a case of right click->run as admin.