## Temporary Impersonation

There is a su command included as part of the Microsoft Windows NT Resource Kit, but this is not something you normally use as a Windows NT administrator. If you wish to change from being an unprivileged user to a system operator (or any other account), you typically log off and then log on again as a privileged user. This differs from the normal UNIX mode of administration where the administrator logs on through his or her personal account and then uses the su command to accomplish a specific task.

It is possible to log on to your local Windows NT computer under one user name and then connect to another Windows NT computer under another user name. This is accomplished through the Connect As option. Administrators typically use this method to connect to remote computers as administrators while logged on with their standard user account.

Connect As provides more than the ability to access a file or printer on a remote computer. For example, if your account does not have permission to access a resource on a remote computer, you can connect to another user who has the appropriate permissions (as long as you have a valid user name and password). It is important to remember that the Connect As option does not allow you to have multiple connections to the same computer with different accounts. If you have one connection established and try to use Connect As to connect to the same computer, the connection will fail. You must first disconnect and then reconnect using the Connect As option with the other account.

Because you are authenticating yourself on the remote computer as the other user, you can use this connection for purely administrative purposes, without actually sharing files or printers.

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Last Updated: December 1, 1997