More on running Explorer when running as non-Admin
Well, my last post seems to have inspired Drew:
Ha! I thought of the IE idea because of your previous post, now this one got me thinking about another improvement.
So I created a new Shortcut as you did and pinned it. In the shortcut properties, I added C:\ as the only parameter in the command line (the result is similar to your homepage idea without having to change the homepage). Clicking the Advanced option in the shortcut properties and I was able to say I want this shortcut to launch with different credentials.
Finally, renamed the shortcut "Admin Explorer" and gave it a more appropriate icon. I also gave it a shortcut key, but I'm not sure if I'll remember to use it. Habits are hard to form.
I still haven't solved the issue of making it visually obvious I'm using explorer running under admin. But, now its as easy as Easy-Mac to launch explorer as admin.
Well, other than the reference to Easy Mac (eww...reminds me too much of "yellow death" in college [store-brand mac & cheese with no butter or milk...who could afford those?]), this is helpful. I had made the mistake of trying to pin the exe for IE to the Start Menu, which meant that I could not change the name or icon. One interesting note is that it ignores the Run: parameter, which I set to Maximized. Not sure why. But this is a good start.
One caveat: I don't know if this is peculiar to my setup (XP Pro, Outlook XP), but if I have an IE window open using an Admin account, and then I try to click a link in Outlook to open a Web page, IE crashes, including the window opened as Admin. I tried setting the Folder options to "Launch folder windows in a separate process", to no avail. If I leave that window closed, however, the links work just fine. It couldn't just be easy, could it? <sigh>