Running an application from a shortcut

In most cases, you can use the runasrole program to run specified Windows applications using the application shortcut. However, there are many different types of application shortcuts and the RunAsRole program does not support all of them. You can use the RunAsRole program to execute applications with the following recognized shortcut target extensions:

.bat

.cmd

.cpl

.exe

.msc

.msi

.msp

.ps1

.vbs

.wsf

How to determine whether RunAsRole supports an application shortcut

You can determine whether you can use the RunAsRole program to execute an application from the application shortcut by checking the file extension for the target application in the application’s shortcut properties dialog box.

To check the file extension for a target application shortcut

1. Select an application shortcut.
2. Right-click the shortcut, then click Properties to display the file properties.
3. Click the Shortcut tab and check the target field.

   If the target file extension displayed is a supported file extension, you can use RunAsRole to execute the application from the application shortcut. You should note that a shortcut target field might include both the file name for the application executable and one or more arguments. As long as the application executable has a supported file extension, you can use RunAsRole to execute the application with the specified arguments from the shortcut. For example, if the shortcut target is C:\Windows\System64\control.exe printers, the application executable C:\Windows\System64\control.exe is a supported file extension with printers supplied as an argument. Therefore, you would be able use RunAsRole to run the application from its shortcut.