How to Show “Run as different user” on Windows 10 Start Menu

1. Open the Registry Editor. Navigate to the following key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

   If the “Explorer” subkey is missing, right-click on the “Windows” key and select New -> Key. Name it “Explorer” (without the quotes).

   

2. Next, right-click on the “Explorer” subkey and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it ShowRunAsDifferentUserInStart.

   

3. Double-click the created value, set its value data to 1, then click OK.

   

4. Close the Registry Editor. After restarting Windows 10, the next time you right-click any app on the Start Menu, the “Run as a different user” command will appear on the context menu that appears.

Method 1: Shift + Right-Click Context Menu

Open File Explorer and browse to the executable file you wish to run as different user. Simply hold down the Shift key and right-click on the executable file, select Run as different user from the context menu.

Next you have to enter the user name and the password of the user which we want use to open the application.

Method 2: Run as Different User via Command Line

Runas is a very useful command in Windows. This command allows to run applications under a different user account, even as an Administrator. To use the Runas command, you need to provide a different user’s credentials and the full path of the application you want to run.

For example, if you want to open Notepad as your Windows user Bob, the command line would be as below.
runas /user:Bob “C:\Windows\notepad.exe”

After running the above command, you will be asked to enter the password of Bob account. After password validation, Notepad will be opened with the specified account credentials.

Method 3: Run as Different User via Start Menu

If you want to run apps as different user from Start Menu in Windows 10, you need to tweak the Group Policy setting.

1. Press the Windows + R key combination to bring up the Run box, type gpedit.msc and hit Enter.
2. In the Local Group Policy Editor window, navigate to:
   User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar
3. In right-side pane, double-click on the policy called Show “Run as different user” command on Start.

   

4. Set the policy to Enabled, then click OK to save your changes.

   

5. Reboot your computer. Right-click any application on the Start Menu, you’ll see a new option “Run as different user” for quick access.