Run Command as User in PowerShell

Want to run a command as a specific user in PowerShell without having to type in the password?

First, save the password of the user as a secure string by typing this in PowerShell:

Read-Host -AsSecureString | ConvertFrom-Securestring | Out-File C:\UserCred.txt -Force

Just type the password on the blank line and press enter.

Once it's saved, you can use these commands to launch the process. Make sure to adjust the username.

$Password = Get-Content C:\UserCred.txt | ConvertTo-SecureString
$StartProcInfo = New-Object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
$StartProcInfo.UserName = 'User'
$StartProcInfo.Password = $Password
$StartProcInfo.UseShellExecute =  $false
$StartProcInfo.FileName = "powershell"
$StartProcInfo.Arguments = "-NoExit"
[System.Diagnostics.Process]::Start($StartProcInfo)

As a PowerShell Function

If you need to do this often, add a function in your PowerShell profile by typing:

code $profile

Then add a new function - make sure to adjust the username:

function RunAsUser {
	param($Path,$Arguments)
	$password = Get-Content C:\UserCred.txt | ConvertTo-SecureString
	$StartProcInfo = New-Object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
	$StartProcInfo.UserName = 'User'
	$StartProcInfo.Password = $Password
	$StartProcInfo.UseShellExecute = $false
	$StartProcInfo.FileName = $Path
	$StartProcInfo.Arguments = $Arguments
	[System.Diagnostics.Process]::Start($StartProcInfo)
}

Save it, then close PowerShell and reopen.

Now you can simply type this in the future: RunAsUser -Path powershell -Arguments "-NoExit -Command whoami"

Adjust path of the password file or other options as needed.

Result: