[Question] Having problems changing default shell

[jftuga]

As an experiment, I edited HKLM\SW\MS\WNT\CV\WL\Shell and set the value from "Explorer.exe" to "psexec -d -l Explorer.exe". Now when I logon, I do not have admin abilities any more, but Explorer does not open up in shell mode any more either, but rather (for lack of a better term), "My Computer" mode.

Does anyone know how I can correct this? I still want explorer as my shell, but also want to psexec it. I know I could run as a standard user instead of Admin, but this is not the point of my experiment.

Thanks,

-John

Title edited -- Please, use [TAGS] in your topic's title.

--Sonic

[Sonic]

Perhaps you can't use application with its switchs in "Shell" regkey. Try with a cmd. Btw, I havn't really tested alternative shell ...

[LLXX]

I've tried cmd.exe and taskmgr.exe as the shell... it works. No switches though.

Maybe you could encapsulate the whole shell invocation line in a batch file and call that from the Shell key?

[Sonic]

Maybe you could encapsulate the whole shell invocation line in a batch file and call that from the Shell key?

It was I mean in my post

[Delprat]

Perhaps the matter is Explorer.exe itself which is looking if that "Shell" regkey is exactly "Explorer.exe" before running in shell-mode...

Why are you trying that ???

You can make a low-rights user...

[jftuga]

Perhaps the matter is Explorer.exe itself which is looking if that "Shell" regkey is exactly "Explorer.exe" before running in shell-mode...

Why are you trying that ???

You can make a low-rights user...

I thought this might be the case, but after running RegMon, I don't believe this is how it makes it determination. I even disable System Restore, renamed explorer.exe to explorer_real.exe, created a (compiled) AutoIT script named explorer.exe that simply did a Run("c:\windows\explorer_real.exe"). This did not work either.

I want to make just about everthing low rights, but still run programs like ADUC, Enterprise Mgr, System Mgr, etc. w/o having to type in a RunAs password.

-John

Edited May 19, 2006 by jftuga