Runas - Profile/no profile?

[Fredricz]

Hello,
I've got a question about RunAs. What's the difference between:
 $RUN_LOGON_NOPROFILE (0) - Interactive logon with no profile.
 $RUN_LOGON_PROFILE (1) - Interactive logon with profile.

I've got a problem with some corrupt admin profiles (only local accounts, got no domain), so RunAs doesnt work. So my guess is, 1 = I can reach HKCU from the admin account? 
My problem is that RunAs fails when it tried to run on the corrupt admin profile: RunAs("admin", "", "mypassword123", 1, "C:\temp\admin-clean.exe", "", @SW_HIDE)

But it works with RunAs("admin", "", "mypassword123", 0, "C:\temp\admin-clean.exe", "", @SW_HIDE) ... so what's the downside? 

 

I know that I can solve the problem by puttin 'if @error' after but I cant repair the admin account without having an admin account x) 

Ty for help! 

[MattHiggs]

Is the built in admin account the one that is corrupt?  What I would suggest is booting into the Windows recovery environment (Hold shift while selecting restart on your computer), go to troubleshoot, and select the command prompt from the menu.  Then run "net user administrator /active:yes", which will activate the built in administrator.  This account is always disabled by default, unless you installed your operating system using Microsoft deployment toolkit.  Be careful doing this though.  There are many ways that using this method can make things worse.  Take a look here:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766343(v=ws.10).aspx

Edited April 13, 2016 by MattHiggs

[Fredricz]

Thanks... But I know how to solve the problem. Just want to know what's the difference between  $RUN_LOGON_NOPROFILE (0)  and  $RUN_LOGON_PROFILE (1) . Is $RUN_LOGON_NOPROFILE (0) running as system? RunAs failes when the profile is corrupted and when I'm using $RUN_LOGON_PROFILE (1) , because it uses the corrupt profile. 

 

What's the difference between:
1.  RunAs("admin", "", "mypassword123", 0, "cmd.exe")

2.  RunAs("admin", "", "mypassword123", 1, "cmd.exe")

 

One is using the profile and the other one doesnt use the profile. But what does that mean? That I cant use HKCU on the admin account? That it runs as system? What's the downside to not use the profile in RunAs? 

Edited April 14, 2016 by Fredricz

[spudw2k]

According to the very general MS TechNet article about Runas (which I'm pretty sure AutoIt is employing in an equivalent/API manner) no profile, "Specifies that the user's profile is not to be loaded. This allows the application to load more quickly, but it can also cause a malfunction in some applications." 

So assume anything that has to do with the profile being loaded won't work (i.e. HKCU as you mentioned, user environment variables and more that I'm not aware of I'm sure); there's your downside I guess (profile dependencies).
 

If a process or script run properly with no profile loaded than there is no downside...right?

Edited April 14, 2016 by spudw2k

[Fredricz]

16 hours ago, spudw2k said:

According to the very general MS TechNet article about Runas (which I'm pretty sure AutoIt is employing in an equivalent/API manner) no profile, "Specifies that the user's profile is not to be loaded. This allows the application to load more quickly, but it can also cause a malfunction in some applications." 

So assume anything that has to do with the profile being loaded won't work (i.e. HKCU as you mentioned, user environment variables and more that I'm not aware of I'm sure); there's your downside I guess (profile dependencies).
 

If a process or script run properly with no profile loaded than there is no downside...right?

Haha exactly. Perfect, I will try with no profile and see how it works. Thanks for you answer, it seems that no one really knows exactly how it works. But I'm still happy with your answer, thanks !