Running ArcCatalog under a different operating system account

To administer a GIS server, you must be logged in with an operating system account that has access to the GIS server, where that account is a member of the agsadmin group. In general, it's good practice to use an account with more restrictive permissions when performing your daily tasks and to use the administrative account only when you need to administer your server. To run ArcCatalog under the administrative account without logging off and back on again, you can use the Windows runas command.

The runas command allows you to run ArcCatalog under an operating system account other than your current logon. You can run the runas command at the command prompt and, in some operating system versions, as a context menu option on the ArcCatalog executable, located in the bin folder of your installation location. For example, at the command prompt, type the following:

runas /user:username "C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\bin\ArcCatalog.exe"

Alternatively, navigate to the ArcCatalog.exe file in the bin folder, or locate your shortcut to it, right-click the executable, then click Run as. Consult the Windows documentation for more information on using the runas command.