windows start service without admin rights

In the Windows environment, certain tasks require administrative privileges to be performed. However, starting a service doesn’t always require such privileges. This post will guide you through a simple solution that allows you to start a service without administrator rights.

Introduction

Normally, to start or stop a service in Windows, you’d need to have administrative rights. This can pose a challenge if you don’t have these permissions. But don’t worry, there are many ways to overcome this issue.

The Solution: Service Security Editor

During my search for a solution, I came across a very handy tool called the Service Security Editor on a Stack Overflow post.

The Service Security Editor is an easy-to-use tool that provides a graphical user interface (GUI) to configure access rights. With it, you can grant specific users the ability to start or stop services without giving them full administrative rights. It’s a powerful tool for managing service permissions in a granular way.

You can download the Service Security Editor from the official website.

Here’s a brief guide on how to use the Service Security Editor:

Choose your user: First, select the user account that you want to grant permissions to.

Define permissions: Next, configure what actions this user should be able to perform. In this case, we’re granting the user the ability to start and stop services.

Now, the selected user can start and stop services without needing administrative rights.

Create ISO file with powershell

Create a file with name createiso.ps1 and fill this code into it.

function New-IsoFile 
{  
  <# .Synopsis Creates a new .iso file .Description The New-IsoFile cmdlet creates a new .iso file containing content from chosen folders .Example New-IsoFile "c:\tools","c:Downloads\utils" This command creates a .iso file in $env:temp folder (default location) that contains c:\tools and c:\downloads\utils folders. The folders themselves are included at the root of the .iso image. .Example New-IsoFile -FromClipboard -Verbose Before running this command, select and copy (Ctrl-C) files/folders in Explorer first. .Example dir c:\WinPE | New-IsoFile -Path c:\temp\WinPE.iso -BootFile "${env:ProgramFiles(x86)}\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Deployment Tools\amd64\Oscdimg\efisys.bin" -Media DVDPLUSR -Title "WinPE" This command creates a bootable .iso file containing the content from c:\WinPE folder, but the folder itself isn't included. Boot file etfsboot.com can be found in Windows ADK. Refer to IMAPI_MEDIA_PHYSICAL_TYPE enumeration for possible media types: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366217(v=vs.85).aspx .Notes NAME: New-IsoFile AUTHOR: Chris Wu LASTEDIT: 03/23/2016 14:46:50 #> 
   
  [CmdletBinding(DefaultParameterSetName='Source')]Param( 
    [parameter(Position=1,Mandatory=$true,ValueFromPipeline=$true, ParameterSetName='Source')]$Source,  
    [parameter(Position=2)][string]$Path = "$env:temp\$((Get-Date).ToString('yyyyMMdd-HHmmss.ffff')).iso",  
    [ValidateScript({Test-Path -LiteralPath $_ -PathType Leaf})][string]$BootFile = $null, 
    [ValidateSet('CDR','CDRW','DVDRAM','DVDPLUSR','DVDPLUSRW','DVDPLUSR_DUALLAYER','DVDDASHR','DVDDASHRW','DVDDASHR_DUALLAYER','DISK','DVDPLUSRW_DUALLAYER','BDR','BDRE')][string] $Media = 'DVDPLUSRW_DUALLAYER', 
    [string]$Title = (Get-Date).ToString("yyyyMMdd-HHmmss.ffff"),  
    [switch]$Force, 
    [parameter(ParameterSetName='Clipboard')][switch]$FromClipboard 
  ) 
  
  Begin {  
    ($cp = new-object System.CodeDom.Compiler.CompilerParameters).CompilerOptions = '/unsafe' 
    if (!('ISOFile' -as [type])) {  
      Add-Type -CompilerParameters $cp -TypeDefinition @'
public class ISOFile  
{ 
  public unsafe static void Create(string Path, object Stream, int BlockSize, int TotalBlocks)  
  {  
    int bytes = 0;  
    byte[] buf = new byte[BlockSize];  
    var ptr = (System.IntPtr)(&bytes);  
    var o = System.IO.File.OpenWrite(Path);  
    var i = Stream as System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComTypes.IStream;  
   
    if (o != null) { 
      while (TotalBlocks-- > 0) {  
        i.Read(buf, BlockSize, ptr); o.Write(buf, 0, bytes);  
      }  
      o.Flush(); o.Close();  
    } 
  } 
}  
'@  
    } 
   
    if ($BootFile) { 
      if('BDR','BDRE' -contains $Media) { Write-Warning "Bootable image doesn't seem to work with media type $Media" } 
      ($Stream = New-Object -ComObject ADODB.Stream -Property @{Type=1}).Open()  # adFileTypeBinary 
      $Stream.LoadFromFile((Get-Item -LiteralPath $BootFile).Fullname) 
      ($Boot = New-Object -ComObject IMAPI2FS.BootOptions).AssignBootImage($Stream) 
    } 
  
    $MediaType = @('UNKNOWN','CDROM','CDR','CDRW','DVDROM','DVDRAM','DVDPLUSR','DVDPLUSRW','DVDPLUSR_DUALLAYER','DVDDASHR','DVDDASHRW','DVDDASHR_DUALLAYER','DISK','DVDPLUSRW_DUALLAYER','HDDVDROM','HDDVDR','HDDVDRAM','BDROM','BDR','BDRE') 
  
    Write-Verbose -Message "Selected media type is $Media with value $($MediaType.IndexOf($Media))"
    ($Image = New-Object -com IMAPI2FS.MsftFileSystemImage -Property @{VolumeName=$Title}).ChooseImageDefaultsForMediaType($MediaType.IndexOf($Media)) 
   
    if (!($Target = New-Item -Path $Path -ItemType File -Force:$Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) { Write-Error -Message "Cannot create file $Path. Use -Force parameter to overwrite if the target file already exists."; break } 
  }  
  
  Process { 
    if($FromClipboard) { 
      if($PSVersionTable.PSVersion.Major -lt 5) { Write-Error -Message 'The -FromClipboard parameter is only supported on PowerShell v5 or higher'; break } 
      $Source = Get-Clipboard -Format FileDropList 
    } 
  
    foreach($item in $Source) { 
      if($item -isnot [System.IO.FileInfo] -and $item -isnot [System.IO.DirectoryInfo]) { 
        $item = Get-Item -LiteralPath $item
      } 
  
      if($item) { 
        Write-Verbose -Message "Adding item to the target image: $($item.FullName)"
        try { $Image.Root.AddTree($item.FullName, $true) } catch { Write-Error -Message ($_.Exception.Message.Trim() + ' Try a different media type.') } 
      } 
    } 
  } 
  
  End {  
    if ($Boot) { $Image.BootImageOptions=$Boot }  
    $Result = $Image.CreateResultImage()  
    [ISOFile]::Create($Target.FullName,$Result.ImageStream,$Result.BlockSize,$Result.TotalBlocks) 
    Write-Verbose -Message "Target image ($($Target.FullName)) has been created"
    $Target
  } 
} 

After file creation, you must import this module to your open powershell session.

Import-Module .\createiso.ps1

Now you can define on powershell your source folder

$source_dir = "Z:\isofilel\"

We can create our ISO file
get-childitem "$source_dir" | New-ISOFile -path C:\iso\mydmz.iso