Interactive command prompt as NETWORK SERVICE

Question

How do I open an interactive application, such as cmd.exe or Windows Explorer, running as NETWORK SERVICE? There are ways to do it for the SYSTEM account, but NETWORK SERVICE is proving to be a challenge. I need this to work on Windows 7, but would be interested in solutions for other Windows versions as well.

Answer 1

Have you tried PsExec, a couple of interesting links with more information:

• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553.aspx
• https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/381df759-af7f-4523-a2fd-b17e8c68db9e/how-to-start-cmdexe-as-network-service?forum=pstools

Answer 2

Here is how you would use PsExec to run cmd.exe under "NETWORK SERVICE" user context:

psexec -i -u "nt authority\network service" cmd.exe