Unable to launch Visual Studio 2015 as a different user

Question

In order to limit my own destructive powers, I have two domain accounts, one for normal work and one for TFS admin stuff. For years I have been using the Run as different user feature for opening another Visual Studio window as my admin account whenever I need to do admin stuff. Both users is members of the local administrator group.

About a month ago this stopped working resulting in the below dialog instead of launching Visual Studio. Both option does nothing - no Visual Studio launches. The suggested link http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=659046, refer to older Visual Studio versions: 2005, 2008 and 2010. I have Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 installed with the latest cumulative servicing update.

I have a feeling that it started after I installed Windows 10 1607 (Anniversary Update) - before I had Windows 10 1511, but I am not sure that something else caused the change. It is possible to open a command prompt as but admin user, but launching Visual Studio from here results in the same dialog. I have tried on another machine with 1607 with same result, and I can still get it to work on a machine with 1511. I have also tried with another user, but again the result is the same.

A workaround is using the Switch User feature of Windows but this makes it impossible to have a window e.g. Outlook open as my normal user switching back and forth.

Any suggestion on how to get around this?

Answer 1

Try to run Visual Studio using this command instead:

runas /netonly /user:<account> devenv.exe

This should be enough to have Visual Studio under a context of another Windows user so it can connect to remote TFS with different credentials.

I'm running the SQL Server Management Studio as different user this way so I can manage remote SQL servers from different Windows domains.

PS: I tried to run Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 on Windows 10 version 1607 as different Windows account (standard user account without admin rights) and I got the same warning about the admin rights.