Using the "runas" command when testing Microsoft CRM as different users

Did you know that you can launch Internet Explorer (or any application for that matter) as an impersonated user? You can do this by using the "runas" command to specify the credentials of a user other than yourself. This trick is very useful when you want to test Microsoft CRM as a bunch of different users with varying security roles.

To try this, enter the following command at a DOS prompt (using values specific to your environment):
runas /user:<domain>\<testuser> "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore  http://<yourcrmserver>/loader.aspx"

For example:
runas /user:dev\testuser "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore  http://devcrm/loader.aspx"

You will then be prompted to enter the password of the user.

After successfully authenticating, you will have an instance of Internet Explorer under the credentials as dev\testuser, and Microsoft CRM will adhere to the security settings of the dev\testuser account!

Additionally, you can create a batch file to store this command for simple reuse. To create a batch file, do the following:
• Open a text editor such as Notepad
• Copy the command into the Notepad window
• Save the file as <filename>.bat somewhere on your drive or on a fileshare for others to use as well. (I usually use the following naming convention: <server>_<user>.bat. For instance, in the above example, I would name the file crmdev_testuser.bat)
• Simply double-click the .bat file the next time you want to run this script, enter the password, and voila…you are running Microsoft CRM under that user's account!

For our Microsoft CRM testing, we typically:
• Add test users to our CRM environment, and assign the key security roles to these various test users.
• Create a batch file with the above command for each user you wish to test.