It's completely crazy what you have to do but I figured out how to LOG ON as The Trusted Installer!

This is kind of a crazy one so bear with me. I feel the steps that are required to do this are so past the point of not recommended by anything anywhere that I should explain how to do this by going through the processes of how I figured it out. it's kind of a story.

a comment I made today spark something in my head, it was about a program called "CTIEXE" that will launch other programs with trusted installer credentials I said try shutting down the Explorer and restarting it with trusted installer.

I done this before. you wind up pretty much switching profiles to what seems is a default profile although it doesn't seem to function very well a lot of stuff is missing and a lot of things won't open. I really didn't think much of it after or go back because it kind of seemed like an odd dead end.

So after that comment I made I started thinking maybe there's something to it maybe I can repair the profile. as I start looking into it I quickly realize this is the hidden system profile (there's actually a placeholder user directory for this found in c:Windows\system32\config).

So This is indeed The Trusted Installers profile but it's been disassembled is a good way of putting it. The profile draws all of its relevant profile information from the default profile directory in the registry which only contains the basic parts of a profile But none of the system or user directories link.... So? how do we Supply this profile with the required links and registry entries needed to function.

Now we've come to the crazy part!

Of course the first thing I thought of is what I did. I exported my entire current user profile directory from the registry. then edited the .reg file's directory path to point at the default profile directory and pulled the trigger.
Now it tells me that it didn't load everything it couldn't. but I checked the directories and a large chunk of my profile is now in the default profile. Testing Time, so I do the little profile swap by terminating the Explorer in task manager to Kill the shell, then using CTIEXE I relaunched it.

This time the only noticeable change was my background was gone. but other than that I was still in what felt like my profile and everything functioned everything opened all the things that were broken now works perfectly

(the only thing I did notice that was it still can't access to the modern settings but control panels there and functions)

So, now I'm in what feels like my profile but I have the trusted installers credential and a new profile to work the remaining bugs out of and call home with an all to familiar Pre-set profile name "SYSTEM" I can open anything I can I can go anywhere I can do whatever I want. finally Above the administrator. The ultimate level up.

I told you it was crazy but it works!

So I wanted to see what directories did not get written in the default profile directory. So I one by one moved the the individual directories in my profile to the the default profile once again. (it's actually pretty easy I figured out that when the trust installer launches regedit even if I'm still in my current bass profile it's the default profile under current profile section and then I can launch it and it's my profile under current profile and both can be launched at the same time.
Anyway, every directory went flawlessly except were only a few areas in the windows directory section that seem to not take the data. its it's all directories that deal with store apps and apps in general probably why we're not getting the modern Settings app.

I guess I had a bout of dyslexia when I originally made this thread it's not "CTIEXE" it's "EXECTI"

FYI: you may start explorer as different user from your own session after you edit the registry:
go to
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\{CDCBCFCA-3CDC-436f-A4E2-0E02075250C2}
* right click that key, choose "Permissions" and set your user as owner (click on advanced button to be
able to take ownership) of the key and afterwards, give your current user writing permissions. Next, rename the value RunAs to _Runas
Done. You will be able to use execti directly on explorer.exe now within your own session.

am doing it for my own session the only thing I have to do is Crash the shell. because if I try to have him open Explorer with a shell running the Explorer window just pops up but the problem I was having is the shell he would try to load was half a shell. but I think I see what you're saying you're saying that I could have redirected what shell he was going to load rather than dumping everything into the default. I figured there would be always do that but it was kind of a Split Second thought that I just acted on.
That would probably solve the store, app and settings issues.

I am glad it is crazy what you have to do, as this is a very dangerous thing to do unless you really understand what you are doing. We would end up with zillions of "I deleted a systen file so I could revert to an earlier version,,and now pc keeps crashing" type of posts.

The constraints are there for a reason, and I am not arrogant enough to think I can safely bypass constraints without risking screwing windows up. I am careful even when using built in administrator account.

I hope you make regular image backups!

I keep all user files installed programs even the Windows apps themselves on a secondary Drive. the only thing on my primary drive is Windows, and I take a disk image backup of it nightly. Just so I can do crazy stuff like this. I can recover from any failure in about 3 minutes flat with 100% functionality like it never even happened. Using R-drive's bootable disk Imaging system. I've always prefer to learn on my own and my favorite method is trial and error. And when people tell me I can't do things I tend to always want to test it to try to prove them wrong (and I do that a lot). So of course my system is set up to be... well the closest thing you can get to crash proof.
I'm that rare breed of user the one who doesn't fear a crash or system failure in fact I seem to be looking for it I invite it but because of this I've learned a lot all firsthand knowledge. And I've been at it since Windows 98.

Comport Colin said:

FYI: you may start explorer as different user from your own session after you edit the registry:
go to
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\{CDCBCFCA-3CDC-436f-A4E2-0E02075250C2}
* right click that key, choose "Permissions" and set your user as owner (click on advanced button to be
able to take ownership) of the key and afterwards, give your current user writing permissions. Next, rename the value RunAs to _Runas
Done. You will be able to use execti directly on explorer.exe now within your own session.

Click to expand...

I finally got a chance to try your suggestion on a fresh install of windows 11 and i t just did what it did before i wound up in the half working default profile even tried with and without the dash in _Runas but the got there reaction. i have i lot disabled items that most people don't. dose it require any service or processes in the background that i might have disabled? Wait i take it back i figured it out DONT CRASH THE SHELL FIRST
Way to go Comport!!! very nice freedom with use of the settings and apps fully functional. thank you sir

Hi,
Not really just plug in a razor mouse
It's auto driver install does it all for you

Zantetsuken said:

I finally got a chance to try your suggestion on a fresh install of windows 11 and i t just did what it did before i wound up in the half working default profile even tried with and without the dash in _Runas but the got there reaction. i have i lot disabled items that most people don't. dose it require any service or processes in the background that i might have disabled? Wait i take it back i figured it out DONT CRASH THE SHELL FIRST
Way to go Comport!!! very nice freedom with use of the settings and apps fully functional. thank you sir

Click to expand...

When I gave it a test and although I've never seen it react this way before because it did launch under the white shell I'm currently staring at two Explorer windows a Dark theme and a light theme running simultaneously on my screen I still don't have trusted installer access it's localized to the white Explorer window only. that's how it's always been only the stuff he launches is running in god mode

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
Not really just plug in a razor mouse
It's auto driver install does it all for you

Click to expand...

Yeah I heard about that after I got the mouse. but I've already got EXECTI so it really didn't seem to be a point in using a more complicated method. and come find out that even though it can blow a wide hole through security the software for the razors sucks yeah they'll give you control over your Mouse's LEDs if you let them install half a gig worth of analytical and telemetry software on your computer.

Zantetsuken said:

I keep all user files installed programs even the Windows apps themselves on a secondary Drive. the only thing on my primary drive is Windows, and I take a disk image backup of it nightly. Just so I can do crazy stuff like this. I can recover from any failure in about 3 minutes flat with 100% functionality like it never even happened. Using R-drive's bootable disk Imaging system. I've always prefer to learn on my own and my favorite method is trial and error. And when people tell me I can't do things I tend to always want to test it to try to prove them wrong (and I do that a lot). So of course my system is set up to be... well the closest thing you can get to crash proof.
I'm that rare breed of user the one who doesn't fear a crash or system failure in fact I seem to be looking for it I invite it but because of this I've learned a lot all firsthand knowledge. And I've been at it since Windows 98.

Click to expand...

Im the same way. I foodle with alot of stuff that noone I know would even think of doing, one of the first things I do is unhide all protected system files. I especially like playing in the registry and testing what you can change in order to access certain functions purposely disabled by the original windows installation. I will admit during some of my manic god of windows moments I have bricked the rubbish instantly lol I find it hilarious, I just get out my core windows USB, loadup CMD hit diskpart clean, and reinstall to continue my domination of windows lol I have done this with pro, home, and enterprise versions just to see the differences and what tweaks are possible and what I should never play with again. Lol I see it as I paid for the software I own the software so I'm going to do whatever I want. Mind you I do keep a delegated system with a personal desktop environment with my irreplaceable filesystem installed, I just keep it seperate from my doomsday device. I've always been an advocate for self learning and like yourself trial and error is my preferred route -and I enjoy it. The techniques and skills are retained in a deeper more permanent way and of course there is some time lost but it sure beats scrolling forums trying to figure things out one at a time.