What do you do if you want to help a remote user who is logged on to a Windows computer with a non-admin account, and you need to perform administrative activities on the remote device? You need remote access software that is UAC compatible and will allow you to login and perform as an administrator on the remote computer.

Being able to access a remote computer with admin permissions has become critical in today’s work environment where more people than ever are working from home. System administrators and IT experts in a company rely on remote access applications, now more than ever, to offer remote support to the employees and clients that need it.

ISL Online is a cloud-based remote access program that allows a user on one computer to access another computer any distance away. Thanks to administrative mode, it allows seamless interaction with the Windows UAC on a remote computer and provides easy access to any computer with admin rights.

ISL Online’s Administrative Mode

The advantages of the remote access with admin rights that ISL Online offers include enabling more extensive support commands to be executed remotely and operating computers that have been left unattended. According to users’ experience often found on forums it seems numerous remote desktop applications either do not offer this feature at all or haven’t set up admin access well enough, making it very difficult for users to navigate.

When you enable administrative mode in ISL Online, you can easily interact with Windows UAC popup windows and perform any administrative tasks on any remote computer. You won’t get a frozen or a blank screen with ISL Online.

Once you have administrative privileges, you can send CTRL-ALT-DEL commands to a client’s computer, install new software on the remote device, reboot and force reboot it (even in safe mode), restart it, and even request a black screen, preventing local user interference and allowing for more private work.

Admin mode is enabled by default for unattended access

We have designed ISL Online software with our users in mind, learning from the experience they have with our software. To make the software as intuitive as possible, the admin mode is enabled by default, whenever you are accessing an unattended remote computer with ISL Light.

Here’s a typical use case. You are a system administrator in a company who maintains the computers of some or all employees. You are using ISL Light remote access software to access unattended remote computers and servers. In most cases you will perform administrator activities on these remote devices, that is why the admin mode is enabled by default and you don’t have to set it up manually.

How to set up unattended remote access

However, not always can you install a remote access agent on a computer, be it for security reasons or for a completely different user scenario. In this case you are offering remote support to a distant user. To perform administrator tasks on their computer you will need to turn on Admin mode manually.

How to achieve administrator access with ISL Online

Step 1

If you already have an ISL Online account, simply login to the website. You can also log into the ISL Light app, which you can install on your desktop.

If you don’t have an ISL Online account yet, sign up now. You get a 15-days free trial.

Step 2

Click on “Start new Session” to generate an invite code and bring up the invite window. Click the invite to generate an email invitation that you can send to your intended client. When they click it, ISL Light will install on their computer, and the two devices will be connected.

Step 3

With the connection established, you (the ISL Light user) should have remote access to the client’s screen. Click on the “Tools” icon and select “Administrative Mode” from the dropdown and “Enable Administrative Mode” in the next dropdown.

Administrative mode and all its features can currently only be enabled on Windows version of ISL Light. Linux and Mac versions of ISL Light can enable administrative mode and all its features when the remote side is using the Windows operating system. However, you can seamlessly perform administrative tasks on a remote Mac or Linux computer as you will see the authentication windows by default.

Step 4

When the current user account on the client’s computer does NOT have administrative rights, enabling administrative mode will open a window that prompts you to enter the username and password details or lets you check a box that asks the client to enter those details on their end, granting you access with administrative rights.

After providing the correct credentials for Admin Mode, a UAC prompt appears on the remote computer (just a confirmation dialog) and the remote user must confirm it, as the final step in enabling Admin Mode – only then you will be able to see further UAC dialogs. Note that UAC dialogs have a timeout of two minutes – if there is no confirmation within two minutes, the request will fail, just like if you reject the UAC dialog. 

NOTE: If the current user account on the remote computer has administrative rights, the client should receive a prompt requesting them to grant admin privileges to ISL Light.

For further reading and more information on remote access with admin right, please read ISL Online manuals and watch a video.