Make Me Admin: Temporary Admin Rights

This article provides instructions on when and how to use Make Me Admin (MMA) on an Apple or a Windows computer managed by the University of Minnesota Office of Information Technology.

Note: Make Me Admin is not currently available for Health Care Component (HCC) Windows computers. For temporary administrative rights on an HCC managed Windows computer, please contact Technology Help. HCC members with a Mac computer, can grant themselves temporary administrator rights for 30 minutes through Self Service. 

In this article:

• When to Request Make Me Admin Access
• Activate Make Me Admin on a Mac
• Activate Make Me Admin on Windows

When to Request Make Me Admin Access

In most instances, when administrative access is needed on a University managed computer, you can contact Technology Help for assistance with the task that requires administrative rights.

Those who have a business need for their own administrative access on a computer may submit the Responsible Administrative Rights Request form to request use of the Make Me Admin tool. Make Me Admin allows temporary elevation for a duration of 15 minutes. This ensures compliance with the University Security Authentication, Access, and Account Management Standard policy.

• This request may be granted to supervisor-approved staff members with a clear business need. 
• Those who have access to this tool must understand and agree to follow the policies outlined on the Responsible Admin Rights webpage.
• Access to the tool will be removed after one year or a period of non-use.

When your request to use Make Me Admin has been approved and access has been granted, follow the below steps.

Activate Make Me Admin on a Mac

1. Open the Self Service application.
   
   
    
2. Click Run on Make Me Admin.
   
   
    
3. A Management Notification will pop up in the upper right corner of your desktop. Click on the X to close the window.
   
   
   
   Temporary administrative rights will be removed after 15 minutes. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to reactivate Make Me Admin if needed.

Activate Make Me Admin on Windows

Important: If your computer is off campus, you will need to first connect to Cisco Secure Client VPN Split-Tunnel.

1. Locate the Make Me Admin gold lock desktop shortcut on the desktop. Double-click to launch it.
   
   
    
2. Click on the Grant Me Administrator Rights button.
   
   
   
   If the button says "You are not authorized to use this application" instead of "Grant Me Administrator Rights", you likely have not been approved for Make Me Admin use on the computer. Contact Technology Help for assistance.
   
   Temporary administrative rights will be removed after 15 minutes. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to reactivate Make Me Admin if needed.

Note: The above 2 steps only work if you are activating Make Me Admin on a Windows computer with the same Internet account you used to log in on the computer. There are different steps to activate MMA with an Internet account that was not used to log in.

1. If needed, contact Technology Help to verify the Internet account has permission to activate Make Me Admin on the computer.
2. Shift + Right-Click on the Make Me Admin gold lock desktop shortcut and select Run as different user.
3. In the Run as different user window, type the Internet ID in the User name field and then the password. Click on the OK button.
4. In the Make Me Admin 2.4.1 window, click on the Grant Me Administrator Rights button.