How can I be logged in in parallel with different user profiles for testing, what users with certain permissions can see in a SharePoint site?

Question

When defining permissions in a SharePoint 2013 site or library I'd often wish to easily test what a users with (only) those permissions can see on this site.

So I think I'll have to create some test users accounts which belong to the different user Groups (we have defined AD security groups for that).

However in my opinion it is quite cumbersome to switch the currently logged in user in my browser, so I wonder:

how can I use several user profiles in parallel for testing?

I'm working on Windows 7.

Sure I could use 3 different browsers for that (IE, Chrome, Firefox), but this is not very convenient.

• Would it be possible to create some lightweight virtual machines (Linux) on my computer to have different user profiles logged in at the same time?
• How do you do such kind of testing?

Answer 1

1. RIGHT click on IE
2. hold SHIFT and then RIGHT click again on IE
3. LEFT click "Run as different user"
4. login
5. Repeat 1.- 4. for other users

:)

Answer 2

Remember the old "log in as different user" from SP2010?

Well it's still there - just browse to <yourSharePoint>/_layouts/15/closeConnection.aspx?loginasanotheruser=true

Answer 3

Use chrome and create multiple users

In settings

you can shift to a different user using top right menu

every user opens in a seperate window. Each window uses its own cache, saved passwords, bookmarks etc.

Answer 4

There's a bunch of options:

1. You can easily open up to 6 browser sessions: IE, IE InPrivate, Chrome, Chome Incognito, Firefox, Firefox Private browsing (+ Opera or else if you want!). They all have their own session/authentication information, and you can log in with 6 different users. At the same time, if you're developping in SharePoint, you can test your dev in different browsers!
2. You can open IE as another user (right-click on the IE icon in the task bar, right-click again on "IE" but hold the shift key pressed this time, and choose "Run as different user".
3. Browse the following URL: http://your_site_url/_layouts/closeConnection.aspx?loginasanotheruser=true
4. Edit the Welcome.ascx file to restore the old good SP2010 "Sign in as different user": http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/684751/How-to-enable-Sign-in-as-different-user-option-in (not supported...)
5. Use JavaScript to create a smart bookmark to the page referenced at #3, see at the end of https://www.credera.com/blog/technology-insights/microsoft-solutions/how-to-sign-in-as-a-different-user-in-sharepoint-2013/
6. Do something more brilliant (like a Custom Action deployed via WSP) to insert that "Sign in" entry in the welcome menu (I did not find any link for that one! :().

And in all cases, you obviously need to create new test users in your AD.

Answer 5

Personally, I use 3 browsers for testing with different users, this is the best way I think, you don't need to install a small VM, that's too dear and long to do it. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Maxthon is your friends. Easy to install and test, just enjoy it.