Hi @Twelve3141 - I have a couple of ideas, but want to be sure you understand that I am just a player, like you, and any and all changes made to your computer are at your own risk. So please understand that I am giving a couple of ideas that I think someone like you could use - someone who understands Win10 PC security and user accounts, and is comfortable making shortcuts and using command line switches. I can't stress enough that I can't be responsible for any users' computer issues caused by following any of these instructions.
OK - warnings aside, I think in your situation that making a shortcut that uses a command line switch "savecred" (save credentials) would work best. Be aware, if she is or becomes a super user sometime in the future, she could open up the icon, copy the switch, and gain access to any program on the computer by supplying the same code. Not a great choice for a super security locked-down network, but for keeping a child's standard user account safe, this will work out pretty well.
Here's the short version of what you do:
- Right-click your desktop and choose New > Shortcut
- Enter the path like this, substituting your computer name, administrator account name and game path in the italics. You DO want the quotation marks around the file path:
- runas /user:ComputerName\Administrator /savecred "C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 4\Game\Bin\TS4_x64.exe"
- Save the shortcut. (You can change the icon in properties - browse to the place where your exe is located to get the TS4 icon)
- Double-click the shortcut - you will be prompted for the Administrator password. Enter the password and make sure that TS4 launches
- Exit out of TS4. Launch it again, and this time it should not ask for an Administrator password.
- The password will be saved in Windows Credentials. You can see it (or delete it) at any time from the Windows Credentials Manager (control panel > user accounts > credential manager > windows credentials
I've used this technique in the past on Windows Vista, but have never personally done it in Windows 10. There are several tutorials out there, though - here's one that I thought was particularly detailed: https://www.maketecheasier.com/standard-users-run-program-admin-rights/ One thing I seem to remember is that if you start a program in this manner, it is going to load the Administrator Account profile by default. This means that the program may default to using the administrator account's documents folder, instead of the standard user's account.
This would mean that your daughter's saves files would default to your documents folder instead of hers. If you are playing the game under different user profiles and trying to keep the saves separate, you should save a copy of all your folders in <WindowsUser>\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4 before you implement this change, so you have a backup in case anything gets overwritten. You might be able to experiment with using another switch in the command line to turn off the profile saving. I don't know if it will work, but the command line would look like this:
- runas /user:ComputerName\Administrator /noprofile /savecred "C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 4\Game\Bin\TS4_x64.exe"
The worst that could happen is it doesn't work correctly and TS4 folders are created in a different spot than expected. If the /noprofile switch doesn't work, you may be able to change the default save in the TS4 options.
There is another technique that is a little more "techie" and bit more secure, but I can't find anywhere that says it would work in Windows 10. In earlier versions of Windows, there are tutorials out there for how to create a scheduled task and refer to it when creating the shortcut. You could do a web search for it if it interests you.
Please let us know if you're able to get this running the way you'd like. 🤞 Happy Simming to you and your daughter!
