SIGN IN AS A DIFFERENT USER IN SHAREPOINT 2013

SharePoint used to have a menu option called “Sign in as Different User” in the top-right corner of every page. It was a handy tool for developers and IT professionals in SharePoint 2007 and 2010, which allowed them to login with another account to test their solutions or customizations. Microsoft removed the option in SharePoint 2013, but you can still do it with workarounds

HOW TO SIGN IN AS A DIFFERENT USER

Developers and/or IT administrators, myself included often, have to log in with a different user account to test their solutions or customizations, or get a higher-level permissions in a SharePoint site. Even though the menu option is missing, there are several workarounds that can be used to log in as a different user in SharePoint 2013.

Method 1: Internet Explorer’s Different User Option

The most common way to sign in as a different user is with Internet Explorer’s “Run as different user” option. Just right-click the IE icon while holding the shift key down and click on “Run as different user.” Once logged in, just navigate to the SharePoint site. This method is quite cumbersome but it does allow you to run multiple instances of IE and be logged in as a different user in each one.

Note for the Windows 7 or 8 users: if you have IE pinned to your taskbar, holding the shift key and right-clicking on the taskbar icon won’t work. You have to right-click the IE icon in the taskbar first, then hold the shift key and right-click on the Internet Explorer option.

Method 2: Navigate to the Close Connection Page

A slightly faster way to accomplish this is to navigate to the Close Connection page. Just visit the following URL in your browser:

http://<SITE URL>/_layouts/closeConnection.aspx?loginasanotheruser=true

As soon as you hit this page, the familiar pop-up will prompt you for the username to log in with. Once you log in, you will be redirected to the home page.