a direct, simple api to run as system?

Suppose a program is running with elevated privileges already, and it needs to see the contents of the System Volume Information folder, and by default, only NT Authority\System can do that. A workaround would be to change ACL's on the folder, but I don't want to mess with that. I already found two ways to do it: the task scheduler and psexec. They are too indirect, I don't even need to describe the first one, and the second one works by installing a windows service, running it, telling it to run whatever I wanted to run, then uninstalling the service. Now the question is: is there a direct, simple WinAPI function to run something as system? I don't think that such an API would circumvent the security restrictions, as an administrator I have the right to schedule a task or install a service, so there must be a shortcut.

UPDATE: if there's开发者_运维技巧 an actual API to specifically tell me the contents of System Volume Information, then it would be perfect, no need to run as system.

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You don't need to change folder's ACL. Instead you can change ACL of your process. It is done by set of Impersonate functions (ImpersonateLoggedOnUser for example)