Gain administrator rights without switching user?

In Windows 7 (64-bit Ultimate in my case), is there any way to gain only the rights of an administrator account, rather than effectively "running" the application as <insert administrator name here>?

I am having a dilemma with MPC-HC (Media Player Classic - Home Cinema), where it requires administrator privileges to associate files with it. When I enter the credentials for an administrator account there, it essentially updates the whole environment, so the settings are applied only to the account I supplied, and not the standard account I am logged into. To be clear, I do first run the application under my standard, logged in account, and then click the "run as administrator" button available within the program.

I know I've had the same kind of trouble with some standard Windows control applets as well, so I don't think it's an issue with MPC-HC per se. I can't remember exactly what that was now though, but I'm sure of it.

The only workaround I have managed to come up with so far, is to temporarily add my account to the Administrators group, and quickly remove it again once done. But that feels like a security risk, and it's also quite inconvenient, so I'm really hoping there's a better solution...

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