robert.diley (3/26/2015)
I see your point here, although I don't reach the same conclusion. Doesn't this turn on what credentials the object browser is using? Assuming that the sysadmin came along and found that the dev had already started SSMS authenticating to this instance with the dev's credentials, the posted answer should stand. But this is not stated in the question: for all we know it has sysadmin creds. Therefore, without rejecting the answer, I now think that the question is incomplete.
I did this test:
1. I created a standard login, and added it to sysadmin role.
2. In a query window, I right-clicked and chose "change connection" to reconnect using the just created login
3. In Object explorer, I closed all connections
4. I did a SETUSER 'user_login' WITH NORESET (user_login is a non-privileged account)
5. SELECT USER_NAME() to confirm SETUSER worked
6. Right-click in query window and selected "open server in object explorer"
Result: a new conection in the object explorer with the login created and used in steps 1 and 2 with full sysadmin access, not the Windows account running SSMS.