A requirement of the application I am developing is to be able to install a plugin for an external program. Installing a plugin consists of dropping a dll into a plugins directory. The trouble is that the plugins directory is located in a folder in Program Files (x86). When attempting to write to it via File.WriteAllBytes, I encounter an UnauthorizedAccessException.
This error occurs even if the program is Run as administrator.
I have tried modifying my manifest to level requireAdministrator.
I have also tried spawning a new process with with runas.
How can I drop my dll into a folder inside Program Files (x86)?
Try adding
[PermissionSet(SecurityAction.Demand, Name="FullTrust")]
above your method that involves the IO activity. F/E, the following copies "myFile" to the program files directory:
[PermissionSet(SecurityAction.Demand, Name="FullTrust")]
public void copyFile(string myFile){
System.IO.File.Copy(myFile,Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles);
}
I think your login account that is used to login to windows and start programming with that is not real administrator account.
Try to check your account permission and run visual studio as administrator mode and
see if you can write in debug mode.
Check it and give the result.
I am silly. I specified the directory inside Program Files I was writing to, but did not include the filename in the path. The UnauthorizedAccessException threw me off.
Related
I am working on a .NET WPF project using Visual Studio 2022. I have a windows service app and another runnable exe to repair, install, update and uninstall the service. My runnable exe has to be in program files and I need to update both runnable exe and windows service app files. When I try to update my program folders, I got The process cannot access the file 'C:\Program Files\MyApp\MyProgram\Newtonsoft.Json.dll' because it is being used by another process.
I tried to solve it this way:
I move my running exe file to another folder and then creating a new process to open new updated exe file in program files as well as shutting down current process. So during update, my running exe file and program files are in totally different folders and they must be using different dll files. I dont understand what could be the problem here and how to solve it.
Note: I tried to move my exe file to another location and run from there, this problem does not happen but as I said, I need to run it in program folder.
Access to path denied error is encountered in Program files (x86),
while working with a DLL that is got from nuget package: AODL for reading ODF files - https://www.nuget.org/packages/AODL/ after I created a MSI file using SETUP Project
In the code, I don't suspect the file creation part for I create this file in the user chosen file conversion path but NOT IN PROGRAM FILES folder path:
File.WriteAllText(targetFileName, sb.ToString(), Encoding.UTF8);
That's why I simply suspect the DLL, please let me know how I could find the error and fix this.
A bunch of directories - both Programm Files, the root directory of the System Drive, Windows - are heavily protected by NTFS rights. Writing them is usually a plain "no-go". Unless you run around with full administrative rights - wich only Instalers and very rare Adminsitrative tools should even consider - you will not be able to write there.
However you indicated this happens on a read. Reads being blocked like that is very unusual. You need to check what rights are set on those folders and why. Maybe the installer accidentally copied the rights from your computer, wich only makes sense with your users and groups? Maybe Windows or a third party broke those rights? Not a lot of options I can think of that could apply here.
For this application, even for reading the DLLs from the Program Files folder I needed Admin rights so I forced the application to have such rights for execution.
The below line for the newly created application manifest file is changed and that solved the issue.
<requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false" />
The fix is explained well in How do I force my .NET application to run as administrator?
The reasons are stated well in https://stackoverflow.com/a/50588465/129130
I have a small C# program to modify a xml file which is located under Program Files. The machine is a Windows 7 machine. This small program is launched by a batch file (called A.bat) because I want to pass a parameter to it.
I have a master batch file (called M.bat) which is the start point. The M.bat will start an installer and wait untile the installation finished. Then the M.bat will start A.bat which will launch my small program with a parameter.
Right now I get the following exception:
System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path 'C:\Program Files\MyTest\Test.config' is denied.
I know it is caused by tighter security in Win7. It works fine under XP.
I cannot use "Run as Administrator" to start M.bat or manually "Run as Administrator" to start A.bat because both will report cannot find the target executable (because the start location is not really the "current" location then).
Is there a way to start an executable as Administrator in batch file? or in C# program I can give myself Administrator right?
or ...
Not in a way that is invisible/hidden from the user... I would suggest finding a way to make it work when run as an administrator. Or you could set the application manifest (see this: http://www.enusbaum.com/blog/2007/08/26/how-to-run-your-c-application-as-administrator-in-windows-vista/) to run your app as admin, that might work as well.
Bottom line, you cannot run with admin privileges unless you run as admin, or unless your user switches off UAC (which is not recommended at all).
You'll need to elevated your privileges through a UAC prompt. Add a manifest to your program as described in this answer.
You should request for admin privileges at program start up. Look at this sample
I have created a windows application setup program, it needs to have a text file in the application folder. The file is also included while creating the setup.
Once the setup successfully completes and my program tries to modify the file based on user input, its simple throwing an exception.
I am using Windows 7 Home Premium OS.
Any suggestion/help will be great to overcome this issue.
This is normal on a Vista or Win7 machine. Or a properly secured XP machine for that matter. The normal install location for programs, like c:\program files\your company\your app, is read only for most users. UAC is a counter-measure to malware messing with programs.
You'll need to store the text file into a writable location, the AppData folder. In the Setup project, right-click "File system on target machine" and select User's Application Data Folder. Find that file back at runtime through Environment.GetFolderPath, passing Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData. Or use "User's Personal Data Folder" if the user should be able to find it back easily through the Documents folder.
What exception is being thrown? It could be a UAC issue.
Similar to: Request Windows Vista UAC elevation if path is protected?
I have a .NET Client Application installed in c:\Program Files (Windows Vista). This application should update itself, but it doesn't because of permission issues. The auto-updater should simply replace a couple of assemblies, but they are all located under c:\Program File and the application throws the following exception:
System.UnauthorizedAccessException:
Access to the path 'C:\Program
Files...' is denied.
I have no control on where the application could be installed and the permission. Is there any workaround for this? Is it possible to request the Administrator rights for a couple of seconds? Is it possible to pop a UAC window? I am pretty sure that there a workaround... Otherwise, how Firefox would be able to update itself?
Thanks in advance for the help and ideas!
Could you use a Click Once deployment method? We use this for an internal application and users have no problems with permissions when we publish a new version. They are prompted to install the update when they launch the app (if a new version exists) and it installs without a hitch.
You can't elevate a process's permissions halfway through, but you can start up another separate process with higher permissions that can do the work for you.
Get your main application to put all the files / installation details into a low-permission temporary location. When you're ready, start up a smaller application whose only job is to copy over those files to the Program Files directory (and maybe restart your main application with the new updates). Mark that application as requiring the needed permission to copy to the Program Files directory or write to the registry (or whatever else is needed).