I searched about this on internet but could not find exact answer.
In my application, I have a functionality which copies the files in folder (say pqr) to the location where user wanted. The location of source folder is the location of installed application (say c:\Program Files\abc\pqr).
When user is logged in to the machine with 'administrator rights', user is able to use this functionality. But when the user is logged in to the machine with having 'User rights' (non-admin user), this functionality throws exception that access to c:\Program Files\abc\pqr folder is denied.
I tried to elevate user privileges by using below attributes to copy method:
[PrincipalPermission(SecurityAction.Demand, Role = #"BUILTIN\Administrators")]
[PermissionSet(SecurityAction.Demand, Name="FullTrust")]
I also tried adding manifest file with below changes:
<requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false" />
But none of the approach worked.
Then I installed my application on D drive. And after that when I tried with the non-admin user the functionality worked as expected.
So when the application is installed in C:\Program Files, functionality was not working for non-admin user.But after installing the application to another location it worked for non-admin user.
So my question is, is it possible to give the rights if C:\Program Files to non-admin user programmatically in the application or we need to have admin users for using this functionality?
Changing the manifest is most simple way to elevate privileges. Change it in VS. But it is bad practice to require admin privileges for regular software.
You can make program folder accessible for all users during install. For example it can be made with InnoSetup with Permissions: users-modify in [Files] group.
If the source files are in Program Files and you copy in another location, probably the problem is in wrong file access when opening source files. Open for reading only.
var startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("yourApplication.exe") { Verb = "runas" };
Process.Start(startInfo);
Environment.Exit(0);
or
application.exit();
if you are using winforms
but be careful to excute this code one time because if you put it in the load event you will get overflow in memory
Related
Is it possible to create a Windows 10 account that can be used in a C# program to read all users directories (if they are not encrypted)? I'm looking to create an account that I can use to look for duplicate images across user profiles. The following code gives me an access denied on the the Documents and Settings folder even when I run the code in an elevated manner.
DirectoryInfo diInfo = new DirectoryInfo(#"C:\Users");
var dirs = diInfo.EnumerateDirectories("*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);
I get an UnauthorizedAccessException with this code even though I can access all of the folders within the Users directory through Windows Explorer. In the application manifest file I have the requestedExecutionLevel set as follows:
<requestedExecutionLevel level="highestAvailable" uiAccess="false" />
I noticed in Explorer I have to click on Permanently get access to this colder. Is there a way to do this in C#?
You need administrator rights to do this.
The "highestAvailable" level may provide these, but only if you run the program as an administrator.
Using the "requireAdministrator" level may be the better alternativ here. The system will prompt for credentials if the process is not running with administrative permissions.
Note: For Debugging you might need to run your IDE as an administrator
I've been programming in C# for quite sometime now. I've got lot of help from you'll during the past few days. But I'm stuck here...
I have built an .exe file and changed the manifest so that on execution it needs administrative privileges. I changed the following in the manifest
requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false"
This would prompt a UAC window which would inform the user that the .exe file requires admin privileges.
Now, I've made my .exe file to copy itself in another location on the local machine. But the catch is, the copied file also requires admin privileges when I run it. I want to edit the privileges of that copied file. I want the copied file to have no such constraint of admin privileges. I want to make it run normally.
I need this done because I've made the .exe file to change the registry which calls the copied .exe file at every startup. I've noticed that with the copied .exe file having admin privileges, the registry tweak doesn't work. Although it works perfectly when the .exe file doesn't require any admin privileges.
Is there a way out of this?
Am using WPF-C#, when am closing my application i need to write some xml document. its located in my application folder (../Data/test.xml). its working while debuging. when i deploy my application cant able to access the xmlfile in the program files folder. how i can resolve this issue.. the following image is the exception http://img197.imageshack.us/i/errqu.jpg/
Your users cannot modify a file located in Program Files.
If you have a configuration file you want to modify, you need to store it in the user's own ApplicationData folder, e.g.:
C:\Users\Bill\AppData\Local\SoftCo Software Inc\SuperApp\appconfig.xml
If you want standard users to be able to modify this config file, then your installation program is supposed to grant Everyone Full Control to the file. Your installation program is known to be running as an administrator, so it will have permissions to change permissions.
But you should not do that; this allows one user to alter program settings that will affect another user. These settings should be per-user (and stored in %AppData%, which the user already will have access to).
It is because of Windows UAC. You can fix the issue either
using Run As Administrator option, from right click menu in the application.
Modify the AppManifest file.
Change the file location user writable locations.
I am using inno setup to make a installation package for my application, and my application is written by C# + .Net 2.0 + VSTS 2008. Inno setup => http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php and I install my application under Program Files/Foo folder (Foo is my application name). My application is targeting to Windows Vista.
The issue I found is my program cannot write to the folder Program Files/Foo. And I need the permission of write to this folder in order to save some configuration files. The strange thing I notice is the folder Program Files/Foo is marked as readonly and I have checked all folders under Program Files are marked with read only, such as Office.
My questions are,
Why all folders are marked as read only under Program Files? It means we should not write to individual application folders under Program Files? If not, where should we write information to disk like user last selected configuration information of an individual application?
If we could write to individual application folders under Program Files, what is the solution? I do not want my application to Run As administrator to solve this issue, and if there are solution to write to this folder, I want to require minimal permission if possible.
You should write user specific config data to the Application Data folder for the current user, using the special folders enum and the Enivronment.GetFolderPath.
Best Practice is to not store config data in the Program Files folder. Instead, store your application's data in %AppData%\YourApplicationName. Depending on whether you want to store your config data per-user or in a shared common folder, use one of the following enums to get the folder path:
string userAppData = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData);
string commonAppData = Envrionment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData);
By default, Vista users do not run programs as Administrators and hence those programs have only read access to the folders under "Program Files". Users can change this behavior by disabling UAC and you could ask your users to do that, but in an office setting users might not have that option. That's why you use AppData instead -- applications can always read and write data to the AppData folder.
Information on UAC can be found at Microsoft's site. Although this page is fairly long, it's a starting point for understanding UAC:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530410.aspx
A common solution would be to install configuration files to the Application Data folder i.e. like follows:
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData)
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).