I want to run cmd.exe as administrator with arguments from C# in order to prevent a UAC popup. This is necessary in order to use it as an automated installation process. The command I am passing in is simply a path to installation file (.exe) with /q for quiet installation.
When I run this code, there is a CMD popup, but it runs as if it didn't execute anything.
public static string ExecuteCommandAsAdmin(string command)
{
ProcessStartInfo procStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo()
{
RedirectStandardError = true,
RedirectStandardOutput = true,
UseShellExecute = false,
CreateNoWindow = true,
FileName = "runas.exe",
Arguments = "/user:Administrator cmd /K " + command
};
using (Process proc = new Process())
{
proc.StartInfo = procStartInfo;
proc.Start();
string output = proc.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(output))
output = proc.StandardError.ReadToEnd();
return output;
}
}
Those who could not find the solution to their problems i have found this solution for me:
On the solution file, choose
Add => New item => Application manifest file
then open it on C#.
On application manifest file rename "asInvoker" as "requireAdministrator".
At the end, application manifest file should look like:
Now, build your solution.
Then you will be able to open all the apps as administrator rights.
There is at least one problem with your command, this line:
Arguments = "/user:Administrator cmd /K " + command
Should be:
Arguments = "/user:Administrator \"cmd /K " + command + "\""
Also, this won't work as a fully automated process, because it will ask for the Administrator's password which in Windows Vista and newer is not known.
The UAC will pop up depending on the user settings in "User Account Control Settings." A program cannot bypass that. Only if the user has settings of "Never Notify" will your program do what you are trying to do.
Two solutions:
First, you may the user's appdata directory. This will save you from needing admin privileges in the first place. (in a more general approach - think carefully if you really need those privileges)
Another solution us creating a Windows service which would have those privileges. The first installation of that service would require admin privileges, but after that, you can delegate your work to that service.
The second solution is a potentially security breach - so you'll have to think about what that service would be able to do carefully.
I have been using this code:
string[] commands = File.ReadAllLines(commandFile);
foreach (string command in commands)
{
Process process = new Process();
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
//startInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
startInfo.WorkingDirectory = #"C:\Windows\System32";
startInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
startInfo.Arguments = "/user:Administrator \"cmd /K " + command + "\"";
process.StartInfo = startInfo;
process.Start();
}
As you can see: Trying this code from 'Run' in VS will not give admin, But if you compile this program and run it externally as admin it will. I used this batch file to test privilege level.
#echo off
goto check_Permissions
:check_Permissions
echo Administrative permissions required. Detecting permissions...
net session >nul 2>&1
if %errorLevel% == 0 (
echo Success: Administrative permissions confirmed.
) else (
echo Failure: Current permissions inadequate.
)
pause >nul
Related
I am working on an NSIS installer (windows forms application).
The main idea of the application - user goes through a windows forms application, configures all the needed settings and when he/she clicks on "finish" an .nsis file gets generated automatically. makeNSIS.exe is also included in my application, so that a user does not have to install it in order to use my installer.
My goal is to silently produce a setup.exe file. I want to pass my automatically generated .nsi file as an argument to the makeNSIS.exe per cmd, tell it to execute it and create a setup.exe file at a certain path. And I want teh whole thing done silently.
One of my failed trials:
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo();
//my automatically generated nsis file
psi.Arguments = Application.StartupPath + "\\NSIS\\NSIS SG Project\\NSIS\\My application.nsi";
psi.CreateNoWindow = true;
psi.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
//nsis application that is included in my project so that users wouldn't have to install it
psi.FileName = Application.StartupPath + "\\NSIS\\makeNSIS.exe";
Process.Start(psi);
What am I doing wrong?
NSIS.exe is not the compiler, MakeNSIS.exe is! The Stubs, Plugins and Include directories are also required and probably the Contribs directory as well.
I know this is old question, but i have one of possible solution for this.
If you write app in C# (WinForm, WPF etc.) you can use this:
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
{
CreateNoWindow = true,
UseShellExecute = false,
RedirectStandardOutput = true,
//Path to makensis.exe
FileName = "C:\\NSIS\\makensis.exe",
//make the window Hidden
WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden,
//Source to your nsis script
Arguments = "D:\\Script\\myapp.nsi"
};
try
{
using (Process exeProcess = Process.Start(startInfo))
{
exeProcess.WaitForExit();
}
}
catch (Exception exc)
{
// handle exception
}
In many cases this is a universal solution for me.
I would like to be able to open cmd and execute two commands from the window. First I would like to navigate to a particular directory where I can then run the second command from. Running a single command is pretty easy as this is all I have to do:
string path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFilesX86) + #"\Cisco Systems\VPN Client\";
Process process = new Process();
ProcessStartInfo processInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd.exe", #"/c cd " + path );
process.StartInfo = processInfo;
process.Start();
However am not sure of the way to add the second argument so it runs after cmd runs the first command. Some research led me to this code snippet. Am unsure if this works since my aim is to start cisco vpn client from cmd and this seems not to start it. Here is the code:
string path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFilesX86) + #"\Cisco Systems\VPN Client\";
Process process = new Process();
ProcessStartInfo processInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd.exe", #"/c cd " + path + "-t vpnclient connect user validuser pwd validpassword nocertpwd validconnectionentry ");
process.StartInfo = processInfo;
process.Start();
I once started the vpn client from cmd with the credentials just to make sure they were valid and it worked but I cant pull it off via C# programmatically.
Regards.
There three things you can do to achieve what you want. The easiest is to set the working directory of the process through ProcessStartInfo. This way you will only have to execute the command to start the VPN client.
The second option is redirecting the input and output of the process. (Also done through the ProcessStartInfo) This is something you want to do if you need to send more input to the process, or when you want to retrieve the output of the process you just started.
The third option is to combine the two commands with the & symbol. Using the & symbol makes cmd.exe execute the two commands sequentially (See here for an overview of the available symbols). Using this option will result in a command like this: /c cd path & vpnclient.
However because you just want to change the working directory of the process using the first option makes your code more readable. Because people reading your code do not need to know the & symbol in bash to understand what your code does. Changing the working directoy is done with the WorkingDirectory (MSDN) property of ProcessStartInfo (MSDN). See the following code:
var processInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd.exe", #"/c vpnclient connect user validuser pwd validpassword nocertpwd validconnectionentry ");
processInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
processInfo.WorkingDirectory = path;
You can use & to execute next command or && to execute following command only if the previous one succeeded.
Examples:
dir /b & cls
and
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe && start explorer
Am a Newbie in C# and I have 3 commands(command2, command3 and command4) I need to execute in the elevated command prompt and I will also like to view the execution process as it happens. Currently, the problem is that the code below just opens the elevated command prompt and without executing the commands. I also seek better interpretations of the lines if wrong.
My code and Interpretation/Understanding of each line based on reviews of similar cases: ConsoleApp1
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string command2 = #"netsh wlan";
string command3 = #" set hostednetwork mode=true ssid=egghead key=beanhead keyusage=persistent";
string command4 = #" start hostednetwork";
string maincomm = command2.Replace(#"\", #"\\") + " " + command3.Replace(#"\", #"\\") ; //I merged commands 2 and 3
ProcessStartInfo newstartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
newstartInfo.FileName = "cmd"; //Intend to open cmd. without this the newProcess hits an error saying - Cannot run process without a filename.
newstartInfo.Verb = "runas"; //Opens cmd in elevated mode
newstartInfo.Arguments = maincomm; //I intend to pass in the merged commands.
newstartInfo.UseShellExecute = true; //
newstartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true; // I intend to see the cmd window
Process newProcess = new Process(); //
newProcess.StartInfo = newstartInfo; //Assigns my newstartInfo to the process object that will execute
newProcess.Start(); // Begin process and Execute newstartInfo
newProcess.StartInfo.Arguments = command4; //I intend to overwrite the initial command argument hereby passing the another command to execute.
newProcess.WaitForExit(); //
}
}
This is what I did to overcome the challenge and It gave me exactly what I wanted. I modified my code to use the System.IO to write directly to the elevated command prompt.
ProcessStartInfo newstartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
newstartInfo.FileName = "cmd";
newstartInfo.Verb = "runas";
newstartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
newstartInfo.UseShellExecute = false; //The Process object must have the UseShellExecute property set to false in order to redirect IO streams.
Process newProcess = new Process();
newProcess.StartInfo = newstartInfo;
newProcess.Start();
StreamWriter write = newProcess.StandardInput ; //Using the Streamwriter to write to the elevated command prompt.
write.WriteLine(maincomm); //First command executes in elevated command prompt
write.WriteLine(command4); //Second command executes and Everything works fine
newProcess.WaitForExit();
Referrence: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.diagnostics.process.standardinput(v=vs.110).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.diagnostics.processstartinfo(v=vs.110).aspx
I think an understanding of some properties of the ProcessStartInfo might clear things.
The verb - Gets or sets the verb to use when opening the application or document specified by the FileName property.,
+The UseShellExecute - Gets or sets a value indicating whether to use the operating system shell to start the process.
+The FileName - Gets or sets the application or document to start MSDN Docs
When you use the operating system shell to start processes, you can start any document (which is any registered file type associated with an executable that has a default open action) and perform operations on the file, such as printing, by using the Process object. When UseShellExecute is false, you can start only executables by using the Process object Documentation from MSDN.
In my case, cmd is an executable. the verb property is some thing that answers the question "How should my I run my FileName(for executables e.g cmd or any application)?" for which I answered - "runas" i.e run as administrator. When the FileName is a document (e.g `someFile.txt), the verb answers the question "What should I do with the file for which answer(verb) could be -"Edit","print" etc. also?"
use true if the shell should be used when starting the process; false if the process should be created directly from the executable file. The default is true MSDN Docs - UserShellInfo.
Another thing worth noting is knowing what you are trying to achieve. In my case, I want to be able to run commands via an executable(cmd prompt) with the same process - i.e starting the cmd as a process I can keep track of.
i have searched and read about issues with psexec.exe from sysinternals not working properly with c# and stdout. i am now trying to figure out how to just call a batch file that has the following instead of using System.Diagnostics.Process to call psexec:
test.bat contains the following line:
psexec.exe \\hostname -u user -p password ipconfig /all >c:\test.txt
test.txt will be saved on the host where i am running my c sharp app and executing psexec.
when i execute the following:
System.Diagnostics.Process psexec_run = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
psexec_run.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
psexec_run.StartInfo.Arguments = #"/c """ + cur_dir + #"\test\test.bat""";
psexec_run.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
psexec_run.Start();
psexec_run.WaitForExit();
i see the cmd window pop up and it runs something but not sure what and goes away.
if i execute the following:
System.Diagnostics.Process psexec_run = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
psexec_run.StartInfo.FileName = cur_dir + "\\test\\psexec.exe";
psexec_run.StartInfo.Arguments = #"\\hostname -u user -p password ipconfig /all";
psexec_run.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
psexec_run.Start();
psexec_run.WaitForExit();
then i see the command window open and it runs psexec which takes quite a few secs and i quickly see my output i need, but i have no way of capturing the output or writing it to a file.
i guess my issue now is since psexec will not work with stdout how can i capture the output from the psexec command to write it to a file???
see the following link for the issues with psexec, the last reply on this url mentioned a way to write the process output to a file without using stdout, i'm newbie to c# i can't figure out how to write process output without use stdout :(
http://forum.sysinternals.com/psexec-fails-to-capture-stdout-when-launched-in-c_topic19333.html
based on response below i tried the following:
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo(cur_dir + "\\test\\psexec.exe", #"\\hostname -u user -p password ipconfig /all");
psi.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
psi.RedirectStandardError = true;
psi.UseShellExecute = false;
Process p = Process.Start(psi);
StreamReader myStreamReader = p.StandardOutput;
// Read the standard output of the spawned process.
string sOutput = myStreamReader.ReadToEnd();
i did ReadToEnd so i would make sure it got all the output, it DID NOT!! for some reason it only go the first line of ipconfig output that was it. Also the cmd window it opened up never closed for some reason. even with CreateNoWindow=true the code just hangs. so again something is wrong with psexec and stdout i think?? as i can run this code just fine using ipconfig /all command on the local host and not use psexec...
again i am looking to avoid stdout and somehow find a way to get the output from this command or unless there is something else i'm over looking? also, not to make more work for anyone, but if you d/l psexec.exe from sysinternals and test it with a command on a remote host you will see. i have spent 2 days on this one :( trying to figure out how to use psexec or find some other quick method to execute remote command on a host and get ouptput.
UPDATE:
i gave up on psexec in c# code, i saw many posts about psexec eating the output, having a child window process ,etcc
until my head hurt :) so i am trying to run a batch file and output to a file and it's not making sense...
i have a batch file test.bat with the following
psexec.exe \\\hostname -u name -p password ipconfig /all >c:\test.txt
when i run the following code:
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo(cur_dir + #"\test\test.bat");
psi.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
psi.RedirectStandardError = true;
psi.UseShellExecute = false;
Process p = Process.Start(psi);
p.WaitForExit();
the cmd windows comes and goes really quickly and the test.txt file is created but is 0 bytes no info in it.
so if i run the batch file in a windows cmd line with the psexec command it works perfectly fine!!???
so then to verify psexec was the issue i changed the batch file to:
ipconfig /all >c:\test.txt
i execute my code above and it works fine creates the output in the test.txt file..???!!!!
why is not working with psexec am i missing something? if it's psexec, does anyone have
any recommendations for how i can execute a command on a remote windows host and get me the
output???
I have an answer to this problem that has worked for me.
Hopefully someone else will find it useful.
I have literally just spent the last two hours tearing my hair out with this. The psexec tool runs completely fine using a normal command prompt but when attempting to redirect the streams it truncates the output and you only get half output back.
In the end how I fixed my issue was a little bit of a hack. I piped the output of the command to a text file and read it back in to return it from the function.
I also has to set UseShellExecute to true. Without this it still wouldn't work. This had the unfortunate side effect of showing the console window. To get around that I set the window style to be hidden and hey presto it works!!!
Heres my code:
string ExecutePSExec(string command)
{
string result = "";
try
{
string location = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
// append output to file at the end of this string:
string cmdWithFileOutput = string.Format("{0} >{1}temp.log 2>&1", command,location );
// The flag /c tells "cmd" to execute what follows and exit
System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo procStartInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo("cmd", "/c " + cmdWithFileOutput);
procStartInfo.UseShellExecute = true; // have to set shell execute to true to
procStartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
procStartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden; // as a window will be created set the window style to be hiddem
System.Diagnostics.Process proc = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
proc.StartInfo = procStartInfo;
proc.Start();
proc.WaitForExit();
// now read file back.
string filePath = string.Format("{0}temp.log", location);
result = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(filePath);
}
catch (Exception objException)
{
// Log the exception
}
return result;
}
and its usage:
string command = #"psexec.exe -l -u domain\username -p password /accepteula \\192.168.1.3 netstat -a -n";
ExecutePSExec(command);
I had exactly same problem. i was getting "Windows ip config. " as first line when i run with psexec. i tried with paexec it worked well. I used Marius's code.
Note: if you dont use first cmd / c in arguments command runs only on local computer even if you define target as \\remoteserver
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd.exe");
psi.Arguments = #"cmd/c C:\paexec.exe \\\192.168.2.5 -s -u test.local\administrator -p Password1 cmd /c ipconfig";
psi.CreateNoWindow = true;
psi.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
psi.RedirectStandardError = true;
psi.UseShellExecute = false;
Process p = Process.Start(psi);
System.IO.StreamReader myStreamReader1 = p.StandardOutput;
p.WaitForExit();
string sOutput = myStreamReader1.ReadToEnd();
Are you sure your sourcecode is correct? that link is quite a bit old.. maybe its fixed!
Heres an example how to redirect the standard-output and put whole output in a string via streamreader:
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo("tftp.exe");
// preferences for tftp process
psi.CreateNoWindow = true;
psi.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
psi.RedirectStandardError = true;
psi.UseShellExecute = false;
Process p = Process.Start(psi);
StreamReader myStreamReader = p.StandardOutput;
p.WaitForExit();
// Read the standard output of the spawned process.
string sOutput = myStreamReader.ReadToEnd();
i found a solution. apparently psexec is NOT going to work in c sharp. so i came up with some wmi code to connect to a remote host and it's working PERFECTLY!!! :)
i used microsoft's WMICodeCreator.exe to create wmi code for C# for the process method on a remote host, wow that tool is amazing because wmi code is little confusing to me.
psexec's output goes to StandardError and not StandardOutput. I don't know why it is that way. Following code snippet access it.
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
Process process = new Process();
process.StartInfo = startInfo;
process.Start();
process.WaitForExit();
errors = process.StandardError.ReadToEnd();
process.Close();
I need to pass more than one command line argument via c# for a process called handle.exe:
http://www.google.com.mt/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=handle.exe
First, I need to run the executable file via ADMINISTRATOR permissions. This post has helped me achieve just that:
programatically run cmd.exe as adminstrator in vista, c#
But then comes the next problem of calling the actual line arguments such as "-p explore"
How can I specify the command line arguments together, or maybe consecutively?
Current code is as follows:
Process p = new Process();
ProcessStartInfo processStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("filePath");
processStartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
processStartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
processStartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
processStartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
processStartInfo.Verb = "runas";
processStartInfo.Arguments = "/env /user:" + "Administrator" + " cmd";
p.StartInfo = processStartInfo;
p.Start();
string output = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
p.WaitForExit();
Console.WriteLine(output);
Thanks
I believe the answer you are looking for is right out of the Runas command documentation.
runas /user:user#domain.microsoft.com "notepad my_file.txt"
It appears that the last argument to the runas command is the command that is being run along with any arguments. The key is to use quotes to group the actual command executable with it's arguments so that the values are not seen as separate arguments to the runas command but instead is issued as a single command on it's own.
So in your example you might want to do the following.
processStartInfo.Arguments = "/env /user:" + "Administrator" + " \"cmd -p explore\"";
You can run the process using the UseShellExecute command and pass in the username and password
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.diagnostics.processstartinfo.useshellexecute%28v=VS.100%29.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.diagnostics.processstartinfo.username%28v=VS.100%29.aspx
Although you will be storing the username and password somewhere.
If you are trying to run a process with elevated permissions, there may be a better way than calling runas.