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
Related
I've been trying to determine if process A, that I installed, is already running on the machine. Process A requires admin priviliges, it is installed in C:\ProgramData and it is usually started as a service. There are many processes on the machine, that are named A. To find out, if this is my process, I inspected the path to exe file.
You can do this with process.MainModule.FileName or more elaborate setup that is documented in this question
Unfortunately, you cannot inspect the path of executable started as administrator without having administrator priviliges your self.
Is there another way to determine if the process with the name A is indeed the one you are looking for? What else can be checked beside path to executable? What workaround do you recommend?
UPDATE:
I misinterpreted the observations. If the process is started as a service, it is run as a SYSTEM user. Because of that, you cannot determine the executable path without having the admin priviliges your self.
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.
My WPF application writes an XML file to a folder within the CommonApplicationData folder on a Windows 7/64 machine. This works fine from Visual Studio 2010. When running from the .EXE file, I get a System.UnauthorizedAccessException when writing the file.
Is this a problem with my initial setup of the folder? Or is this related to the permissions of the executable file itself? Not quite sure how to handle this one??
Paul
I think that it is a problem with permissions to the folder.
Probably Visual Studio runs your application as an administrator and the .EXE file is executed as a normal user.
Perhaps you want to re-evaluate storing that data (XML) in that location all the time. Limited users won't be able to write to it. Sure, you can force admin privs but your users may not always have that option (and it's kinda a hack anyway).
The question below seems to outline a work-around depending on the user's priv level.
writing files to Common Application Data folder denied
Right click on the *.exe file and "Run as 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?
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).