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How can I programmatically turn off or on 'Windows Features'

When I try to update Windows features; When I update UseShellExecute to "true"; "The Process object must have the UseShellExecute property set to false in order to redirect IO streams." I get an error. When I set it to False; Unable to update. How can I do it ? Do you have any other suggestions?
static void InstallIISSetupFeature()
{
var featureNames = new List<string>() {
"IIS-WebServerRole",
"IIS-WebServer",
"IIS-CommonHttpFeatures",
"IIS-HttpErrors",
"IIS-HttpRedirect",
"IIS-ApplicationDevelopment",
"IIS-Security",
"IIS-RequestFiltering",
"IIS-NetFxExtensibility",
"IIS-NetFxExtensibility45",
"IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics",
"IIS-HttpLogging",
"IIS-LoggingLibraries",
"IIS-RequestMonitor",
"IIS-HttpTracing",
"IIS-URLAuthorization",
"IIS-IPSecurity",
"IIS-Performance",
"IIS-HttpCompressionDynamic",
"IIS-WebServerManagementTools",
"IIS-ManagementScriptingTools",
"IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility",
"IIS-Metabase",
"IIS-HostableWebCore","IIS-StaticContent",
"IIS-DefaultDocument",
"IIS-DirectoryBrowsing",
"IIS-WebDAV",
"IIS-WebSockets",
"IIS-ApplicationInit",
"IIS-ASPNET",
"IIS-ASPNET45",
"IIS-ASP",
"IIS-CGI",
"IIS-ISAPIExtensions",
"IIS-ISAPIFilter",
"IIS-ServerSideIncludes",
"IIS-CustomLogging",
"IIS-BasicAuthentication",
"IIS-HttpCompressionStatic",
"IIS-ManagementConsole",
"IIS-ManagementService",
"IIS-WMICompatibility",
"IIS-LegacyScripts",
"IIS-LegacySnapIn",
"IIS-FTPServer",
"IIS-FTPSvc",
"IIS-FTPExtensibility",
"IIS-CertProvider",
"IIS-WindowsAuthentication",
"IIS-DigestAuthentication",
"IIS-ClientCertificateMappingAuthentication",
"IIS-IISCertificateMappingAuthentication",
"IIS-ODBCLogging",
"NetFx4-AdvSrvs",
"NetFx4Extended-ASPNET45",
"NetFx3",
"WAS-WindowsActivationService",
"WCF-HTTP-Activation",
"WCF-HTTP-Activation45",
"WCF-MSMQ-Activation45",
"WCF-NonHTTP-Activation",
"WCF-Pipe-Activation45",
"WCF-TCP-Activation45",
"WCF-TCP-PortSharing45",
"WCF-Services45",
};
ManagementObjectSearcher obj = new ManagementObjectSearcher("select * from Win32_OperatingSystem");
foreach (ManagementObject wmi in obj.Get())
{
string Name = wmi.GetPropertyValue("Caption").ToString();
Name = Regex.Replace(Name.ToString(), "[^A-Za-z0-9 ]", "");
if (Name.Contains("Server 2008 R2") || Name.Contains("Windows 7"))
{
featureNames.Add("IIS-ASPNET");
featureNames.Add("IIS-NetFxExtensibility");
featureNames.Add("WCF-HTTP-Activation");
featureNames.Add("WCF-MSMQ-Activation");
featureNames.Add("WCF-Pipe-Activation");
featureNames.Add("WCF-TCP-Activation");
featureNames.Add("WCF-TCP-Activation");
}
string Version = (string)wmi["Version"];
string Architecture = (string)wmi["OSArchitecture"];
}
foreach (var featureName in featureNames)
{
Run(string.Format("dism/online/Enable-Feature:{0}", featureName));
}
}
static void Run(string arguments)
{
try
{
string systemPath = Path.Combine(Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables("%windir%"), "system32");
var dism = new Process();
dism.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = systemPath;
dism.StartInfo.Arguments = arguments;
dism.StartInfo.FileName = "dism.exe";
dism.StartInfo.Verb = "runas";
dism.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
dism.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
dism.Start();
var result = dism.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
dism.WaitForExit();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
}
}`
I tried to update the feature with dism.exe and cmd.exe, when it gave an authorization error, I used the Verb property
`

Since the use of .Verb = "RunAs" requires .UseShellExecute = true, and since the latter cannot be combined with RedirectStandardOutput = true, you cannot directly capture the elevated process' output in memory.
It seems that the system itself, by security-minded design, prevents a non-elevated process from directly capturing an elevated process' output.
The workaround is to launch the target executable (dism.exe, in your case) indirectly, via a shell, and then use the latter's redirection feature (>) to capture the target executable's output (invariably) in a file, as shown below.
string systemPath = Path.Combine(Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables("%windir%"), "system32");
// Create a temp. file to capture the elevated process' output in.
string tempOutFile = Path.GetTempFileName();
var dism = new Process();
dism.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = systemPath;
// Use cmd.exe as the executable, and pass it a command line via /c
dism.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe" ;
// Use a ">" redirection to capture the elevated process' output.
// Use "2> ..." to also capture *stderr* output.
// Append "2>&1" to capture *both* stdout and stderr in the file targeted with ">"
dism.StartInfo.Arguments =
String.Format(
"/c {0} {1} > \"{2}\"",
"dism.exe", arguments, tempOutFile
);
dism.StartInfo.Verb = "RunAs";
dism.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
dism.Start();
dism.WaitForExit();
// Read the temp. file in which the output was captured...
var result = File.ReadAllText(tempOutFile);
// ... and delete it.
File.Delete(tempOutFile);

First, you can use WindowsPrincipal::IsInRole() to check if you're running elevated.
See Microsoft Learn for details.
Second, this may be one of those cases where using native PS is easier than the cmdlet approach (admittedly, still not great).
If the script is supposed to run on clients as well as server operating systems: use Get-WmiObject or Get-CimInstance to get a reference to what you're running on. ActiveDirectory also has that information (in operatingSystem attribute).
For servers use Get-WindowsFeature in ServerManager module.
For clients use Get-WindowsOptionalFeature with switch -Online in DISM module which, if you indeed need to support OSes older than 6.3.xxxx, can be copied over from a machine that has it and added to $Env:Path before C:\Windows and C:\Windows\System32.
For either platform just pass the list of features to configure.
If in a (binary) cmdlet you have to call external tools then the advantage of them is mostly gone. It may be possible to access Windows CBS using a managed API to avoid this but even then the script based approach gets more results faster, especially since you can just just put together a quick wrapper around dism.exe .

How to uninstall a UWP application programmatically without admin access c#

I have sideloaded a UWP application onto my clients machine.
I would now like to uninstall the program, but without admin access.
I have found Remove-AppxPackage but this uses powershell and so would need an executionpolicy set which would require admin access
For my WPF applications I would just delete the directory containing the application but with a UWP app I'm not even sure what to delete.
Essentially I would like to programatically click the uninstall button on from the Add and remove programs
I did look at this link How to uninstall application programmatically with the code:
public static string GetUninstallCommandFor(string productDisplayName)
{
RegistryKey localMachine = RegistryKey.OpenBaseKey(RegistryHive.LocalMachine,RegistryView.Registry64);
string productsRoot = #"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products";
RegistryKey products = localMachine.OpenSubKey(productsRoot);
string[] productFolders = products.GetSubKeyNames();
foreach (string p in productFolders)
{
RegistryKey installProperties = products.OpenSubKey(p + #"\InstallProperties");
if (installProperties != null)
{
string displayName = (string)installProperties.GetValue("DisplayName");
Debug.WriteLine(displayName);
if ((displayName != null) && (displayName.Contains(productDisplayName)))
{
string uninstallCommand = (string)installProperties.GetValue("UninstallString");
return uninstallCommand;
}
}
}
return "";
}
But this didn't find my application - eventhough it is in the "Apps and features" settings page

Ok my solution as advised by Nico Zhu was to use powershell. I created a method like so:
private static void LaunchProcess(string uri, string args)
{
var psi = new ProcessStartInfo();
psi.UseShellExecute = true;
psi.CreateNoWindow = false;
psi.Arguments = args;
psi.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
psi.FileName = uri;
var proc = Process.Start(psi);
proc.WaitForExit();
var exitcode = proc.ExitCode;
}
and used it like so:
LaunchProcess("powershell.exe", "get-appxpackage *AppPackageNameThatOnlyMatchesYourAppPackage* | remove-appxpackage");
This process surprisingly didn't require admin rights.
I must say though from a microsoft developer point of view UX. For managing distribution of my UWP apps, this is another thumbs down for UWP vs WPF

Scan uploaded files C# ASP.net

I'm trying to do a virus scan on uploaded files.
I have no control over the installed virus scanner, the product hosted by multiple parties with different scanners.
I tried the following library but it always returns VirusNotFound on the eicar file.
https://antivirusscanner.codeplex.com/
Do you know any other solutions?

ClamAV has pretty bad detection scores.
VirusTotal is not on premises.
I decided to create CLI wrappers for multiple scanners, nuget packages can be found here: https://www.nuget.org/packages?q=avscan
And its documentation and source code available at https://github.com/yolofy/AvScan

I used this library for .net (It uses the VirusTotal public api):
https://github.com/Genbox/VirusTotal.NET
A little example from github :
static void Main(string[] args)
{
VirusTotal virusTotal = new VirusTotal("INSERT API KEY HERE");
//Use HTTPS instead of HTTP
virusTotal.UseTLS = true;
FileInfo fileInfo = new FileInfo("testfile.txt");
//Create a new file
File.WriteAllText(fileInfo.FullName, "This is a test file!");
//Check if the file has been scanned before.
Report fileReport = virusTotal.GetFileReport(fileInfo).First();
bool hasFileBeenScannedBefore = fileReport.ResponseCode == 1;
if (hasFileBeenScannedBefore)
{
Console.WriteLine(fileReport.ScanId);
}
else
{
ScanResult fileResults = virusTotal.ScanFile(fileInfo);
Console.WriteLine(fileResults.VerboseMsg);
}
}
A full example can be found here :
https://github.com/Genbox/VirusTotal.NET/blob/master/VirusTotal.NET%20Client/Program.cs

Clam AV is pretty good.
https://www.clamav.net/downloads
C# Api here:
https://github.com/michaelhans/Clamson/

I just tried various ways, But some didn't work.
Then I decided to use ESET NOD32 command line tools .
It works fine for me:
public bool Scan(string filename)
{
var result = false;
try
{
Process process = new Process();
var processStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(#"C:/Program Files/ESET/ESET Security/ecls.exe")
{
Arguments = $" \"{filename}\"",
CreateNoWindow = true,
ErrorDialog = false,
WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden,
UseShellExecute = false
};
process.StartInfo = processStartInfo;
process.Start();
process.WaitForExit();
if (process.ExitCode == 0) //if it doesn't exist virus ,it returns 0 ,if not ,it returns 1
{
result = true;
}
}
catch (Exception)
{ //nothing;
}
return result;
}

How do I execute and return the results of a python script in c#?

How do I execute and return the results of a python script in c#?
I am trying to run a python script from my controller.
I have python.exe setup in a virtual environment folder created with the virtualenv command.
So just for testing purposes at the moment I would like to just return resulting string from my phython script:
# myscript.py
print "test"
And display that in a view in my asp.net mvc app.
I got the run_cmd function from a related stackoverflow question.
I've tried adding the -i option to force interactive mode and calling process.WaitForExit() with no luck.
namespace NpApp.Controllers
{
public class HomeController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index(string returnUrl)
{
ViewBag.ReturnUrl = returnUrl;
ViewBag.textResult = run_cmd("-i C:/path/to/virtualenv/myscript.py", "Some Input");
return View();
}
private string run_cmd(string cmd, string args)
{
ProcessStartInfo start = new ProcessStartInfo();
start.FileName = #"C:/path/to/virtualenv/Scripts/python.exe";
start.CreateNoWindow = true;
start.Arguments = string.Format("{0} {1}", cmd, args);
start.UseShellExecute = false;
start.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
using (Process process = Process.Start(start))
{
using (StreamReader reader = process.StandardOutput)
{
string result = reader.ReadToEnd();
//Console.Write(result);
process.WaitForExit();
return result;
}
}
}
}
}
It seems like myscript.py never even runs. But I get no errors, just a blank variable in my view.
Edit:
I had tried to simplify the above stuff because I thought it would be easier to explain and get an answer. Eventually I do need to use a package called "nameparser" and store the result of passed name argument into a database. But if I can just get the run_cmd to return a string I think I can take care of the rest of it. This is why I think the rest api and IronPython mentioned in the comments may not work for me here.

Ok, I figured out what the issue was thanks to some leads from the comments. Mainly it was the spaces in the path to the python.exe and the myscript.py. Turns out I didn't need -i or process.WaitForExit(). I just moved the python virtual environment into a path without spaces and everything started working. Also made sure that the myscript.py file was executable.
This was really helpful:
string stderr = process.StandardError.ReadToEnd();
string stdout = process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
Debug.WriteLine("STDERR: " + stderr);
Debug.WriteLine("STDOUT: " + stdout);
That shows the python errors and output in the Output pane in Visual Studio.

How to open in default browser in C#

I am designing a small C# application and there is a web browser in it. I currently have all of my defaults on my computer say google chrome is my default browser, yet when I click a link in my application to open in a new window, it opens internet explorer. Is there any way to make these links open in the default browser instead? Or is there something wrong on my computer?
My problem is that I have a webbrowser in the application, so say you go to google and type in "stack overflow" and right click the first link and click "Open in new window" it opens in IE instead of Chrome. Is this something I have coded improperly, or is there a setting not correct on my computer
===EDIT===
This is really annoying. I am already aware that the browser is IE, but I had it working fine before. When I clicked a link it opened in chrome. I was using sharp develop to make the application at that time because I could not get c# express to start up. I did a fresh windows install and since I wasn't too far along in my application, I decided to start over, and now I am having this problem. That is why I am not sure if it is my computer or not. Why would IE start up the whole browser when a link is clicked rather than simply opening the new link in the default browser?

You can just write
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("http://google.com");
EDIT: The WebBrowser control is an embedded copy of IE.
Therefore, any links inside of it will open in IE.
To change this behavior, you can handle the Navigating event.

For those finding this question in dotnet core. I found a solution here
Code:
private void OpenUrl(string url)
{
try
{
Process.Start(url);
}
catch
{
// hack because of this: https://github.com/dotnet/corefx/issues/10361
if (RuntimeInformation.IsOSPlatform(OSPlatform.Windows))
{
url = url.Replace("&", "^&");
Process.Start(new ProcessStartInfo(url) { UseShellExecute = true });
}
else if (RuntimeInformation.IsOSPlatform(OSPlatform.Linux))
{
Process.Start("xdg-open", url);
}
else if (RuntimeInformation.IsOSPlatform(OSPlatform.OSX))
{
Process.Start("open", url);
}
else
{
throw;
}
}
}

After researching a lot I feel most of the given answer will not work with dotnet core.
1.System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("http://google.com"); -- Will not work with dotnet core
2.It will work but it will block the new window opening in case default browser is chrome
myProcess.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
myProcess.StartInfo.FileName = "http://some.domain.tld/bla";
myProcess.Start();
Below is the simplest and will work in all the scenarios.
Process.Start("explorer", url);

public static void GoToSite(string url)
{
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(url);
}
that should solve your problem

Did you try Processas mentioned here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/library/system.diagnostics.process.aspx?
You could use
Process myProcess = new Process();
try
{
// true is the default, but it is important not to set it to false
myProcess.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
myProcess.StartInfo.FileName = "http://some.domain.tld/bla";
myProcess.Start();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
}

My default browser is Google Chrome and the accepted answer is giving the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.
I solved the problem and managed to open an URL with the default browser by using this code:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("explorer.exe", "http://google.com");

I'm using this in .NET 5, on Windows, with Windows Forms. It works even with other default browsers (such as Firefox):
Process.Start(new ProcessStartInfo { FileName = url, UseShellExecute = true });
Based on this and this.

Try this , old school way ;)
public static void openit(string x)
{
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("cmd", "/C start" + " " + x);
}
using : openit("www.google.com");

Am I the only one too scared to call System.Diagnostics.Process.Start() on a string I just read off the internet?
public bool OnBeforeBrowse(IWebBrowser chromiumWebBrowser, IBrowser browser, IFrame frame, IRequest request, bool userGesture, bool isRedirect)
{
Request = request;
string url = Request.Url;
if (Request.TransitionType != TransitionType.LinkClicked)
{ // We are only changing the behavoir when someone clicks on a link.
// Let the embedded browser handle this request itself.
return false;
}
else
{ // The user clicked on a link. Something like a filter icon, which links to the help for that filter.
// We open a new window for that request. This window cannot change. It is running a JavaScript
// application that is talking with the C# main program.
Uri uri = new Uri(url);
try
{
switch (uri.Scheme)
{
case "http":
case "https":
{ // Stack overflow says that this next line is *the* way to open a URL in the
// default browser. I don't trust it. Seems like a potential security
// flaw to read a string from the network then run it from the shell. This
// way I'm at least verifying that it is an http request and will start a
// browser. The Uri object will also verify and sanitize the URL.
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(uri.ToString());
break;
}
case "showdevtools":
{
WebBrowser.ShowDevTools();
break;
}
}
}
catch { }
// Tell the browser to cancel the navigation.
return true;
}
}
This code was designed to work with CefSharp, but should be easy to adapt.

Take a look at the GeckoFX control.
GeckoFX is an open-source component
which makes it easy to embed Mozilla
Gecko (Firefox) into any .NET Windows
Forms application. Written in clean,
fully commented C#, GeckoFX is the
perfect replacement for the default
Internet Explorer-based WebBrowser
control.

dotnet core throws an error if we use Process.Start(URL). The following code will work in dotnet core. You can add any browser instead of Chrome.
var processes = Process.GetProcessesByName("Chrome");
var path = processes.FirstOrDefault()?.MainModule?.FileName;
Process.Start(path, url);

This opened the default for me:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(e.LinkText.ToString());

I tried
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("https://google.com");
which works for most of the cases but I run into an issue having a url which points to a file:
The system cannot find the file specified.
So, I tried this solution, which is working with a little modification:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("explorer.exe", $"\"{uri}\"");
Without wrapping the url with "", the explorer opens your document folder.

In UWP:
await Launcher.LaunchUriAsync(new Uri("http://google.com"));

Open dynamically
string addres= "Print/" + Id + ".htm";
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(Path.Combine(Environment.CurrentDirectory, addres));

update the registry with current version of explorer
#"Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION"
public enum BrowserEmulationVersion
{
Default = 0,
Version7 = 7000,
Version8 = 8000,
Version8Standards = 8888,
Version9 = 9000,
Version9Standards = 9999,
Version10 = 10000,
Version10Standards = 10001,
Version11 = 11000,
Version11Edge = 11001
}
key.SetValue(programName, (int)browserEmulationVersion, RegistryValueKind.DWord);

This works nicely for .NET 5 (Windows):
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo {
FileName = "cmd.exe",
Arguments = $ "/C start https://stackoverflow.com/",
WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden,
CreateNoWindow = true
};
Process.Start(psi);

to fix problem with Net 6
i used this code from ChromeLauncher
,default browser will be like it
internal static class ChromeLauncher
{
private const string ChromeAppKey = #"\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\chrome.exe";
private static string ChromeAppFileName
{
get
{
return (string) (Registry.GetValue("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" + ChromeAppKey, "", null) ??
Registry.GetValue("HKEY_CURRENT_USER" + ChromeAppKey, "", null));
}
}
public static void OpenLink(string url)
{
string chromeAppFileName = ChromeAppFileName;
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(chromeAppFileName))
{
throw new Exception("Could not find chrome.exe!");
}
Process.Start(chromeAppFileName, url);
}
}

I'd comment on one of the above answers, but I don't yet have the rep.
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("explorer", "stackoverflow.com");
nearly works, unless the url has a query-string, in which case this code just opens a file explorer window. The key does seem to be the UseShellExecute flag, as given in Alex Vang's answer above (modulo other comments about launching random strings in web browsers).

You can open a link in default browser using cmd command start <link>, this method works for every language that has a function to execute a system command on cmd.exe.
This is the method I use for .NET 6 to execute a system command with redirecting the output & input, also pretty sure it will work on .NET 5 with some modifications.
using System.Diagnostics.Process cmd = new();
cmd.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
cmd.StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
cmd.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
cmd.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
cmd.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
cmd.Start();
cmd.StandardInput.WriteLine("start https://google.com");
cmd.StandardInput.Flush();
cmd.StandardInput.Close();
cmd.WaitForExit();