I have developed an application that needs admin rights to execute. Running the application on Windows 7, the user always have to launch the application as "Run as Administrator" otherwise my application prompts the user that "you don't have administrative rights etc...". This is OK and understandable because of UAC in windows 7.
To get rid that the user have to set the application as "Run as Administrator". I updated my application's "app.manifest" and set
<requestedExecutionLevel level="highestAvailable" uiAccess="false" />
Which done the job for me.
But now, a security center symbol shield appears with my application's icon.
Now my question is "Why does this icon appear on my application, and what does it indicate?"
I tried marking another of my applications to "Always Run as Administrator" via windows but the same icon wouldn't appear with that application.
I want to understand the reasons and scenarios.
The shield is there to remind the user that if they double-click the exe to run it, they will get a UAC dialog. These dialogs should never be a surprise and if you get one you weren't expecting, you should really not consent to it.
The shield appears if you have a manifest that requests elevation (requireAdministrator or highestAvailable, but not if your manifest specifies asInvoker), and for certain file names. For more details see my blog entry (written at Vista time, but still applies to Windows 7) and MSDN articles on UAC and UI guidelines.
Related
I am trying to take screenshots of the license information of the application before installing it onto my test window os.
When I click on the installer, the publisher window pops up asking me whether I want to launch the installer or not; But when I want to take screenshots or printscreen using keyboard shortcuts it doesn't work.
It seems that the keyboard shortcuts is disabled during this pop up install dialog.
All I want is to take screenshots at the publisher certificate information before installing the application.
Can anyone with experience on windows help?
UAC: If you are referring to the UAC prompt that shows up first to ask for elevation, then it happens on a secure desktop separate from your main one and hence the screen shot appears impossible. This separate desktop is a security measure. In actual fact it is perhaps the core security measure added to Windows in recent years (don't turn it off permanently).
Disable UAC Temporarily: You can disable this security measure temporarily so you can take a screenshot as described here: How to get a UAC screenshot. Here is a sample screen shot of a UAC prompt for an MSI installation: Numeric file name for msi created with Wix
Here is the essential procedure inlined:
Run gpedit.msc
Locate: Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\SecurityOptions:
Change "User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation" to disabled
Undo this change after the screenshot or your system will be very insecure!
I have a desktop delphi application that runs without administrator rights on windows 7 and 8. This application, needs to send (SendInput) mouse events(click and move) to another running apps. This app works like a driver for a remote wifi pen, that controls mouse over desktop. When the focus is over OSK(on screen keyboard), the mouse move with left key pressed dont work, the osk windows dont move, all others applications move when receive these mouve events. I cand get handle of OSK.
When I run my app with administrator privileges(UAC) all works fine, OSK move when app send mouve envets.
I think that problem is related to UAC. I found a way to bypass the UAC like this http://www.thewindowsclub.com/create-elevated-shortcut-run-programs-bypass-uac, but is not a good ideia in some enviroments.
There is a way to bypass the UAC without underground ways ? Or how can I force the OSK to respond on all mouse events that I send to him.
Here is a snip of the manifest that is embedded in Osk.exe:
<trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
<security>
<requestedPrivileges>
<requestedExecutionLevel level="asInvoker" uiAccess="true"/>
</requestedPrivileges>
</security>
</trustInfo>
Note the level it asks for, asInvoker does not ask for UAC elevation, only requireAdministrator does. In other words, it runs with whatever privileges the starting program has. You can tell, you don't get the consent prompt when you start Osk.exe
What matters here is uiAccess. With it set to true, the program bypasses UIPI. The lesser-known twin of UAC, User Interface Privilege Isolation protects against shatter attacks by disallowing another process to poke keystrokes and mouse clicks into the window owned by an elevated app. Such a process still runs in high integrity mode, that's why you cannot poke into Osk yourself, but doesn't have the privileges enabled that make an UAC elevated app dangerous.
This is not unusual, most any program that uses UI Automation or provides an accessibility feature needs to be able to do this. Like Osk.exe, it needs to be able to poke keystrokes into any app. Clearly what you want to do as well.
Getting uiAccess does not require the user to consent to a prompt like UAC elevation does. The operating system has to "trust" you. Covered well in this MSDN article, "UIAccess for UI automation applications" section. I'll just summarize it here:
Set uiAccess="true" in the application manifest
Your executable must have valid digital certificate, the kind you buy from a vendor like Verisign.
Your executable must be stored in a directory that has write access denied, in a subdirectory of c:\program files or c:\windows.
We linked our application with a manifest with requireAdministrator option in c++. This is because the application modifies HKLM registry entries. When we execute the application, Windows displays the following message. Is it possible to make this window do not appear for our application without changing the UAC setting of Windows?
The basic answer is no. UAC is designed to prompt you for just this purpose. If you could bypass the UAC for your good application, the same could be true for the bad applications that are out there. Because you are writing to the registry at HKLM, you have to elevate your access.
You could move the dialog around a bit if you want. For example, you could create an application icon that would immediately prompt the user with the UAC when they started the application but that isn't a great idea since the point of UAC is to run without permissions until they are needed.
Here is a link to more information about the UAC and how to work with it:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163486.aspx
I want to use a Application on Windows 7 without Admin priviliges.
(Sure for the install process i used Admin priviliges)
Now i had following problem:
When i want to start the application the UAC popup ask for an Admin Account to run the program. But the User had no Admin account and can only click "No" so the Application is closed.
Is it possible to use this application with the rights from the current user and deactivate the UAC prompt?
On Win XP, only popup a error message that the application had no admin priviliges.
But by selecting "Ok" the application is starting and working.
You need to create and embed a manifest into your application. This tells the operating system that your program was written to be compatible with the UAC built into Windows Vista (and later), and therefore does not need to be run as Administrator. Set the requested execution level to asInvoker.
See this article on MSDN for more details.
There's also a helpful, though somewhat more general, article that appeared in the MSDN Magazine regarding UAC: Teach Your Apps To Play Nicely With Windows Vista User Account Control
I'ved developed a c# application that captures screens using bitblt and sends keyboard and mouse events using calls to keybd_event and mouse_event.
According to Microsoft I needed to modify the app.manifest with:
requestedExecutionLevel level="highestAvailable" uiAccess="true"
Sign the application and place it in a trusted location (program files).
I have done all of these to get the application to run under elevated priviledges under Vista but when UAC dialogs appear it does not capture those screens and the keyboard and mouse events do not reach the UAC dialog.
I am guess that UAC runs in a different desktop?? if so, how would i capture that? and how can i detect when the desktop switches to a UAC dialog in c#? or have i just missed a step?
UAC runs on the secure desktop, only trusted processes running on the system account are allowed to run in that context.
This is to prevent exactly what you are trying to achieve - processes spoofing or capturing user input.
You cannot. The UAC desktop is secure because it doesn't allow anyone to access it.
To detect the desktop switch event, I would try to use SENS or WTSRegisterSessionNotification. But it doesn't look very promising.