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UAC Issues - Vista/Windows 7, 32 & 64-bit

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Markham:
It seems that a number of users are experiencing problems with Circle Dock which we have identified as being allied to the use of User-Access Control ("UAC") protection in these two operating systems. As you probably know, Microsoft reacted to pressure to make its operating systems more secure, particularly from malware, by introducing us to the joys of UAC with the launch of Windows Vista.

UAC comes into play whenever you install a program into "C:\Program Files" or "C:\Program Files (x86)" and that program (attempts to) modify its own configuration files which, say Microsoft, should ideally be placed in the %APPDATA% folder which Circle Dock does. If Circle Dock is not run by a user with full administrator privileges, it will either crash or a UAC warning dialog will appear - depending on the operating system and UAC level you've selected.

There are several ways we can overcome this:

* We could simply tell users to modify Circle Dock's properties so that it is run as if the user is an administrator; however inexperienced PC users may not be too comfortable with having to do that.
* We could instruct users not to install Circle Dock in either "C:\Program Files" or "C:\Program Files (x86)". Whilst that undoubtedly works, it does cause problems for the Installer and (fact of life) users rarely read documentation!
* We could do what Microsoft themselves do when they need elevated privileges which is to test the current privilege level and if the user is not an administrator, restart the program using a particular keyword in the start-up information block; TaskManager is an example of such a program which works in this way. The problem with that is that it will likely interfere with the multiple-instance and command-line handling.
* The fourth way is, in effect, an automated version of the first which is achieved by "marking" the executable with a special manifest that tells Windows that it is a trusted application and is to be run as administrator.

In future releases we will be using the fourth option (trusted application manifest) and this should ensure that Circle Dock runs unhindered and can update its configuration files without triggering a UAC exception.



Mark

f0dder:
...or you could track down why your code require elevation while it really shouldn't?

sgtevmckay:
f0dder

we are open for ideas  :tellme:

f0dder:
Btw, sorry if that remark came off wrong - I'm not saying it's necessarily going to be an easy task!

Can you reproduce the problem on your own machines? Do you have a crash location, or even an idea what exactly is triggering? Tried tracing with sysinternals' Process Monitor (not to be confused with their Process Explorer) and seeing which file paths, and possibly registry keys, are being attempted accessed? There's a slight chance it could be keyboard-hook related as well; they do normally work from non-elevated apps, though, but then the keys just don't work when an elevated app has focus.

Dormouse:
UAC comes into play whenever you install a program into "C:\Program Files" or "C:\Program Files (x86)" and that program (attempts to) modify its own configuration files -Markham (February 23, 2010, 04:41 AM)
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Does that mean a portable version would be unaffected?

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