Distributable .exe With An Embedded Manifest for Admin Priveledges.

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Hello Everyone,

I'm stuck working on a project using VC6. Please don't hate, If I had the option to work with something more modern I would be.

My application requires Administration rights to work properly. On my computer, I've embedded this manifest into my release .exe via the mt.exe Microsoft SDK from an external notepad file in the same directory as my .exe:

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
  <trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
    <security>
      <requestedPrivileges>
        <requestedExecutionLevel
          level="RequireAdministrator"
          uiAccess="false"/>
        </requestedPrivileges>
       </security>
  </trustInfo>
</assembly>

via the command line:

mt.exe -nologo –manifest "MyApp.exe.manifest" -outputresource:"MyApp.exe;#1"

On my computer(running windows 7 32bit), this works flawlessly and forces the system admin prompt, allowing my program to function after I hit yes.

However if I attempt to transfer my newly embedded release .exe, along with the manifest file to my different computer (running windows 7 64bit) the admin prompt no longer occurs, even if I attempt to re-embed the Manifest on the new computer causing my program to not properly function.

Is there any way for me to be able to transfer this application to a different computer while maintaining the ability to prompt admin status?

Thanks for hearing me out! Also, everything I'm currently working with is still very new to me so I apologize in advance if I'm missing something obvious or doing something very basic wrong.

Posted 24-Oct-12 10:05am

Parwarrior7

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 24-Oct-12 17:06pm

It could be possible that UAC is disabled on the second machine -- please check up.
--SA

2 solutions

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-24T11:08:00

Solution 1

From the first glance, it seems to me you were doing right thing. It could be possible that UAC is disabled on the second machine.

Please see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Account_Control[^].

This is how it could be disabled, so you can see how to check it up:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/4-ways-to-make-uac-less-annoying-on-windows-vista/[^].

This is an interesting article, even though it's obsolete:
http://4sysops.com/archives/vista-user-account-control-uac-traps-part-2-elevated-applications/[^].

—SA

Posted 24-Oct-12 11:08am

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Comments

Parwarrior7 25-Oct-12 8:50am

Thanks for the tip, I'll look into it as soon as I'm able to see if UAC is in fact disabled or not.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 25-Oct-12 13:19pm

Please find out. I you think my guess was reasonable or the information was useful, please accept the answer formally (green button) -- thanks.
--SA

Parwarrior7 25-Oct-12 14:09pm

Absolutely, I just won't be able to check until tomorrow afternoon.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 25-Oct-12 14:58pm

Timing does not matter at all... :-)
Thank you,
--SA

Parwarrior7 26-Oct-12 11:53am

UAC settings were definitely part of the problem. Now at least the UAC prompt does become triggered properly on the secondary computer. However the administrator-dependent section of the my code still doesn't appear to be properly executing on the secondary machine even after the prompt... This however is probably a different issue altogether involving my code and not any issues with the manifest.... Thanks for the help! I'm halfway there haha!

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 26-Oct-12 12:17pm

You are welcome.
Well, this is a good sign. Keep discovering. If you find something of concern, you are welcome to ask further questions.
Good luck,
--SA

chaau · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-24T15:25:00

This manifest file works for me in both 32 and 64 bit environment:

XML

<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestversion="1.0">
  <ms_asmv2:trustinfo xmlns:ms_asmv2="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2">
    <ms_asmv2:security>
      <ms_asmv2:requestedprivileges>
        <ms_asmv2:requestedexecutionlevel level="requireAdministrator" uiaccess="false">
        </ms_asmv2:requestedexecutionlevel>
      </ms_asmv2:requestedprivileges>
    </ms_asmv2:security>
  </ms_asmv2:trustinfo>
</assembly>