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I'm writing a tweak utility that modifies some keys under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.

All works fine under Windows XP and so on. But I'm getting error Requested registry access is not allowed under Windows 7. Vista and 2008 I guess too.

How should I modify my code to add UAC support?

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7 Answers 7

Reset to default
66

app.manifest should be like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <asmv1:assembly manifestVersion="1.0" xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" xmlns:asmv1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" xmlns:asmv2="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0" name="MyApplication.app" /> <trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2"> <security> <requestedPrivileges xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3"> <requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false" /> </requestedPrivileges> </security> </trustInfo> </asmv1:assembly>
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12 Comments

@Gunner: Put it into the root of a project, like App.config. (File -> Add New Item -> Application Manifest File)
@abatishchev: The above xml content is a generic one and should suffice for any application, right?
@Gunner: Probably you need to update version and app name. Everything else - should be left as is
@Gunner: Add App.manifest to VS project's root, and it will automatically copied to output as <appname>.exe.manifest or embedded into assembly
@Gunner: Theoretically should be equal to executable's name
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20

You can't write to the HKCR (or HKLM) hives in Vista and newer versions of Windows unless you have administrative privileges. Therefore, you'll either need to be logged in as an Administrator before you run your utility, give it a manifest that says it requires Administrator level (which will prompt the user for Admin login info), or quit changing things in places that non-Administrators shouldn't be playing. :-)

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You're welcome. :-) Sorry I couldn't post the proper manifest, but I didn't have one on this machine and figured if someone had to search for one, it might as well be you. <g>
19

If you don't need admin privs for the entire app, or only for a few infrequent changes you can do the changes in a new process and launch it using:

Process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = true; Process.StartInfo.Verb = "runas";

which will run the process as admin to do whatever you need with the registry, but return to your app with the normal priviledges. This way it doesn't prompt the user with a UAC dialog every time it launches.

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2 Comments

Do you mean that it requires to implement a fork, where one part of code launches the same application with parameter so another part of code will be executed?
It could be the same app with parameters or it could be a separate small windowless app that writes what it needs.
7

As a temporary fix, users can right click the utility and select "Run as administrator."

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2

I was trying the verb = "runas", but I still was getting UnauthorizedAccessException when trying to update registry value. Turned out it was due to not opening the subkey with writeable set to true.

Registry.OpenSubKey("KeyName", true);

Cannot write to Registry Key, getting UnauthorizedAccessException

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1

This issue has to do with granting the necessary authorization to the user account the application runs on. To read a similar situation and a detailed response for the correct solution, as documented by Microsoft, feel free to visit this post: http://rambletech.wordpress.com/2011/10/17/requested-registry-access-is-not-allowed/

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0

You Could Do The same as abatishchev but without the UAC 

<assembly manifestVersion="1.0" xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"> <assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0" name="MyApplication.app"/> <trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2"> <security> <requestedPrivileges xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3"> </requestedPrivileges> </security> </trustInfo> </assembly>
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