You might try “setacl.exe” as part of your installation. You can grant users and/or groups specific rights to work with specific windows services.

Also, “local system account” privileges might be required to start your own service…(?). Better double check that one :)

Best Wishes

MyApp try than to change the rights of a file:
FileSecurity fnew = File.GetAccessControl(target);
FileSecurity fold = File.GetAccessControl(oldFile);
AuthorizationRuleCollection arc = fold.GetAccessRules(true, true, typeof(System.Security.Principal.NTAccount));
System.Collections.IEnumerator ienu = arc.GetEnumerator();
while (ienu.MoveNext())
{
FileSystemAccessRule ar = (FileSystemAccessRule)ienu.Current;
if (ar.IdentityReference != null)
{
fnew.PurgeAccessRules(ar.IdentityReference);
fnew.AddAccessRule(new FileSystemAccessRule(ar.IdentityReference, ar.FileSystemRights, ar.AccessControlType));
}
}
fnew.SetOwner(fold.GetOwner(typeof(System.Security.Principal.NTAccount)));
fnew.SetAuditRuleProtection(false, true);
File.SetAccessControl(target, fnew);

Now I get the error “SeSecurityPrivilege is missing” with Windows 7.
Any idea how I can use my code also with W7?

-changing the manifest file so that permission level is set to “highestAvailable” (still was deined access)
-creating my own service that would in turn restart the service i was originally targetting (this new service was then denied access to the original service – or so it seems. furhtermore i was denied access to it.)
-trying to create my own token? (i wouldn’t consider myself completely new to c# but i’ve never really dealt with the UAC security model and i’m kind of flying blind here)

Ultimately i’ve settled on hijacking the task scheduler to run the my program in an elevated state, though this seems like an inelegant way to do things.

I get the fact that this is the very thing UAC is put in place for, namely the prevention of running potentially dangerous code without the prompting the user first.

In order to give you some background as to why i’m trying to suppress the dialog. My laptop has an illuminated keyboard but no button that directly turns it off/on. You have to drill down through a settings app and manually turn illumination on/off. My goal was to set illumination to a remapped key/key sequence. So far i have the key sequence set up, i’ve found what Xml file controls the on/off value, and the only thing i have left to make it work is to restart the service that controls whether or not the keyboard is lit. My plan was to make the change from on to off transparent and seamless to the user and the UAC prompt ruins that. It’s a shame there isn’t a way to either whitelist a process or to pass user/password info to a process without the dialog. As i’ve said above i’ve kind of given up and intend on using the task scheduler but that’s not really it’s intended purpose and was wondering if anyone had made some progress.

IMO, if UAC is active then it should stay active. Why is a problem if the credentials window is displayed?

You need a second process that will be started with elevated privileges. You cannot elevate a running process.

If i understand correctly, This should tell me whether the current user is an administrator (in the admin role) or not.
#1
How do i prompt for admin credentials if he is not?
#2
Or should i then run a second exe application (that will ask for elevation) that does the update under the “\program Files\” directory.
(I dont really want to split my app.)