Executable that requires elevation
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I recently worked on a project and at a certain point noticed that the executable that is created requires elevation. It has this icon indicating that an administrator approval is required, and when it is double clicked, the elevation prompt appears. It drove me craze to remove this setting, as the nature of the software didn't require it to be elevated. I looked at the Manifest section when there are settings related to UAC (User Account Control), but even when I matched these settings to the ones taken from another project, which didn't require elevation, my new project did. Today, while speaking to another programmer, he told me how to fix that.... Well, my executable had the string "install" as part of it, and when I renamed it to demo.exe, the icon has changed and no elevation any more required. :)
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I recently worked on a project and at a certain point noticed that the executable that is created requires elevation. It has this icon indicating that an administrator approval is required, and when it is double clicked, the elevation prompt appears. It drove me craze to remove this setting, as the nature of the software didn't require it to be elevated. I looked at the Manifest section when there are settings related to UAC (User Account Control), but even when I matched these settings to the ones taken from another project, which didn't require elevation, my new project did. Today, while speaking to another programmer, he told me how to fix that.... Well, my executable had the string "install" as part of it, and when I renamed it to demo.exe, the icon has changed and no elevation any more required. :)
I'm not sure if there's a complete list anywhere, but the heuristics are documented on MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530410.aspx[^]
Installer Detection only applies to:
- 32 bit executables
- Applications without a requestedExecutionLevel
- Interactive processes running as a Standard User with LUA enabled
Before a 32 bit process is created, the following attributes are checked to determine whether it is an installer:
- Filename includes keywords like "install," "setup," "update," etc.
- Keywords in the following Versioning Resource fields: Vendor, Company Name, Product Name, File Description, Original Filename, Internal Name, and Export Name.
- Keywords in the side-by-side manifest embedded in the executable.
- Keywords in specific StringTable entries linked in the executable.
- Key attributes in the RC data linked in the executable.
- Targeted sequences of bytes within the executable.
Note The keywords and sequences of bytes were derived from common characteristics observed from various installer technologies.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
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I'm not sure if there's a complete list anywhere, but the heuristics are documented on MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530410.aspx[^]
Installer Detection only applies to:
- 32 bit executables
- Applications without a requestedExecutionLevel
- Interactive processes running as a Standard User with LUA enabled
Before a 32 bit process is created, the following attributes are checked to determine whether it is an installer:
- Filename includes keywords like "install," "setup," "update," etc.
- Keywords in the following Versioning Resource fields: Vendor, Company Name, Product Name, File Description, Original Filename, Internal Name, and Export Name.
- Keywords in the side-by-side manifest embedded in the executable.
- Keywords in specific StringTable entries linked in the executable.
- Key attributes in the RC data linked in the executable.
- Targeted sequences of bytes within the executable.
Note The keywords and sequences of bytes were derived from common characteristics observed from various installer technologies.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
Thanks. This is really useful information.
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I recently worked on a project and at a certain point noticed that the executable that is created requires elevation. It has this icon indicating that an administrator approval is required, and when it is double clicked, the elevation prompt appears. It drove me craze to remove this setting, as the nature of the software didn't require it to be elevated. I looked at the Manifest section when there are settings related to UAC (User Account Control), but even when I matched these settings to the ones taken from another project, which didn't require elevation, my new project did. Today, while speaking to another programmer, he told me how to fix that.... Well, my executable had the string "install" as part of it, and when I renamed it to demo.exe, the icon has changed and no elevation any more required. :)
Thanks for sharing this WTF!
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I'm not sure if there's a complete list anywhere, but the heuristics are documented on MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530410.aspx[^]
Installer Detection only applies to:
- 32 bit executables
- Applications without a requestedExecutionLevel
- Interactive processes running as a Standard User with LUA enabled
Before a 32 bit process is created, the following attributes are checked to determine whether it is an installer:
- Filename includes keywords like "install," "setup," "update," etc.
- Keywords in the following Versioning Resource fields: Vendor, Company Name, Product Name, File Description, Original Filename, Internal Name, and Export Name.
- Keywords in the side-by-side manifest embedded in the executable.
- Keywords in specific StringTable entries linked in the executable.
- Key attributes in the RC data linked in the executable.
- Targeted sequences of bytes within the executable.
Note The keywords and sequences of bytes were derived from common characteristics observed from various installer technologies.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
Richard Deeming wrote:
Filename includes keywords like "install," "setup," "update," etc.
What the elephant ? It checks for filename or keywords to determine if a file is an installer ? I call this epic fail !
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus Do not feed the troll ! - Common proverb
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Richard Deeming wrote:
Filename includes keywords like "install," "setup," "update," etc.
What the elephant ? It checks for filename or keywords to determine if a file is an installer ? I call this epic fail !
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus Do not feed the troll ! - Common proverb
Yes, it does. Any icons with those words in the names do not show up in the Start menu, even if you pin it.
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]
Dave Kreskowiak -
Yes, it does. Any icons with those words in the names do not show up in the Start menu, even if you pin it.
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]
Dave KreskowiakThe list of file names you can't pin to the taskbar or start menu is worse than the installer detection heuristics: http://www.west-wind.com/weblog/posts/2009/Oct/08/Application-that-wont-Pin-to-Taskbar-in-Windows-7[^] If you exe name contains any of the following, you can't pin it:
- Documentation
- Help
- Install
- More Info
- Readme
- Read me
- Read First
- Setup
- Support
- What's New
- Remove
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
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Richard Deeming wrote:
Filename includes keywords like "install," "setup," "update," etc.
What the elephant ? It checks for filename or keywords to determine if a file is an installer ? I call this epic fail !
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus Do not feed the troll ! - Common proverb
The alternative to a heuristic like that would have been 99% of installers trying to run as normal processes when Vista launched, failing because they couldn't access privileged areas, and bombing. That would have been an order of magnitude more elephanted up. And not just because setting runs-as-user in a manifest if your app name matches the heuristic is strait forward for a dev; but 99% of lusers don't know there is something called admin mode, never mind how to launch a program in it. Edit: PS The VS2k3Sp1 installer doesn't get detected to auto elevate and fails/backs out in a way that gives no indication of what's wrong until on the nth try you realize you never got the elevate prompt.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
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Richard Deeming wrote:
Filename includes keywords like "install," "setup," "update," etc.
What the elephant ? It checks for filename or keywords to determine if a file is an installer ? I call this epic fail !
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus Do not feed the troll ! - Common proverb
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The alternative to a heuristic like that would have been 99% of installers trying to run as normal processes when Vista launched, failing because they couldn't access privileged areas, and bombing. That would have been an order of magnitude more elephanted up. And not just because setting runs-as-user in a manifest if your app name matches the heuristic is strait forward for a dev; but 99% of lusers don't know there is something called admin mode, never mind how to launch a program in it. Edit: PS The VS2k3Sp1 installer doesn't get detected to auto elevate and fails/backs out in a way that gives no indication of what's wrong until on the nth try you realize you never got the elevate prompt.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
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I'm not sure if there's a complete list anywhere, but the heuristics are documented on MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530410.aspx[^]
Installer Detection only applies to:
- 32 bit executables
- Applications without a requestedExecutionLevel
- Interactive processes running as a Standard User with LUA enabled
Before a 32 bit process is created, the following attributes are checked to determine whether it is an installer:
- Filename includes keywords like "install," "setup," "update," etc.
- Keywords in the following Versioning Resource fields: Vendor, Company Name, Product Name, File Description, Original Filename, Internal Name, and Export Name.
- Keywords in the side-by-side manifest embedded in the executable.
- Keywords in specific StringTable entries linked in the executable.
- Key attributes in the RC data linked in the executable.
- Targeted sequences of bytes within the executable.
Note The keywords and sequences of bytes were derived from common characteristics observed from various installer technologies.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
That seems a very deep quote from Homer, I'm more used to "mmm doughnuts".
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough." Alan Kay.
