How to start a Process as administrator mode in C#

Question

This question already has an answer here:

• Elevating process privilege programmatically? 5 answers

I have a Visual Studio Windows app project. I've added code to download an installer update file. The installer after it has finished downloading would need administrator privileges to run. I have added a manifest file.

When user clicks on the DownloadUpdate.exe, UAC prompts the user for Admin permissions. So I assumed that all processes created and called within DownloadUpdate.exe will run in admin capacity. So I made the setup call my downloaded file with the following code:

Process p = new Process();
p.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
p.StartInfo.FileName = strFile;
p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;

Answer 1

 Process proc = new Process();                                                              
                   ProcessStartInfo info = 
                   new ProcessStartInfo("Your Process name".exe, "Arguments");
                   info.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
                   info.UseShellExecute =true;
                   info.Verb ="runas";
                   proc.StartInfo = info;
                   proc.Start();

Answer 2

This is a clear answer to your question: How do I force my .NET application to run as administrator?

Summary:

Right Click on project -> Add new item -> Application Manifest File

Then in that file change a line like this:

<requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false" />

Compile and run!

Answer 3

Try this:

//Vista or higher check
if (System.Environment.OSVersion.Version.Major >= 6)
{
   p.StartInfo.Verb = "runas";
}

Alternatively, go the manifest route for your application.

Answer 4

Use this method:

public static int RunProcessAsAdmin(string exeName, string parameters)
    {
        try {
            System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo();
            startInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
            startInfo.WorkingDirectory = CurrentDirectory;
            startInfo.FileName = Path.Combine(CurrentDirectory, exeName);
            startInfo.Verb = "runas";
            //MLHIDE
            startInfo.Arguments = parameters;
            startInfo.ErrorDialog = true;

            Process process = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(startInfo);
            process.WaitForExit();
            return process.ExitCode;
        } catch (Win32Exception ex) {
            WriteLog(ex);
            switch (ex.NativeErrorCode) {
                case 1223:
                    return ex.NativeErrorCode;
                default:
                    return ErrorReturnInteger;
            }

        } catch (Exception ex) {
            WriteLog(ex);
            return ErrorReturnInteger;
        }
    }

Hope it helps.

Answer 5

You probably need to set your application as an x64 app.

The IIS Snap In only works in 64 bit and doesn't work in 32 bit, and a process spawned from a 32 bit app seems to work to be a 32 bit process and the same goes for 64 bit apps.

Look at: Start process as 64 bit

Answer 6

First of all you need to include in your project

using System.Diagnostics;

After that you could write a general method that you could use for different .exe files that you want to use. It would be like below:

public void ExecuteAsAdmin(string fileName)
{
    Process proc = new Process();
    proc.StartInfo.FileName = fileName;
    proc.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
    proc.StartInfo.Verb = "runas";
    proc.Start();
}

If you want to for example execute notepad.exe then all you do is you call this method:

ExecuteAsAdmin("notepad.exe");