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

var pass = new SecureString();
pass.AppendChar('s');
pass.AppendChar('e');
pass.AppendChar('c');
pass.AppendChar('r');
pass.AppendChar('e');
pass.AppendChar('t');
Process.Start("notepad", "admin", pass, "");

Works also with ProcessStartInfo:

var psi = new ProcessStartInfo
{
    FileName = "notepad",
    UserName = "admin",
    Domain = "",
    Password = pass,
    UseShellExecute = false,
    RedirectStandardOutput = true,
    RedirectStandardError = true
};
Process.Start(psi);

Answer 2

This works when I try it. I double-checked with two sample programs:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;

namespace ConsoleApplication1 {
  class Program {
    static void Main(string[] args) {
      Process.Start("ConsoleApplication2.exe");
    }
  }
}

---

using System;
using System.IO;

namespace ConsoleApplication2 {
  class Program {
    static void Main(string[] args) {
      try {
        File.WriteAllText(@"c:\program files\test.txt", "hello world");
      }
      catch (Exception ex) {
        Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
        Console.ReadLine();
      }
    }
  }
}

First verified that I get the UAC bomb:

System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path 'c:\program files\test.txt' is denied.
// etc..

Then added a manifest to ConsoleApplication1 with the phrase:

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

No bomb. And a file I can't easily delete :) This is consistent with several previous tests on various machines running Vista and Win7. The started program inherits the security token from the starter program. If the starter has acquired admin privileges, the started program has them as well.

Answer 3

Here is an example of run process as administrator without Windows Prompt

  Process p = new Process();
  p.StartInfo.FileName = Server.MapPath("process.exe");
  p.StartInfo.Arguments = "";
  p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
  p.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
  p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
  p.StartInfo.Verb = "runas";
  p.Start();
  p.WaitForExit();