jai123
3rd June 2011 18:05 UTC

Disable UAC
Hello,

I started testing my software drivers with several OSes and its respective combinations. The drivers work fine. When using Windows Vista and UAC is enabled, the software that runs the drivers will crash unless UAC is disabled.

Is there a way to enforce UAC to the minimum level through the installer?

Thanks,

Anders
3rd June 2011 18:21 UTC

You need to restart to change the "level". You should fix your software instead, that is the only real solution...

jai123
6th June 2011 18:14 UTC

Anders, I completely agree with you, and I started testing the code; unfortunatelly, the code is quite old, and has several problems with the file system when UAC is turned on.

So instead of partially testing it, I decided to leave it as it is, forcing UAC off. This will asure that the software I release is in good standing; and then fix the UAC related bugs once I finish other higher priority projects.

I was just wondering, how do I change the UAC level to its minimum (or check the current UAC level)? Also, do I need to restart at the middle of the installation process or can I do this at the end?

Thanks,

DrO
6th June 2011 18:24 UTC

changing the UAC level is a user setting so there shouldn't be any way for you to be able to do that. and trying to circumvent it is something that would put a lot of people off installing whatever it is.

-daz

jai123
6th June 2011 19:30 UTC

Dro I agree with you. In my personal computer I would never install a software that ask me to change my user control, but the product that I work with is a quite unique case.

The product are really big CNC machines; so the computers are bought only to be used with the CNC machine. So all our customers disable UAC, install our software, and that is pretty much the computers mission.

If I can not modify the user settings, at least can I know UAC level? and then force the user to change it before installation can proceed?

Thanks

Anders
7th June 2011 08:12 UTC

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

Afrow UK
7th June 2011 09:47 UTC

Good luck writing to that key! We found that Windows blocks any user applications writing some policies keys (probably malware protection) so we have to do it in our service instead.

Edit: maybe a .reg would do it though...

Stu

jai123
7th June 2011 14:06 UTC

I am really lost in here. How can I know the current UAC level, in order to continue the installation or abort it?

I checked the registry, but I am not to familiar how to work with it. So any guidelines will be really helpful.

jai123
7th June 2011 14:11 UTC

Just to clarify.

It seems to me that is easier to know the current UAC level, and force the user to change it, than change it through the installer. So, I might be more interested in just checking the UAC level. Sounds like something straightforward to implement?

Thanks,

jai123
8th June 2011 17:58 UTC

It seems that I just needed to refresh my knowledge about the registry.

The value EnableLUA specifies the status of UAC.

Thanks for the guidance.