Question:

Hi Tony,

I have been reading you vista clues and I appreciate the help.

Is there a way to run a batch file on vista to set the “Run as administrator” on an exe.

We have a exe that is delivered to our customers monthly. The exe writes files and expects them to be were we installed the product. Of course, with vista this is not true. I can fix this problem but setting the Run as administrator.

The applications are built under XP so I can not set this property before I packages, so what I was thinking was as part of my install/update

Install the exe on vista and then run a batch program to set it as run as administrator. I can not have the customer do this manually.

Do you think this will work? Do you know how to do this?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you

Answer:

Your best bet is probably to add a manifest to your application, and release it as an update (a batch file could just replace the .exe, if you’re determined to go that route). To add a manifest to existing applications, use the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT). You might be able to figure out a way to script the ACT, but then again, it might not be worth the effort.

That’s still not a great answer, because it requires your users to have administrative credentials (which they won’t in many organizations). For the best answer, use the Standard User Analyzer tool, to diagnose issues that would prevent a program from running properly as a standard user. Then, fix your app to work as a standard user. Your customers will appreciate it.

Good luck.

Tony