My C++ application uses ShellExecute to open a PDF file. I'm using Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC (version 1809, OS build 17763.615) to run my application. If my application is launched as Admin (right-click Run as administrator) then it fails to open the PDF file. However, if my application is launched without Admin rights (just double-clicking it) then Adobe (the default PDF reader) is launched successfully and the PDF is displayed correctly.
My application runs normally (with and without Run as admin) on Windows 7 and Windows 10 Pro. This issue just started happening now that we are trying to use Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC.
The actual code from my application is:
ShellExecute(NULL, NULL, full_path.toWideCharPointer(), NULL, NULL, SW_SHOWDEFAULT);
where full_path is for example equal to "C:\\Faxitron\\Docs\\Guide.pdf".
In both cases (admin or not), ShellExecute always returns 42 and GetLastError returns 0. Here is something interesting: when running my application as Admin, the Task Manager shows 2 processes of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (32 bit) under my application, but the program Adobe is never launched/opened.
Not sure if this is relevant or not, but I'm using the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (version 19.012.20034).
Finally, my application requires to be run as Admin (for other functionality to work properly). Is there a way to get ShellExecute to work when running application as administrator?
The reason why ShellExecute cannot launch the PDF viewer from an elevated process, in this case, is because Adobe Reader is preventing it via its Protected Mode. To solve this issue disable protected mode by doing the following:
Open Adobe Reader.
Choose Edit > Preferences...
In the Categories list on the left, select Security (Enhanced).
In the Sandbox Protections section, deselect Enable Protected Mode at startup
Click OK to save the changes.
Close Adobe Reader.
For more information about Protected Mode (and possible vulnerabilities) refer to this link from Adobe.com:
https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/AppSec/protectedmode.html
Related
I've developed an Accessibility API console application in C++ for High Sierra (and lower) - uses AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue etc.
I've disabled SIP to give me a chance here to write to the Accessibility database using tccutil.
So, the application runs as expected in Xcode, given that I've enabled 'Xcode' in System Preferences->Security & Privacy->Privacy->Accessibility.
I've wrapped my console application into a .app so I can drag and drop into this Accessibility panel.
If I run the application outside of Xcode in a Terminal window, I have to also give Terminal.app Accessibility rights for the application to use the API otherwise nothing is extracted. This then seems that you must give the calling application the rights.
I'm trying to launch the application on startup via a LaunchAgent with root privileges, /usr/bin/sudo being the calling application. Launching a script instead to run the application seemed the better method. The application launches fine, infact the console application inside the .app is also added now to the Accessibility panel.
Unfortunately, the Accessibility side of things is still not working and I've run out of ideas?
Any help will be appreciated.
Many thanks in advance.
I have created an addin(Extension) for enterprise architect. The addin basically popup's a dialog(using tkinter of python to show this popup) where i allow the user to select the directory path. now if the user takes more than say 3 seconds, there appears an server busy window, which the user has to click switch to to return to the previous control. Is there any way to avoid this or increase the server busy timeout in EA?. The dialog popup and server busy window appears like below
Well i found the solution, Since EA is an 32bit application, even if you are using 64bit windows. You are expected to install python 32bit.
I am attempting to get the QBSDK running on my Windows 7 machine. I am trying to run the sample program called EventHandler. It is run in conjunction with the sample EventSubscribe. I have compiled these in Visual Studio 2008. The EventHandler has a option in the File menu called Register Call Back Interface. When I run that it indicates that the COM connection has been created, however when I try to subscribe to an event in the EventSubscribe sample program it gives me the error “The callback application cannot be found from the CLSID or ProgID provided in the subscription request.”
On my Windows 7 machine after I did the Register the Callback Interface I noticed that the Unregister command was not highlighted. I also compiled this on a Windows XP machine with Visual Studio 2008 and I noticed the Unregister was highlighted. I do not have Quickbooks on the Windows XP machine though.
I have tried many things to get this to work… Any idea what is happening?
I am using C++
Thanks,
Jim
This may not directly describe your situation but the concept is similar. Starting with Vista, there were quite a few workarounds with QuickBooks SDK (and other COM-based technology) that required "Run As Administrator" to configure due to Windows UAC restrictions.
From the SDK documentation:
After you subscribe your menu extension events and
register them as documented, you need to run QB
using "Run As Administrator." This only has to be
done ONCE, after running QB as admin once, your
menu items will continue to show up and menu
events will be received by your event handler without
running QB as admin.
The general principle is that even if you are running Windows under an Administrative account, you may need to "Run As Administrator" both the QuickBooks UI, and your application that uses QBSDK, during the configuration process. Once all the registration and configuration is done it should work as a normal user.
Context
I am migrating an installer for an ActiveX control from Per-Machine to Per-User. I did this by programming the installer write to HKCU\Software\Classes instead of HKLM\Software\Classes.
Problem
On my machine (Windows 7 with UAC Enabled), the ActiveX control successfully loads. On the other windows 7 test machines (one with UAC enabled, one with UAC disabled), the control 'partially' loads.
What is Partially?
When a user visits a page with the ActiveX control, Internet Explorer displays a warning message in a yellow bar on the top of the window. If you click the 'Run add-on' button in the bar, the control becomes visible and begins to run, but Javascript code that tries to access properties of the control return the error:
Library not registered.
Differences between machines
On the dev machine reads from HKCR\CLSID\<GUID> succeed while on the test machines these reads fail. Reads from HKCU succeed on both dev and test machines. Reads from HKLM fail on both test and dev machines. (I collected reads using Sysinternals Process Monitor) Strangely, the keys that Internet Explorer fails to read are clearly visible if I use regedit to view HKCR\CLSID\<GUID> on the test machines.
Question
What can I do to get the per-user control to load on the test machines? What could cause this difference between the dev machine and the test machines? Why can I see the key in HKCR with RegEdit but Internet Explorer cannot see the key?
Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
My (MS Windows) application can update itself over the internet by download a self extracting archive and launching it via _execv (C++). Now while launching the sfx archive works fine on Windows XP, it doesn't on Windows 7. I guess it has to do with UAC, but even turning UAC off didn't cure this problem. The downloaded sfx archive has the same owner and full access rights as other executables on my computer I can run via _execv. What do I have to do to make this work?
Windows 7 is able to detect installers based on file name and file content and requires additional privilege to start such files. As far as I know Administrator has no such additional privilege. Try to use ShellExecuteEx with runas parameter. It should show you dialog with request for permission to start installer.