Edit: This problem only occurs on windows 7 and vista from what I've heard.
I have a very simple app developed with an external graphics library. If I install this app into a program files directory and run it, it will crash immediately but it works fine normally, with exactly the same files. I have realised it is because you need to run the application as administrator for it to work.
I appreciate if this is a problem directly related to the graphics engine I am using, but I don't really think so (but I'm clueless). Can anyone help me?
Edit for more detail:
The application executable and files that are needed to run it are installed into the default program directory - for me, C:\Program Files (x86). If you try and run with without clicking run as administrator, it will simple freeze and say "App has stopped working. Windows is checking for a solution to the problem..." My question is basically, how can I make it so run as administrator isn't necessary?
When a program cannot perform an operation, it (the operation) should fail gracefully. My guess is your application is attempting to do something that it cannot do as a normal user and then fails to check for a return code, and then subsequently crashes. You need to identify what it is your program is doing that it should not be able to do as a normal user. For example (off the top of my head):
Write a file to Program Files (x86)
Write to HKLM
(Without more details) The problem is most likely related to the fact that your program tries to write into the directory and then excepts the file creation/modification to actually have an effect. UAC prevents applications from writing the Program Files directories without administrator privilages. The solution is to redesign your application to not rely on such behavior or store the files in question in one of the intended locations (AppData, etc. folders).
If you right-click on the EXE and go to Properties -> Compatibility there are some options that might help. You could try running the app in compatibility mode for a previous Windows version or if that doesn't work at least mark the EXE to run as administrator by default.
Related
I have application written on C++, and I want to be able to update it like Google Chrome does:
Silently download new version from server,
replace original files and
restart app.
I also want to replace exe file, that locked as it in use now.
Couldn't find any solution for this type of autoupdate.
Maybe wxWidgets have such tools?
Or maybe you know, how to do this?
Make 2 programs. Your primary application, and a launcher. The launcher is what people should click on to start your program, and it is responsible for starting the primary application, and then can shut itself down. If you need to update while the primary application is running, you can download the updated program to a separate file, along with any other files necessary. Then the primary application can launch the launcher and shut itself down. The launcher then is responsible for deleting the old program and renaming the new one, and relaunching it.
Actually, this doesn't even have to be two different programs. It can be the same program operating in two different modes (selected through command line arguments, for example). You still need 2 copies of the executable file on disk though. Note that this is precisely what Google Chrome does.
The theory is described in the comment above. In practice, you should have a look at WinSparkle.
Package your program as an MSI file (Windows installer). Then download your new msi file and launch it. Windows installer takes care of updating your program and you can author the installer to relaunch your app.
Take a look at http://wixtoolset.org/ for how to build your installer.
Basically, yesterday I could program in C++ and today I cannot.
I'm trying to write a simple hello world program in Eclipse Helios using the MinGW C/C++ compiler and I'm running into several problems, and I believe this one to be the root of it.
At first the program compiled and built, but when I tried to run it, an error dialogue said the FirstProject.exe file could not be found/does not exist in the launch configuration. However, I got no errors building and I could clearly see the binaries in Debug/FirstProject.exe in my project explorer. I tried refreshing my project explorer and alas, the file disappeared before my eyes.
I tried building the program again, and that's when I get this error:
c:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.6.1/../../../../mingw32/bin/ld.exe: final link failed: No space left on device
I don't know what device it's talking about. I have more than 1TB left on this hard drive, so it can't be that. I tried emptying my %Temp% folder and recycling bin (suggestions I found trying to search for a solution for this problem) but to no avail.
It may be worth noting that C++ programs I have written in the past are still running. I'm very new to programming, so I don't know how much information you need, but I'll gladly add anything you need if you think you can help me out.
I just solved this on one of the computers at work which had the same issue when compiling through Codelite. Moving workspaces, rebooting, and reinstalling Codelite didn't fix the problem. I also checked permissions on the /temp folder which were fine.
It turns out there were permission issues/other issues with the disk. Running a disk check fixed a few issues on the disk and that allowed the program to compile. If this doesn't solve your issue you may also want to try disabling any anti-virus/spyware programs and try again.
I just solved this problem on my PC. Actually what the problem in my case was that my windows defender (or any antivirus in someone's case) was blocking ld.exe from accessing the protected folder that is the source code folder. You can correct this by going into the Virus and threat protection settings of your PC and then find there for blocked history. You will definitely find there a history record of that blockage. Then just go and allow on this device it. And boom 😁
I have wrote a program which tries to write a file in C:\windows\ directory. I have tested the program in several PCs with winXP, win7 (64 & 32 bit).But when i install it in my client's PC it crashed with the message : TODO ( file description ) has stopped working
Please if anybudy knows any solution then reply me.
The solution is not to write to the C:\Windows folder. You're not working for the Microsoft Windows team.
It is quite awesome that you gave your client a "TODO:..." product? Please edit the version info to reflect your product name~
As for crash scenario:
Check if your application really needs Admin rights, if yes, start with "run as admin" and see it it solves the problem.
View the problem details in either "Stopped working dialog box", or in Windows event viewer. In both, you can see the exception code (like 0xC0000005) and the DLL name. For this you should enable PDB file generation by enabling /DEBUG flag in linker setting (this is not same as _DEBUG macro in compiler settings!).
Put some file-logging or message-boxing (temporary) and see till where program goes properly. Yes, you need to make few changes, build and give again to your client (and please no "TODO" as product name - be professional!).
There are a few possible causes, among them no write access(perhaps the user running the program does not have write access to C:\Windows folder. Try to manually create a file in that location.) or faulty programming.
In any case, you have a few things to try to figure out the problem. If debug is impossible you should put the sensible parts of the code in try catch blocks (for example the part where you write the file). And if error is caught you can output a message about the part where the error is. You should also include a logging solution and add logs in various places of the code. After you install the updated application, when you get an error, look up in the log file to see where the code stopped.
Is it possible you have UAC turned off, but your client doesn't? Or, would the client's user not have administrative rights? A user process would not be allowed to write to the c:\Windows folder. If that's the case, trying to create a file would throw an exception.
The proper place to create a data file would be:
Application Data under the user's folder, if the file is per user.
ProgramData (Win7) or Application Data under All Users (XP), if the file is per application (log or so).
Apart from the issue of permissions the first thing that will cause your application to crash like that is the runtimes not being installed on your client's PC. Does your install package install the MSVC runtimes? If not, have you installed the MSVC redistributable runtimes on that PC?
"I have wrote a program which tries to write a file in C:\windows\ directory. "
That's your problem right there. Don't do that.
I had to create an executable (using Borland C++ Builder 6) in place of a batch file for Windows 7, since permissions didn't allow ordinary users (non-admins) to run the necessary batch. We've got a number of different Windows 7 machines, some 64 bit and some 32, etc. The problem I'm running into is that the "Program Files" directory is hard coded in to the program, but it's not always the RIGHT program files directory, which leads to some errors on some machines.
I'm familiar the method for getting the program files dir from the registry, but I'm afraid this won't work on all machines because of permissions settings not allowing programs to access the registry. I've been searching high and low for a function like GetWindowsDirectory, but to no avail. Does ANYONE have any suggestions?
EDIT:
I've programmed this on a Windows XP Machine to simply be placed on Win7 (No way to change or avoid the XP/7 thing, crappy as that may be). It's a simple utility that needs no installation; it's just placed in a file. It just needs to go out and find the program files directory to perform some tasks.
This is first of all a deployment problem. You will have to copy/install your program to c:\program files (x86) on a 64-bit machine. You can simply use c:\program files in your code, Windows redirects it to the (x86) directory.
There is otherwise no easy cure for trying to bypass UAC. You'll have to embed a manifest in the executable to ask for admin privileges. The user gets the UAC prompt to let her know that you are going to be hacking the private parts. How to do this with such an old tool isn't obvious to me, you'll probably have to embed it in the .rc file. Or use a .manifest file.
How to get Program Files folder path (not Program Files (x86)) from 32bit WOW process?
Use SHGetFolderPath with CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES.
There's a newer version called SHGetKnownFolderPath if you're always on Windows Vista or later, but you might need to update your Platform SDK. If you're still using Borland C++ 6, I suspect your Platform SDK might be older. In that case, you should be able to use SHGetFolderPath.
after installing the software, go to :
C:\Program Files\Borland\CBuilder6\Bin
Right click on bcb.exe file, choose
Properties -> Compatibility
Select the option - Run this program mode Windows XP(Service Pack 3) and Privilege Level
then, select the option Run as administrator, and then click Apply.
This works for my problem.
On windows 7 x64, just create a junction point in "c:\Program Files" pointing to the actual folder where the installation is in "c:\Program Files(x86)". This should be done by the same user who installs the software. That should not only take care of your problem but also third party packages that would not otherwise work on Win 7 x64.
If you don't know what a junction point is, just read the help for mklink.
Gosh, this is so weird, I don't know what to say. The short version is that I have a simulator app which I spawn from my application when the user asks me to. It recently stopped working, though I can run the simulator fine from the command line or Start menu. This could be due to moving to VS2010 or Windows 7 or something I didn't notice reviewing source control diffs.
I have a second simulator which I try to spawn in the same fashion and it works fine.
By default, I'm using Qt3's QProcess wrapper around CreateProcess for this purpose, but I get the same behavior using system, my own CreateProcess, and ShellExecute.
ShellExecute of a cmd.exe "/c application params" does provide me with some more information however. I get the dialog
"The program can't start because MSVCR80.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem."
Inconveniently, both the parent application and the second simulator use MSVCR80.dll.
Upon copying MSVC*80.dll from g:\windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4927_none_d08a205e442db5b5 to the same directory as my executable, the error message changes to
"Runtime Error!
Program: g:\path\to\app.exe
R6034
An application has made an attempt to load the C runtime library incorrectly.
Please contact the application's support team for more information.
Followed by
The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142). Click OK to close the application.
And, once again, the application runs fine from the command line with those dlls in place.
Update:
I suspected perhaps it was environment related, so changed my ShellExecute mechanism to do cmd /c set && app params. I set up a cmd.exe with those same params and my app is now crashing similarly. Will update when I figure out why :)
It is MATLAB's component runtime tool that is modifying my process's PATH variable to bad effect. It is prepending its own dir full of dll's and wreaking havoc.
A foolish tool I was using did a setenv on PATH, prepending a directory it wanted for dynamically loading some dlls, but which messed up my application later. I ended up using GetEnvironmentStrings as shown in the last example here, erasing the first entry in the PATH env var, and sending the new (original) environment to QProcess, which wraps CreateProcessA.
You need to install the CRT
This may work - if it breaks, you get to keep both pieces :-)
Try installing VC++ redistributable from here - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=A5C84275-3B97-4AB7-A40D-3802B2AF5FC2&displaylang=en.
Remember to backup your system, create a restore point etc. before installing stuff.
Another idea -try reinstalling the failing appliacation itself. It may come with its own copy of VC++ redistributables, and reinstalling might help. Esp. trying to reinstall it using Windows 7's compability mode (perhaps go back to Vista or XP compatibility) might be even more effective.
To reiterate - you'll have to try, and I've no real idea if either of the above ideas will do you good, or even be sure to do no harm. That said, if I were faced with a similar problem, these are the steps I'd try. HTH!