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.
Related
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
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 want to make remote assistance like application, using Windows Desktop Sharing API.
MSDN Blog says,
What is the behavior when "Secure Desktop" pops up while sharing?
"Pause screen- Black screen with two bars(indicating pause) at lower right" is remoted when secure desktop (UAC prompts) is up on sharer's machine, when sharing process is run as a non-system process.
Yes, that is my problem. How to avoid black pause screen?
I read UAC Group Policy Settings and Registry Key Settings, and it seems the answer.
I have tried
* Set the Group policy "User Account Control: Allow UIAccess applications to prompt for elevation without using the secure desktop" -> ENABLED on both machines.
* Set Visual Studio's property "/uiAccess='true'" for the application.
* Make my own root certificate using "makecert", and install it. Also, make chained certificate for the application, and install it.
* Sign to the application using "signtool".
* Put the application under "Program Files" sub direcroty.
But still I see a black pause screen...
ADDITION
The MS Remote Assistance has a checkbox "Allow HELPER respond to User Account Control prompts", and it avoids black pause screen.
But I cannot find corresponding API or settings.
Does anyone know about this?
Reason: UAC is run in a different, privileged session (think of it as another user just logged in) which is not accessible from any screen-sharing program of the current user.
Solution: Disable UAC. There is no other way.
Problem
I am attempting to find a window object handle inside a remote terminal that is run though Citrix Remote with ZenApp. My problem is I can see the parent window of Citrix Remote but no children. I have tried WinSpy, WFP Inspector, and a few other API spy utilities; none of which could view the Citrix Remote properties.
Question
What can I do to view these objects though this remote terminal?
EXAMPLE
No utility will be able to see the window handles for an application run over Citrix. The application is running on the Citrix server. The Citrix remote client presents only an image of the screen on the the client application.
The window handles that you are looking for are on the Citrix server, not the client machine you are running from.
You'll never be able to get the window handles, as they don't exist; however, you may be able to use UI Automation to get the accessibility properties (name, position, etc.) Certainly this works for Windows Remote Desktop on Windows 8 & above; it may or may not work for Citrix. It's worth a try.
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.