Re: Registry rights under Vista

"DavidW" <> wrote in message
newscV8l.125866$...
> Hello,
>
> I am a developer. What parts of the Windows registry are writable and
> readable under an Standard User account? I assume that branches off
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software are okay, but I need to be able to make changes
> for all users. If this can only be done under an Adminstrator account I
> still have a problem. I can create a key under
> HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software in Regedit in an Administrator account, but I
> get an access violation when I try to create it by calling RegCreateKeyEx
> from within my application. Is this the right location in the registry for
> all-user information, and, if so, how do I write to it from within an
> application?
>

Your question applies to much more than Vista. Non-admin users haven't been
able to edit other user or machine registry data since Windows 2000.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms995853.aspx

The only difference in Vista is that by default, unelevated admin users
can't either.
http://www.kinook.com/blog/?p=40

You might want to rethink whether you really have to do it, but if you must
modify the registry for all users, during installation (require admin
rights), you could make a subkey of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE editable by all
users.

--
---------------------
Kyle Alons
http://www.kinook.com

DavidW wrote:
> Kyle Alons wrote:
>> "DavidW" <> wrote in message
>> newscV8l.125866$...
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I am a developer. What parts of the Windows registry are writable
>>> and readable under an Standard User account? I assume that branches
>>> off HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software are okay, but I need to be able to
>>> make changes for all users. If this can only be done under an
>>> Adminstrator account I still have a problem. I can create a key
>>> under HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software in Regedit in an Administrator
>>> account, but I get an access violation when I try to create it by
>>> calling RegCreateKeyEx from within my application. Is this the right
>>> location in the registry for all-user information, and, if so, how
>>> do I write to it from within an application?
>>>
>>
>> Your question applies to much more than Vista. Non-admin users
>> haven't been able to edit other user or machine registry data since
>> Windows 2000. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms995853.aspx
>
> I know, but the difference with Vista is that the RegCreateKeyEx call
> fails even for an administrator. It works in XP.
>
>> The only difference in Vista is that by default, unelevated admin
>> users can't either.
>> http://www.kinook.com/blog/?p=40
>
> And that appears to be what's killing me. I don't get an elevation
> prompt either. The call just fails with "Access denied".

Ahh, here is your problem AND how we are going to fix it. The elevation
prompt isn't triggered by behavior that requires elevation. It is triggered
by the file name or the manifest embedded in the executable. Google for
runAsInvoker vs runAsAdmin. Once you mark your program runAsAdmin then the
elevation prompt will appear and RegCreateKeyEx will succeed.