Adding a UAC Manifest to Managed Code

The UAC feature of Vista is one of my favorite new features -- it really makes running as a non-admin much less painful than it has been in the past.  One of the requirements that UAC puts on developers is that we must mark our applications with manifests which declare if the application would like to run elevated or not.  Documentation for this manifest format can be found on MSDN, where you can find the schema and information about what the various settings mean.

If you'd like to add one of these manifests to your managed application, the steps are relatively straight forward:

1. Create a manifest resource
2. Compile the resource
3. Embed it in your application

1. Create a manifest resource

The first step is to create a resource file containing your manifest.  The manifest should be of type RT_MANIFEST, and have id 1 for an exe (id 2 for a dll).  For instance, the resource script for an exe that does not need to elevate might be saved in UacManifest.rc and look like this:

#include <winuser.h>
#define IDR_MANIFEST 1 // 2 for a DLL

IDR_MANIFEST RT_MANIFEST MOVEABLE PURE
{
    "<assembly xmlns=""urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"" manifestVersion=""1.0"">
       <asmv3:trustInfo xmlns:asmv3=""urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3"">
         <asmv3:security>
           <asmv3:requestedPrivileges>
             <asmv3:requestedExecutionLevel
               level=""asInvoker""
               uiAccess=""false"" />
           </asmv3:requestedPrivileges>
         </asmv3:security>
       </asmv3:trustInfo>
     </assembly>"
}

2. Compile the resource

You'll need to install the Platform SDK for this step so that you have access to the rc tool and the winuser.h header.  Once you've gotten the SDK setup, you can then compile your resource script into a .res file:

C:\src\App>rc.exe UacManifest.rc

Which will create a UacManifest.res for you.

3. Embed it in your application

Now that you've compiled your .res file, you can pass it to your managed compiler when building your application to embed in your exe.  The exact switch will vary depending on your compiler:

You can also select the resource file in the project properties in Visual Studio.