.NET Start Process with higher rights

Question

I am trying to execute a program with admin rights through a C# application, which gets invoked with user rights only.

Code

        ProcessStartInfo psi;
        try
        {
            psi = new ProcessStartInfo(@"WINZIP32.EXE");

            psi.UseShellExecute = false;
            SecureString pw = new SecureString();
            pw.AppendChar('p');
            pw.AppendChar('a');
            pw.AppendChar('s');
            pw.AppendChar('s');   
            pw.AppendChar('w');
            pw.AppendChar('o');
            pw.AppendChar('r');
            pw.AppendChar('d');
            psi.Password = pw;
            psi.UserName = "administrator";

            Process.Start(psi);
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
        }

It does start winzip, but only with user rights. Is there something I am doing wrong or is it even possible to start a process with higher rights?

thank you!

Edit: Here is the reason behind the question, maybe it helps to understand what i actually need.

I used winzip for example to get a general idea what's incorrect with my code. The actual problem is, our company uses 2 versions of a program. But before you start any of the versions you need to import a dll file with regsvr32 (with admin rights). Now I would like to write a program that let the user select the version, import the dll and starts the correct application.

Answer 1

You need to set ProcessStartInfo.UseShellExecute to true and ProcessStartInfo.Verb to runas:

Process process = null;
ProcessStartInfo processStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();

processStartInfo.FileName = "WINZIP32.EXE";

processStartInfo.Verb = "runas";
processStartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Normal;
processStartInfo.UseShellExecute = true;

process = Process.Start(processStartInfo);

This will cause the application to run as the administrator. UAC will however prompt the user to confirm. If this is not desirable then you'll need to add a manifest to permanently elevate the host process privilages.