Run as administrator: requireAdministrator & ClickOnce + emulating system time

Question

My app uses ClickOnce tehcnology. Today I needed to run it as administrator. I modified the manifest file from

<requestedExecutionLevel  level="asInvoker" uiAccess="false" />

to

<requestedExecutionLevel  level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false" />

However VS cannot compile the project:

Error 35 ClickOnce does not support the request execution level 'requireAdministrator'.

I think it's impossible to use them at once. Isn't it? I need to change the system time, can I do that in application level? Can I emulate it, so app. can do what I want. I change time +2 hours then put back for a second. I got a few dlls and they ask for time.

Answer 1

Actually You can't run ClickOnce application with Administrative privileges but there is a little hack, you can start new process with Administrator privileges. In App_Startup:

if (!IsRunAsAdministrator())
{
  var processInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase);

  // The following properties run the new process as administrator
  processInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
  processInfo.Verb = "runas";

  // Start the new process
  try
  {
    Process.Start(processInfo);
  }
  catch (Exception)
  {
    // The user did not allow the application to run as administrator
    MessageBox.Show("Sorry, this application must be run as Administrator.");
  }

  // Shut down the current process
  Application.Current.Shutdown();
}

private bool IsRunAsAdministrator()
{
  var wi = WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent();
  var wp = new WindowsPrincipal(wi);

  return wp.IsInRole(WindowsBuiltInRole.Administrator);
}

Read full article.

But if you want more native and easier solution just ask a user to run Internet Explorer as administrator, ClickOnce tool also will run with admin rights.