I'm trying to create a folder on network drive through windows application in C#.
The problem which I'm facing is that while the .exe is getting installed it opens up a window and asks for the network drive path. When I provide the path and click on "Ok" it doesn't create a folder. I checked it in the network drive that folder doesn't exist.
When the exe gets installed and I launch the application and this time if I provide a N/w drive path. It creates the folder with no problem.
Same window page gets opened both the time and the same code gets executed but at the time of installation it doesn't create folder on network drive.
I used System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(sFilePath) 'Create directory if doesn't exist.
I don't think it's related to permission because I'm able to create network folder through the application after the .exe gets installed successfully.
Any help would be highly appreciated.
Thanks
There is not much to go after here.
Are you accessing a mapped drive?
If you program is running under UAC with elevated privileges, then you will not have access to you mapped drives, in this case provide the full unc path.
Related
I am trying to create an updater which will replace the files in the folder without needing an installer. As part of this process, I need to be able to delete old files and replace them by new files. I tried it and got an UnAuthorizedException. I am runing the updater as administrator. I tried the following
a. Setting the file and folder attribute to Normal
[Access to the path is denied when trying to delete a certain directory
b. Taking ownership of the folder and files contained in it
[Taking ownership of a file or folder
c. Changing the permissions and giving all users full control over the folder and files [Using a custom action in the installer]
[How to give Read/Write permissions to a Folder during installation using .NET
d. Running the updater from a windows service
There is no difference in the results. I keep getting the access denied error. What do I do so that the updater can delete the files?
It's not clear exactly what you mean by "running as administrator", but being logged in as administrator and running a program does not mean that the program is running with elevated privilege, which is what it really needs. But clearly the updater program is not running elevated.
So the issue might be that this updater program of yours needs an elevation manifest so that when you run it, it will ask for elevation with a UAC prompt.
Having said that, simply replacing files that were installed with a Windows installer MSI is not supported. The files must be replaced with a Windows Installer update such as a patch .msp file or an upgraded MSI file. Windows Installer keeps track of every file installed, and it's version and whether it's been updated or not, as well as a filehash. Replacing a file without using Windows Installer can result in unexpected demands for the original MSI file in order that Windows can restore the files to their original installed state. You might find that going to Programs&Features (or right-clicking the MSI file) and choosing repair will also restore them.
I'd just need to detect the installation folder from a C# application so that I can open it. I guess that information is stored in a config file or registry setting.
Thanks a lot.
I am using C# with .net 3.5
I am saving my program data in a file under: C:\Program Data\MyProgramName\fileName.xml
After installing and running my application one time I uninstalled it (during uninstallation I'm removing all the files from "program data")
and then I reinstall the application, and ran it.
The strange thig is that my application started as if the files in program data existed - means, I had old data in my app even though the data file was deleted.
When running:
File.Exists("C:\Program Data\MyProgramName\fileName.xml")
I got "true" even though I knew for sure that the file does not exist.
The thing became stranger when I ran the application as admin and then the file didn't exist.
After a research, I found out that when running my application with no admin priviliges instead of getting: "C:\Program Data\MyProgramName\fileName.xml" I get "C:\Users\userName\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\ProgramData\MyProgramName\fileName.xml"
and indeed there was a file that existed from the previous installation (that I obviously didn't delete ,because I didn't know it existed).
So apparentlly there is some virtual path to the file under program data.
EDIT :
I found out that after deleting the old file in the virtual store, my application is suddenly able to find the correct file. (I didn't make any changes in the file under Program Data.
My question is:
why is it happen.
How can I prevent it from happening
Thanks in advance
Do you actually have to write to the per-system Program Data folder instead of the per-user Application Data folder(s)?
You might want to take a look at Environment.GetFolderPath and the following Environment.SpecialFolders:
Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData - data folder for application data, synchronized onto domain controller if the user profile is roaming
Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData - data folder for application data, local and not synchronized (useful for, for instance, caches)
EDIT:
Tested on Windows 7 x64, non-administrator user.
var appData = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData);
var myFolder = Path.Combine(appData, "MyApp");
if(!Directory.Exists(myFolder)) Directory.CreateDirectory(myFolder);
File.WriteAllText(Path.Combine(myFolder, "Test.txt"), "Test.");
This does what is expected, ie. writes into C:\ProgramData\MyApp\Test.txt. As far as I can tell (Administrator mode Command Prompt), there's no UAC virtualization going on either.
Double edit:
I guess what's happened is that at some point an Administrator user has written the files into your ProgramData folder, and as such, UAC file system virtualization kicks in and redirects the non-administrator writes into the VirtualStore.
Does your uninstaller run as Administrator? If it does, you might have to check both the VirtualStore path for the user who initiates the uninstall, and the actual file system path for program data to remove. I'm not sure if there's an official way to do this, though...
I found the reason for the bug.
the application is trying to take ownership on the file and then the other file is created.
I removed that line and now everything works just fine.
When I publish a program for ftp server (for example ftp://site.com/www/myprog/) and indicates that the user will download from the address http://site.com/myprog/). At first all goes well: in the folder "myprog" lies files of my program and setup.exe. But when the user launch setup.exe there is a error, because it tries to load myprog.application from site.com NOT from site.com/myprog.
The problem is that you actually have to specify in the ClickOnce manifest where the file is located. ClickOnce doesn't assume that the deploy location is where the app should be pulled from. Try verifying the locations in the "Publish" tab of the project's properties screen. Is everything kosher?
In my project I have to create some files and directories into my app folder which is into program files. But in vista it is giving me error that I dont have access to create file.
What should I do now for giving access ? Also it not let me access the registry !!
The program folder is not the place to store application data. There is an %APPDATA% folder for that - you are supposed to store your data there.
Use System.Environment.SpecialFolder and System.Environment.GetFolderPath to obtain the path leading to the correct directory.
Also, you need to differentiate between just creating a folder and putting some files in there (for example during installation) or writing to the program folder at runtime, while typically running under a limited account.
The reason for this difference is simply that installation routines and setups run with elevated privileges under Vista / Windows 7, thus those are allowed to create folders and files there. Still, those files are not supposed to be written to at runtime of your application.
So, what is it you want to do? Write data at runtime, or put some files (i.e. dependencies) in your application folder at a single time? If it's the first, comply with the rules and use the %APPDATA% folder. If it's the second, create an installer / setup routine.
Vista and Win 7 have the Program Files folder locked down so you can't write to it with a basic user account. If you need to create folders there, then you should do it in the installer. Otherwise you can use the user's Application Data folder in their profile.
The only other way is to modify the permissions on the installation folder at install time.
Can you turn the UAC off? Or Login as administrator? The chances are that you are creating the folder in the wrong place.