I have created a .msi by using VS2008 setup project. My application frequently writes some value in a .txt file in the application directory (C:\Program Files\MyApp\MyFile.txt). After insalling it in Win7, it raises an exception "Access to the path .... is denied."
But whenever I run it as administrator, no such exception occurs. Here is my sscce
string FilePath=Application.StartupPath + #"\AppSettings\CurrentUserName.inf";
using (StreamWriter writer=new StreamWriter(FilePath,false))
{
writer.Write(txtLoginName.Text.Trim());
}
MainForm.ProcessLogIn();
this.DialogResult = DialogResult.OK;
I don't know how to solve this problem. Any suggestion?
Move your file out of Program Files directory. In Win7 is readonly for normal users.
You could move the file in the ProgramData directory.
Your installer should create a directory for your application there.
Then inside your code you could retrieve the correct full pathname using these lines of code
string dataPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData));
string appFile = Path.Combine(dataPath, "MyAppDir", "MyFile.txt");
usually (on Win7) this result in a path like this
c:\programdata\MyAppDir\MyFile.txt
but using the SpecialFolder enum you are guaranteed to use a folder available in readwrite to your application not depending on the current operating system.
The only way to solve this problem is to not write to that folder. You are not allowed to write to that folder by convention, unfortunately, older versions of Windows did not hold you to this.
Instead, you can use Environment.SpecialFolder to help you find where you need to go:
// your application data for just that User running the app
var perUserAppData = Environment.GetFolderPath(
Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData);
// your application data for ALL users running the app
var allUsersAppData = Environment.GetFolderPath(
Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData);
// better!
var path = Path.Combine(perUserAppData, #"MyApp\MyFile.txt");
Basically, Windows 7 is telling you that you're going to have to stop driving on the sidewalks and use the street as was intended.
As a short-term fix, you can use ICACLS to grant write access to the file. Note: NOT the whole directory.
As a longer term fix, you should NOT write to the program directory if you are running as unprivileged users, but instead somewhere like %LOCALAPPDATA% or %APPDATA%.
Related
I have this code that creates, check the existence, deletes, etc a file:
string _myFilePath = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData), "MyFile.txt");
Debug.Print(_myFilePath);// C:\Users\leode\AppData\Local\MyFile.txt
Debug.Print(File.Exists(_myFilePath).ToString());// False
File.Create(_myFilePath).Close();
Debug.Print(File.Exists(_myFilePath).ToString());// True
File.Delete(_myFilePath);
Debug.Print(File.Exists(_myFilePath).ToString());// False
When I run it, the file is not created in LocalApplicationData directory (in my case "C:\Users\userName\AppData\Local\"), but in a different subdirectory that I found doing a search with the windows file explorer (in my case this subfolder was "C:\Users\userName\AppData\Local\Packages\F0C6F5FC-4B4B-478D-958D-BAD69252637E_9zz4h110yvjzm\LocalCache\Local").
The program runs correctly, but How can I get this real directory where File.Create(), File.Exists() and File.Delete() are interacting with "MyFile.txt"?
Here is the answer, in a Microsoft Learn course.
You can access the sandbox using the AppDataDirectory static property of the FileSystem class:
string path = FileSystem.AppDataDirectory;
Example. FileSystem.AppDataDirectory returns
"C:\Users\{UserName}\AppData\Local\Packages\8BD0CA74-EE25-4D2F-8CF1-FCA28BBCD548_9zz4h110yvjzm\LocalState"
This is the right place to store local data in a device.
I have a code which is similar this:
string file;
using (StreamReader r = new StreamReader("xml.xml"))
{
file = r.ReadToEnd();
}
XElement xml = XElement.Parse(file);
using (XmlWriter w = XmlWriter.Create("xml.xml")) //The point of problem!
{
w.WriteStartDocument();
...;
w.WriteEndDocument();
}
When I try run it like a console application is everything all right. But problems start when I want to use it in an ASP.NET application. At the using line it throws UnauthorizedAccessException exception with a description "access to the path is denied". Why?
You need to check which account your application Pool is using to access your server files/folders, for example, make one code to copy one file to application folder, check all security info, copy and paste on this problem folder, normally use this account "IIS_IURRS" give full control to test only...
If IIS/the web server is configured correctly, an account with a very limited set of permissions is used. As your path points to the application directory, it is very likely that the application pool account is not allowed to write to this location.
If you run the code in a console application, your user's permissions are applied and it is more than likely that you are allowed to write to the output folder of the project as Visual Studio writes the build output there under your account.
I would not recommend to change the application pool account or the permissions of the application folder in the file system - it is a very sensible limitation that limits the amount of trouble an attacker can possibly make.
Therefore I'd recommend to either move the file to a folder that the account can write to without changing permissions or define a special one outside of the application folder hierarchy that the account is given permissions to.
Also keep in mind that multiple users might access the file at the same time, so a database might be a better choice to store the data.
I have a strange problem: my .NET 4.0 WPF application is saving data to the ApplicationData folder.
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData) + "\\myProgram\\";
99.9% of the cases are working great, but on some computers it returns the wrong folder - instead of returning the user folder it returns another folder:
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\myProgram\ --correct
C:\Users\s\AppData\Roaming\myProgram\ --wrong
The wrong folder has no write/read permission so my program doesn't work.
It seems the program is running under a different user, but if I check the Task Manager the user is the logged one.
The problem seems to be occurring with domain users with few permissions.
Do you also create a text file to write?
If so save a file such as:
String path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData);
var filePath = Path.Combine(path, "filetowrite.log"); // Handles whether there is a `\` or not.
if (File.Exists(filePath))
{
......................
}
Note also before doing any file operations, one should check if directory exists.
What I am trying to do is read data from a CSV file located within a Windows application folder named "Attachments". In a web application you can get the path of the folder using
Server.MapPath(#"Attachments/sample.csv");
What is the equivalent call from a Windows application?
Below is my code.
string[] str = File.ReadAllLines(#"Attachment/sample.csv");
// create new datatable
DataTable dt = new DataTable();
// get the column header means first line
string[] temp = str[0].Split(';');
// creates columns of gridview as per the header name
foreach (string t in temp)
{
dt.Columns.Add(t, typeof(string));
}
Is the path relative to the executable? If so you can use Application.StartupPath to determine where the program was started, and then combine that with the relative file path to get the full path:
var fullPath = Path.Combine(Application.StartupPath, #"Attachment\sample.csv");
If your app is running as a service or uses ClickOnce deployment this won't work, though.
The Windows Application Folder could be identified by this enum
Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles
MSDN refs
To get a string containing the actual path and the full file name you write
string pathToFile = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles);
string fullFileName = Path.Combine(pathToFile, #"Attachment\sample.csv");
As noted by Cole Johnson in its comment, there is a problem if your hosting operating system is 64bit. In that case there are two application folders. One for 64bit apps and one for 32bit apps.
Using NET4, you could discover the current operating system bitness with the property
Environment.Is64BitOperatingSystem
and, if false, use a different enum
Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFilesX86
But after all this, I think you should change something in the architecture of your program.
In Web applications, usually you do not use folders outside the web-root.
But WinForms application has no such limitation and then you may install the CSV files in a different folder (MyDocuments comes to mind) and control the actual location on your hard disk via an option in the configuration file
REMEMBER: The Application Folder requires particular permission to write in (If you save your attachments there this is another reason to choose a different location than the Application Folder)
You can do this with So something like
Path.Combine(Application.StartupPath, #"Attachment\sample.csv");
Steve beat me to it but yeah, check intellisense for whatever folder you're looking for under :
string path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.
properties
You'll find all kinds of system paths there.
I have had some problems earlier which caused my program to crash in all Windows OS because I did not create a new file/directory for my file. Then I have assured that I have created file/folder before initializing ect. Now my program works in Windows XP but it doesn't work in Windows 7. By saying that it works I mean that it creates a file/folder needed for my program. By not working I mean that the file/folder isn't created in windows 7.
Could this code be the cause of the crash under Windows 7? If so, how could I fix it?
private static string dir = Environment.GetFolderPath
(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles) + #"\folder\";
private static string file = dir + #"\Settings.txt";
private string text;
public void CheckFileStatus()
{
if (!Directory.Exists(dir))
{
DirectoryInfo directory = Directory.CreateDirectory(dir);
}
if (!File.Exists(file))
{
using (FileStream fileStream = File.Create(file))
{
}
}
}
The program files directory in Windows 7 can only be written to with elevated privileges. Are you running your code as an administrator? It's also bad practice to write to the program files folder. You should be using the %appdata% folder.
Take a look here to see the various special folders. You will likely want to use either System.Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData or System.Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData. This will allow you to write data without needing elevated privileges.
You cannot create folders in Program Files without being having elevated privileges (ie acting as an Administrator) on Windows Vista and Windows 7. There are generally better places to put settings files that should be writable by any user.
Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData or Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData is generally the place for user specific application data which is most likely what you want.
The difference being that in a domain, ApplicationData will be placed in your roaming profile and be shared between computers on the domain, while LocalApplicationData is for that very machine only.
For home users or if you don't specifically want the data to be shared between machines, probably LocalApplicationData is better. That way you know it won't cause problems on a domain if you end up writing computer specific data in it.
There is also Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData which allows for sharing the same data between all users on the computer, but while that may seem convenient, consider that any user on the machine can then change settings of a program that is later run by you which may cause security implications.