Drag&Drop won't work, when app executed "Run as administrator"

Question

Hi all,

I am developing some applications (Windows Forms application) with VB.net.
Some of them need Drag&Drop operation.
D&D can work when executed as normal user. But D&D won't work when it is "run as Administrator".

With Visual Studio,  these lines are in "app.manifest".
  <requestedPrivileges xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
    <requestedExecutionLevel  level="asInvoker" uiAccess="false" />
  </requestedPrivileges>. 
With the above description, D&D does work fine.

On the other hand, D&D won't work with the below.
    <requestedExecutionLevel  level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false" />
     (instead of [level="asInvoker"])

What or How should I do in order to make an app that has Drag&Drop feature and "run as administrator"?

Best regards,
Ashidacchi

Answer 1

What or How should I do in order to make an app that has Drag&Drop feature and "run as administrator"?

With that change you are running the app at a different privilege level than the drag and drop source. See here for a full description:

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/patricka/2010/01/28/q-why-doesnt-drag-and-drop-work-when-my-application-is-running-elevated-a-mandatory-integrity-control-and-uipi/

Answer 2

Hi Acamar,

Thank you for your quick reply/suggestion.

The reason why I intended to make my application higher privileged is:
When it is installed in such folder as required Admin privilege like "C:\Program Files", I could not save a file in that folder.  So, I wanted to run my app as administrator.

I think it is better to run as normal privilege (it enables Drag&Drop) and to give it higher privilege only when a file is saved. Alas, I do not know how.

I will try to think about the better way.Thanks again. 

Answer 3

The reason why I intended to make my application higher privileged is:
When it is installed in such folder as required Admin privilege like "C:\Program Files", I could not save a file in that folder.

In that case the best solution is to run your app at the lower privilege level, and save you data to a folder which is not secured.  The best choice for application-specific data is the applicationdata special folder. You can reference it using the environment.specialfolder enumeration, so there is no need to know the actual folder name.  See:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.environment.specialfolder(v=vs.110).aspx 

Answer 4

In that case the best solution is to run your app at the lower privilege level, and save you data to a folder which is not secured.  The best choice for application-specific data is the applicationdata special folder.  

Hello Acamar,

I can understand your suggestion (the best solution is...), and I will follow it.

Thank you, again.

Best regards,
Ashidacchi