Question

I have an application that is installed on Vista PC’s by a user with elevated user rights (and administrator via UAC elevation prompt).

The installer writes some files to a folder in the %APPDATA% folder.

When the user (without elevated user rights) run the application, the files (and created folders) in the shared %APPDATA% (c:\ProgramData in Vista) not Accessible.

The files are written by a 3rd party component. If the component is used without elevated user rights, the files er accessible (and writable).

I have tried to change the access rights the files are written without luck.

Is there a way to make the files default access right full control for everyone?

Answer 1

I solved the problem by creating a subfolder i c:\ProgramData, using the approach described here

bool modified;
DirectoryInfo directoryInfo = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData), "MyFolder");
DirectorySecurity directorySecurity = directoryInfo.GetAccessControl();
FileSystemAccessRule rule = new FileSystemAccessRule(
    securityIdentifier,
    FileSystemRights.Write |
    FileSystemRights.ReadAndExecute |
    FileSystemRights.Modify,
    InheritanceFlags.ContainerInherit |
    InheritanceFlags.ObjectInherit,
    PropagationFlags.InheritOnly,
    AccessControlType.Allow);
directorySecurity.ModifyAccessRule(AccessControlModification.Add, rule, out modified);
directoryInfo.SetAccessControl(directorySecurity);

Rules are inherited by subfolders and files. All files and folders created in “MyFolder” is writable to Users group.