How to determine whether program was launched as administrator or not?

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I have a program which use ini file. That file should be in C:/Windows - so I use GetPrivateProfileString api function with last parameter set to 'myfile.ini' (without full path because: "The name of the initialization file. If this parameter does not contain a full path to the file, the system searches for the file in the Windows directory. "

But I have a problem, because function sometimes reads from main Window, sometimes from VirtualStore.. I think it depends on how I run application (as admin or not) - but I'm not sure.

I want to have this ini file in Windows dir and makes it works every time (on Windows Vista and 7) - is it possible? Or I have to save that ini file somewhere else ?

Thanks for your help,

Posted 10-Jan-12 23:58pm

mnd017

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Jochen Arndt · Answer 1 · 2012-01-11T00:23:00

Solution 1

Consider using the registry rather than using an INI file. Writing files to Windows system directories should be avoided (and requires Administrator or Power User privileges).

Posted 11-Jan-12 0:23am

Jochen Arndt

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mnd017 11-Jan-12 6:33am

Thanks, but I really need to use ini files. Is there any api function which determine whether program was launched as administrator?

Jochen Arndt 11-Jan-12 6:41am

There should be a way to determine this, but I don't know it. Another option would be to store the INI file in an app specific subdirectory of the common application data folder (use ::SHGetFolderPath with CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA to determine the path).

Jochen Arndt 11-Jan-12 6:56am

I just remembered that I have done such determination:
- Get a SID from AllocateAndInitializeSid() with SECURITY_BUILTIN_DOMAIN_RID and DOMAIN_ALIAS_RID_ADMINS
- Use CheckTokenMembership() with handle NULL to check wether the current threads impersonation token matches the SID.

mnd017 11-Jan-12 7:52am

Thanks, w will try that in a moment