Vista - User Account Control & Data in the Program Files Folder

We have one client that installed our Application in the default location in
the Program Files folder while UAC was enabled. With the UAC enabled, the
user entered in data into the application. Once the user disables UAC, and
opens up the application all the data entry they did is gone and the
application reverts back to an original state. Has anyone else seen this
behavior?

- Brian

Brian T wrote:
> We have one client that installed our Application in the default location in
> the Program Files folder while UAC was enabled. With the UAC enabled, the
> user entered in data into the application. Once the user disables UAC, and
> opens up the application all the data entry they did is gone and the
> application reverts back to an original state. Has anyone else seen this
> behavior?
>
> - Brian

Hello,

This happens when your application writes files/data to the program
files location, which standard users have never been allowed to do.

In vista, programs that do not need admin power always run as if a
standard user started them, so even if your program is being ran by an
administrator, it cannot write to program files.

In order to make your program work without admin power even though your
program assumes it has admin power, Vista tricks your program into
thinking it is writing to program files, while silently saving the data
to the virtual store (c:\users\username\appdata\local\virtualstore).
This is called virtualization.

If you turn UAC off, your program no longer sees files in the virtual
store, so any changes it thinks it has made to a virtualized location
such as program files will appear to disappear.

Here's a developer overview of UAC:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa905330.aspx

- JB