[c#] Elevating process privilege programmatically?

I'm trying to install a service using InstallUtil.exe but invoked through Process.Start. Here's the code:

ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo (m_strInstallUtil, strExePath);
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start (startInfo);

where m_strInstallUtil is the fully qualified path and exe to "InstallUtil.exe" and strExePath is the fully qualified path/name to my service.

Running the command line syntax from an elevated command prompt works; running from my app (using the above code) does not. I assume I'm dealing with some process elevation issue, so how would I run my process in an elevated state? Do I need to look at ShellExecute for this?

This is all on Windows Vista. I am running the process in the VS2008 debugger elevated to admin privilege.

I also tried setting startInfo.Verb = "runas"; but it didn't seem to solve the problem.

According to the article Chris Corio: Teach Your Apps To Play Nicely With Windows Vista User Account Control, MSDN Magazine, Jan. 2007, only ShellExecute checks the embedded manifest and prompts the user for elevation if needed, while CreateProcess and other APIs don't. Hope it helps.

See also: same article as .chm.

This code puts the above all together and restarts the current wpf app with admin privs:

if (IsAdministrator() == false)
{
    // Restart program and run as admin
    var exeName = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainModule.FileName;
    ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(exeName);
    startInfo.Verb = "runas";
    System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(startInfo);
    Application.Current.Shutdown();
    return;
}

private static bool IsAdministrator()
{
    WindowsIdentity identity = WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent();
    WindowsPrincipal principal = new WindowsPrincipal(identity);
    return principal.IsInRole(WindowsBuiltInRole.Administrator);
}


// To run as admin, alter exe manifest file after building.
// Or create shortcut with "as admin" checked.
// Or ShellExecute(C# Process.Start) can elevate - use verb "runas".
// Or an elevate vbs script can launch programs as admin.
// (does not work: "runas /user:admin" from cmd-line prompts for admin pass)

Update: The app manifest way is preferred:

Right click project in visual studio, add, new application manifest file, change the file so you have requireAdministrator set as shown in the above.

A problem with the original way: If you put the restart code in app.xaml.cs OnStartup, it still may start the main window briefly even though Shutdown was called. My main window blew up if app.xaml.cs init was not run and in certain race conditions it would do this.

You should use Impersonation to elevate the state.

WindowsIdentity identity = new WindowsIdentity(accessToken);
WindowsImpersonationContext context = identity.Impersonate();

Don't forget to undo the impersonated context when you are done.

[PrincipalPermission(SecurityAction.Demand, Role = @"BUILTIN\Administrators")]

This will do it without UAC - no need to start a new process. If the running user is member of Admin group as for my case.

According to the article Chris Corio: Teach Your Apps To Play Nicely With Windows Vista User Account Control, MSDN Magazine, Jan. 2007, only ShellExecute checks the embedded manifest and prompts the user for elevation if needed, while CreateProcess and other APIs don't. Hope it helps.

See also: same article as .chm.