Unauthorized access exception in Windows 7

Question

I have an application that reads a license file when it starts. My installation creates a folder in the Program Files for the application, creates a folder with a license and places the license file there. However, when I try to run the application, it needs to read / update the license file. When I try to do this, I get an "unauthorized access exception". I am registered as an administrator and I run the program manually.

Any idea why I cannot access this file, even if the path is correct? But in the installation, it creates a file and a folder just fine?

I have MyApplication.exe, and my license reader is in a separate DLL called MyApplicationTools. I read / write the license file as follows:

//Read StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(path + "license.lic"); //Write StreamWriter writer2 = new StreamWriter(path + "License.lic"); string str = Convert.ToBase64String(sharedkey.Key); writer2.WriteLine(str); writer2.Close(); 

thanks

Answer 1

Due to UAC, your program does not receive administrative privileges.

Right-click the program, select "Run as administrator" and try again.
You can also create a manifest that tells Windows that it always starts as an administrator .
However, you should consider placing the license file in the AppData user folder, which does not require administrative rights.

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By the way, you should use the Path.Combine method to create paths.
Also, if you just want to write one line to a file, you should call File.WriteAllText .
For instance:

 File.WriteAllText(Path.Combine(path, "License.lic"), Convert.ToBase64String(sharedkey.Key)); 

Answer 2

Use AppData instead. There is an environment variable for this. You can see this by going to Explorer and typing% appdata%. It will take you to the appropriate folder. To access this in C #, I wrote the following function.

  /// <summary> /// Gets the path where we store Application Data. /// </summary> /// <returns>The Application Data path</returns> public static string GetAppDataPath() { string dir = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData); dir = System.IO.Path.Combine(dir, "MyCompany\\MyApplication"); System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(dir); return dir; } 

Answer 3

You need to put files with write access to the user's application folder - Program Files is not writable by ordinary users. Iirc, in Win7, the default is C: \ Users \ [username] \ AppData \ [appname]. You should not run as an administrator to write to Program Files.