UAC and Virtual Store during installation

[Guest]

Hello,

I understand that the virtual store feature redirects requests to folders
outside key system areas when a user uses a program and doesn't have admin
privileges. So far so good.

QUESTION: What happens in terms of folder redirection to virtual stores
during the setup process of an application? Most setups have to be run as
administrator.... I installed an application of mine and was confused that
this app was able to write files to c:\windows and c:\windows\system32. I saw
it during setup, I verified those files being in these folders after setup -
and they were not redirected.

Does this virtual store thing only work until AFTER the apps are installed?
Wouldn't that mean that some sluggish application's files could still mess up
some key OS files and cause instabilities or the OS to fail altogether?

Thanks.

 

[Kerry Brown]

While running as administrator a program can write to protected system
areas. When installing a program you may need administrator privileges.
Files that all users need to read and/or execute have to be stored somewhere
that all users can read. Where the problem lays is if you store files that a
user needs to modify in these protected areas. When you try to do this is
when the virtual store kicks in. If you use Run as administrator to run the
program then the program can do whatever it wants. If you don't use Run as
administrator then the virtual store may be used. If your program needs to
have files that can modified by all users then you have to find a spot to do
this. Check out the MSDN articles for programming for Vista. Here's a good
starting point.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/aa904977.aspx