Application Manifests

Might be useful to check a manifest has taken effect:

By default applications without manifests on Windows 8 (and 7) will run in the Operating System context for Windows Vista


You can use Task Manager to see the context by adding the column "Operating System Context", and also "UAC virtualization" to determine if a 32-bit process has UAC virtualisation enabled.  Note that 64-bit processes cannot be UAC virtualised.


For 32-bit processes, by default, UAC virtualisation will be on. As soon as a manifest is added with requestedExecutionLevel set then UAC virtualisation for that process is disabled.


<requestedExecutionLevel
level="asInvoker|highestAvailable|requireAdministrator"
uiAccess="true|false"/>

Some other templates and utilities relating to manifests courtesy of Darwin Sanoy of CSI-Windows.com can be found here:  http://csi-windows.com/toolkit/manifestutils.  He notes that you can override external manifests over an internal manifest (embedded inside an executable)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AppUserModelID & Disappearing Shortcuts in Windows 8

Image
If you have a package which contains multiple shortcuts to the same executable (but different arguments), then you'll most likely find that most of the shortcuts (except one) will be hidden from the Windows 8 Start Screen, and won't even appear under "All Apps".  This package is authored correctly and fully ICE validated.  This package creates 10 shortcuts, yet only one of the shortcuts which has a target of "Loader32.exe" is showing.  Take a look at the screenshot of the relevant program group as showin in the Windows 8 Start Screen Below. All the rest of the shortcuts that have the same target of "Loader32.exe" are hidden.  This is evident, if I right click any of the three shortcuts above and click on "Open File Location" to reveal the path of where the shortcut physically exists.  See the Windows Explorer (aka File Explorer as it's now called in Windows 8)  screenshot below: The issue is to do with needin
Read more

Sideloading Universal Windows Apps on Windows 10 (Deep Dive)

Image
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/application-management/sideload-apps-in-windows-10  Obtain publisher certificate and install to Trusted Root Authorities  Enable sideloading via GPO  Deploy application via SCCM or powershell Note:If the appx requires VCLibs 120.00 package (Visual C++ 2013 for 8.1 universal apps), then you will encounter problems installing the package on Windows 10. VCLibs.120 was the latest available version as of today, and the Visual C++ download site specifically lists it for Windows 8.1 https://support.microsoft.com/en-nz/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads If you open the VCLib appx package in 7zip, you'll see an AppXManifest.xml file, which specifies the OS Max version tested.   In Diligent's case, it looks like: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <Package xmlns=" http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/2010/manifest">   <Identity Name="Micro
Read more

An alternative method of installing device drivers

Image
Basically, as an alternative to install a device driver using the DifxApp merge module (with Windows Installer), you can stage the device driver into the driver store in Windows 7 & 8 using a native utility called " pnputil .exe".  This is IDEAL for situations where you're using non MSI packaging methods and application virtualisation technologies. i.e. Apps that require a device driver, which should make virtualisation possible if you script the pre-launch logic to install the device driver physically .  Even though the files contained within the virtualised package are virtual, once they are staged into the virtual store, the drivers become physically part of it. For instance, in App-V 5, you could use a StartVirtualEnvironment event action.  For Symantec SWV packages, this would be achieved via the OnPostActivate action. What is the Driver Store ? http://technet.microsoft.com/ en-us/library/cc731478.aspx The driver store is exactly what the name sugges
Read more