Program files access rights Problem in Windows 7

Problem Context

While dealing with windows application setups which will be normally installed in Program Files folder, will be facing user rights issue (read only problem) on the database files inside application folder.

This problem is due to the user folder permissions change in Windows Vista and Windows 7.  So the application which was working fine earlier in Windows XP seems to create problems in the above operating systems.  The problem will be visible even though the installer uses administrative rights while installing the application.

Example

If your application is installed in c:\Program Files\Winapp and the log file inside it will be facing access rights issue while updated using the application.

Following is the error message while trying to write to an existing text file from the Program Files folder.  The same file writing succeeded while executed through Visual Studio.

Solution

There are many of solutions for the above problem.  One of the solution is to use the special folders for storing user updated files.

Example

We can use the %ProgramData% folder for storing the files. 

The %ProgramData% points to c:\ProgramData (if windows drive is cJ

You can try executing it in the Run Window in Windows 7 OS.

On clicking Ok button you can see the above folder opened in explorer.

Finding the Special Folders in C#

We can get the folder path in runtime using the method given below.

Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData);

We can store the user updated files in above folder like:

• MS Access Database Files
• Log Files
• Settings file

The other special folders can be viewed from the Environment.SpecialFolder enumeration.

The associated application can be executed to view the name of special folders and their current location in your computer. 

 

More Information can be found in: MSDN Blog