Adding manifest for admin rights request

Question

I have an application that writes program settings to the windows registry that is absolutely necessary so.storing to a file is not an option.

To simplify this, I would like to give an "admin privileges" nag screen instead of trying to explain how to right click on the program file/short cut.

I found a reasonably good article but I receive a duplicate resource error after adding my own resource file for the manifest.

This is supposedly due to a conflict with the internal manifest and to resolve the issue I see a lot of comments suggesting "enable runtime themes" to be disabled in project options. I have gone through every menu but cannot find it and I've now been told that it may not be available in Delphi 7 and was introduced in later versions.

How can I add my own manifest?

Answer 1

I already commented that "Writing program settings to the registry is not a proper cause to give your application admin privileges". However it is a good idea to include a UAC manifest in any case. the common requestedExecutionLevel should be level="asInvoker". see the docs

"Q: Adding manifest for admin rights request for delphi 7"

Create the below 4 files (2 sets):

---

(UAC Only)

uac.manifest

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
  <assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="X86" name="MyApp" type="win32"/>
  <trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
    <security>
      <requestedPrivileges>
        <requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false"/>
      </requestedPrivileges>
    </security>
  </trustInfo>
</assembly>

uac.rc

1 24 "uac.manifest"

---

(UAC + XP Themes)

uac_xp.manifest

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
  <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="MyApp" version="1.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="x86"/>
  <dependency>
    <dependentAssembly>
      <assemblyIdentity
        type="win32"
        name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
        version="6.0.0.0"
        publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
        language="*"
        processorArchitecture="*"/>
    </dependentAssembly>
  </dependency>
  <!-- Windows Vista application security requirements. -->
  <trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
    <security>
      <requestedPrivileges>
        <requestedExecutionLevel
          level="requireAdministrator"
          uiAccess="false"/>
        </requestedPrivileges>
       </security>
  </trustInfo>
  <compatibility xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:compatibility.v1">
    <application>
      <!--Windows 7-->
      <supportedOS Id="{35138b9a-5d96-4fbd-8e2d-a2440225f93a}"/>
      <!--Windows Vista-->
      <supportedOS Id="{e2011457-1546-43c5-a5fe-008deee3d3f0}"/>
    </application>
  </compatibility>   
</assembly>

uac_xp.rc

1 24 "uac_xp.manifest"

---

Add the desired rc file (uac.rc or uac_xp.rc) to your project via the "Project > Add to project" menu item. This will create the {$R} directive in your project file:

program Project1;

{.$R 'uac.res' 'uac.rc'} // UAC only
// OR
{$R 'uac_xp.res' 'uac_xp.rc'} // UAC + XP Themes

uses
  Forms,
  Unit1 in 'Unit1.pas' {Form1};

{$R *.RES}

begin
  Application.Initialize;
  Application.CreateForm(TForm1, Form1);
  Application.Run;
end.

Note the {$R 'uac_xp.res' 'uac_xp.rc'}. Delphi will auto compile the rc to res file.

Alternatively you can compile the rc file via brcc32 uac.rc outside Delphi IDE. and then add {$R 'uac_xp.res'} manually to your project.

---

Make sure you don't use any other XP manifest.

Answer 2

How to remove the "internal" manifest from Delphi 7 project ?

That internal manifest was in Delphi 7 times represented by the TXPManifest component, whose only purpose was to add the XPMan.pas unit to the uses clause of a form's unit where it was dropped. This XPMan.pas unit then included the resource file with the manifest itself into a project output.

So, to remove this internal manifest, you need to remove all TXPManifest components from all of the forms of your project (if you used them), as well as all the XPMan uses clause references from all units of your project.

In short, do the following two steps for all units of your project (the first step is optional if you didn't used the TXPManifest components, but the second):

Answer 3

In newer versions of Delphi this is no longer necessary.
Under Project Options, then Application, there is a section for the manifest:

^{Screenshot from version 10.2.1 Tokyo}

^{Screenshot from version 11.1.3 Alexandria}

This automatically takes care of the XP manifest mentioned as a warning at the bottom of Kobik's answer.

I do not know from which Delphi version this was available.
(Free free to edit this answer if you know). (Edit Ian Murphy Feb 2019: It is not available in XE2)