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I'm trying to delete a user profile folder suing C# and ASP.net, when i do this through windows UI i get a UAC prompt which is fine.

I wish to this programmatically using ASP.net & C# . The objective is for admin users to launch a webform and do this remotely on workstation but i'm currently getting permission errors. (im running visual studio as admin in my debugging environment to delete local users)

{"Access to the path 'C:\Users\nzsp2013admin\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Application ..... is denied."}

code:

var dir = new DirectoryInfo("C:\Users\nzsp2013admin");

dir.Attributes = dir.Attributes & ~FileAttributes.ReadOnly;
dir.Delete(true); // true => recursive delete

stefan
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  • I am not expert networking but I think user may need to assign permissions. – Vijay Kumbhoje Jul 02 '15 at 00:02
  • "I wish to this programmatically using ASP.net & C# for users to this remotely but i get permission errors" - this sentence needs some work, I'm not following. Just because your VS instance is running as admin doesn't mean the user executing the application would have access to delete a file. – Kritner Jul 02 '15 at 00:05
  • Are you trying to delete the folder on the server? Or the folder on the client? – mason Jul 02 '15 at 00:26

3 Answers3

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This has to do with the permissions which are configured in IIS.

Every ASP.NET application that you run in IIS will be run using an identity that can be managed in the Application Pools section in IIS Manager.

By default, each Application Pool that is created (including the default one) will have permissions within a limited scope.

If I'm honest, the phrase Application Pool makes things sound more complicated than what they actually are. An application pool is just an identity exactly like the one that you use to sign on to your PC, and in your case an identity with normal user permissions is attempting to perform an action that requires a set of higher permissions.

To resolve this, open up IIS.

  1. Click on Application Pools
  2. Select the Application Pool that your web application is running under
  3. Click on Advanced Settings
  4. Click on identity and select Custom identity
  5. Enter the credentials of an account that has administrative privileges.

Steps to configure permissions

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However, I do have to warn you that you could be opening yourself up to a wide range of security concerns and that there are alternatives such as adding explicit permissions to specific directories that include the identity which the ASP.NET application is running from.

Aydin
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I used this approach and it works very well. With this approach you dont use an account with high level privileges all the time just when required and not for the application execution.

Try to use a domain account and add privileges to the folder or lacation you required. And share the folder so you can use an unc path.

Accessing a Shared File (UNC) From a Remote, Non-Trusted Domain With Credentials

Community
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Juan
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You could use code impersonation:

http://csharptuning.blogspot.com/2007/06/impersonation-in-c.html
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/14358/User-Impersonation-in-NET

regardless, whomever you use as the impersonation must be able to read/write to the location. We use this method in applications for delete/create folder across network but in theory, you should be able to wrap this around any piece of code, check to see if the user is an admin, and if so use the impersonated user to delete the folder, or however you prefer to do it.

Also, I noticed you mention that you are wanting to do it remotely, but your examples have the local path.

You may also find this useful: Deleting Windows user accounts remotely WCF and C#

Community
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jmcclure
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