Get current Windows user — not current user running process

Question

How do I get the current logged in Windows user? my problem: i'm running a process with administrator privileges and all these:

Console.WriteLine(System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name);
Console.WriteLine(Environment.UserName);
Console.WriteLine(System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().User); //GUID
Console.WriteLine(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("USERNAME"));

...tries give me back the current user who runs the process, in my case Administrator - but i'd like to have the current user who is logged in.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Possible duplicate of https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10666685/c-sharp-net-how-to-detect-if-a-process-is-running-for-the-current-logged-in-use?rq=1 — Uwe Keim, Feb 01 '17 at 07:28
_"i'm running a process with administrator privileges "_ - do you mean the process is running _elevated_? What OS is this because when I add an **app.manifest** and include `` for my test app, it runs elevated and yet still displays _my name_ correctly and not "administrator" or similar — , Feb 01 '17 at 08:09
@MickyD - that's because you have administrator rights. If you were running as a non-admin, then elevation would also prompt you for an alternate username and password. You can see that sort of thing discussed in the Raymond Chen article I linked at the bottom of my answer. — Damien_The_Unbeliever, Feb 01 '17 at 08:12
Related, different language: http://stackoverflow.com/q/28672303/886887 — Harry Johnston, Feb 02 '17 at 02:19

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 01 '17 at 07:46

4

I found this method a long time ago. I am using the WMI query

ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = 
     new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT UserName FROM Win32_ComputerSystem");

ManagementObjectCollection collection = searcher.Get();
string username = (string)collection.Cast<ManagementBaseObject>().First()["UserName"];

edited Feb 01 '17 at 07:46

answered Feb 01 '17 at 07:30

Bundeskanzler.

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11

I never used this method for 2 users. But the question is not for 2 users? – Bundeskanzler. Feb 01 '17 at 08:01
1

Perhaps, but it's not a fool-proof method. _"[In a terminal services session, UserName returns the name of the user that is logged on to the console—not the user logged on during the terminal service session](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa394102(v=vs.85).aspx)"_ – Feb 01 '17 at 08:05
Oh. For my project it worked, but if that's right: I'm wrong. Sorry – Bundeskanzler. Feb 01 '17 at 08:08
if current user is not an admin, which run the application, the collection.Cast() include 1 empty item. So, this solution doesn't work in my case – Vitaliy Jun 04 '19 at 08:14

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 01 '17 at 07:51

The correct way, I believe, would be to execute WTSQuerySessionInformation, something along the lines of:

WTSQuerySessionInformation(WTS_CURRENT_SERVER_HANDLE,WTS_CURRENT_SESSION,
                           WTSUserName,buffer, out byteCount);

PInvoke page for this function.

Tangentially related, but may be of interest - How can I launch an unelevated process from my elevated process and vice versa?

Get current Windows user — not current user running process

2 Answers2