RDM Agent and UAC

Hi Chuck

Thanks for the issue report. There's been a little bit of churn with RDMAgent over the last few releases, but I'm not aware of any code changes that can cause this. I'm going to try and reproduce it on my side, thanks for your patience while I look into that.

Best regards,

Hello again

In a quick test, I didn't reproduce the problem on my side. If you launch RDM itself elevated (run as administrator), then run RDMAgent from the tools menu, does it behave as expected?

Kind regards,

Hello again

I've taken a closer look into this and there's a few things to unpack here.

Firstly, for the main issue of RDMAgent not launching when invoked from the RDM Tools menu: it sounds awfully similar to this issue which we did patch, but perhaps something was missed. Can you check your Windows Event Log for related messages?

Next - and this is a bit more confusing - the UAC behaviour you see sounds a bit weird. When launching RDMAgent from the RDM Tools menu, it runs with the `/install` parameter which will try to register the application as a startup item. This area of the registry requires admin, so it's normal that UAC will want to elevate in this case (in fact it's explicit - internally, if you don't have admin, we relaunch RDMAgent at that point using the `runas` verb to ask for it).

However, in normal cases - like launching the standalone RDMAgent from the start menu - it should never ask to elevate. So I'm confused why you get that behaviour and since it seems normal on your side, it's obviously been that way for a long time. On my test machine it doesn't try to elevate, and I've ruled out the usual suspects that could cause this:

• we explicitly elevate only when running with the `/install` switch or when the user chooses the "auto start" from the tray icon
• the application does _not_ request extra privileges via it's manifest
• since there is an embedded manifest, I don't think Windows is applying it's own heuristics (see "Installer Detection Technology" here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-vista/cc709628(v=ws.10)?redirectedfrom=MSDN)

So overall I'm a bit confused by this. Has RDMAgent always prompted for permissions when you launch it directly?

Kind regards,

I read that forums article on the other RDM Agent case. That is the action I am seeing, which the gentleman reported. However, I do not get any error messages associated.

I just started utilizing RDM Agent directly since v27/v28 when it stopped working properly within RDM itself.

Ever since I started using it, yes - it prompts UAC by just simply double clicking the icon I have on the desktop for it. Once I launch it, it continues to run as expected.

It's just launcing it from within RDM that does not prompt for UAC, therefore the program doesn't run as expected.

Does this help?

Hello again

Does this help?

Kind of. When you double-click RDMAgent.exe, it should not elevate permissions. If you right-click the .exe and check the properties, do you have "Run this program as an administrator" checked in the compatibility tab?

Note that RDMAgent.exe exists in the "%programfiles%\Devolutions\Remote Desktop Manager" directory, but if you installed it as standalone it will also exist in "Program Files (x86)\Devolutions\Remote Desktop Manager Agent".

One more thing: what happens if you double-click to open RDMAgent.exe from the RDM directory ("%programfiles%\Devolutions\Remote Desktop Manager") instead of going through the start menu or explicitly launching the standalone installation?

Please let me know if something isn't clear

Kind regards,

So, I just tried a couple different things...

Within RDM program itself, I do the RDM Agent, and after about 15 seconds or so, it prompts UAC.

If I run RDMAgent.exe from within D:\Program Files\Devolutions\Remote Desktop Manager folder, it does not prompt UAC.

If I run the RDM Agent from the standalone Agent install, it does not prompt UAC, which it was doing yesterday.

I upgraded RDM to v30 yesterday late afternoon, so maybe it is back to running the way it should be.

Hello again

I've been over the diff from 2024.1.29 and .30, and there is nothing that can explain a change of behaviour here.

It sounds like things are working as expected but I cannot explain the behaviour that you saw.

For future reference, RDMAgent should _not_ try to elevate at startup; with the exception of when launched through RDM's tools menu (in that case it will try to register as a startup item). If you see that behaviour, it's either a bug in the application or your environment so please report it.

Please, let me know any questions or further comments

Kind regards

Hello again

I've been over the diff from 2024.1.29 and .30, and there is nothing that can explain a change of behaviour here.

It sounds like things are working as expected but I cannot explain the behaviour that you saw.

Yes sir, it is working as expected. Although it seems I bring up problems that no one there can replicate, so probably me and Friday mixed together.

For future reference, RDMAgent should _not_ try to elevate at startup; with the exception of when launched through RDM's tools menu (in that case it will try to register as a startup item). If you see that behaviour, it's either a bug in the application or your environment so please report it.

Please, let me know any questions or further comments

Kind regards

Have a great, long well deserved weekend, sir!