Make Inno Setup installer request privileges elevation only when needed

Question

Inno Setup installer has the PrivilegesRequired directive that can be used to control, if privileges elevation is required, when installer is starting. I want my installer to work even for non-admin users (no problem about installing my app to user folder, instead of the Program Files). So I set the PrivilegesRequired to none (undocumented value). This makes UAC prompt popup for admin users only, so they can install even to the Program Files. No UAC prompt for non-admin users, so even them can install the application (to user folder).

This has some drawbacks though:

• Some people use distinct admin and non-admin accounts on their machines, working with non-admin account normally. In general, when launching installation using non-admin account, when they get UAC prompt, they enter credentials for the admin account to proceed. But this won't work with my installer, because there's no UAC prompt.
• (Overly suspicious) people with admin account, who want to install to user folder, cannot launch my installer without (not-needed) admin privileges.

Is there some way to make Inno Setup request privileges elevation only when needed (when user selects installation folder writable by admin account only)?

I assume there's no setting for this in Inno Setup. But possibly, there's a programmatic solution (Inno Setup Pascal scripting) or some kind of plugin/DLL.

---

Note that Inno Setup 6 has a built-in support for non-administrative install mode.

Solution 1

Inno Setup 6 has a built-in support for non-administrative install mode.

Basically, you can simply set PrivilegesRequiredOverridesAllowed:

[Setup]
PrivilegesRequiredOverridesAllowed=commandline dialog

Additionally, you will likely want to use the auto* variants of the constants. Notably the {autopf} for the DefaultDirName.

[Setup]
DefaultDirName={pf}\My Program

---

The following is my (now obsolete) solution for Inno Setup 5, based on @TLama's answer.

When the setup is started non-elevated, it will request elevation, with some exceptions:

• Only on Windows Vista and newer (though it should work on Windows XP too)
• When upgrading, the setup will check if the current user has a write access to the previous installation location. If the user has the write access, the setup won't request the elevation. So if the user has previously installed the application to user folder, the elevation won't be requested on upgrade.

If the user rejects the elevation on a new install, the installer will automatically fall back to "local application data" folder. I.e. C:\Users\standard\AppData\Local\AppName.

Other improvements:

• the elevated instance won't ask for language again
• by using PrivilegesRequired=none, the installer will write uninstall information to HKLM, when elevated, not to HKCU.

#define AppId "myapp"
#define AppName "MyApp"

#define InnoSetupReg \
  "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\" + AppId + "_is1"
#define InnoSetupAppPathReg "Inno Setup: App Path"

[Setup]
AppId={#AppId}
PrivilegesRequired=none
...

[Code]

function IsWinVista: Boolean;
begin
  Result := (GetWindowsVersion >= $06000000);
end;

function HaveWriteAccessToApp: Boolean;
var
  FileName: string;
begin
  FileName := AddBackslash(WizardDirValue) + 'writetest.tmp';
  Result := SaveStringToFile(FileName, 'test', False);
  if Result then
  begin
    Log(Format(
      'Have write access to the last installation path [%s]', [WizardDirValue]));
    DeleteFile(FileName);
  end
    else
  begin
    Log(Format('Does not have write access to the last installation path [%s]', [
      WizardDirValue]));
  end;
end;

procedure ExitProcess(uExitCode: UINT);
  external '[email protected] stdcall';
function ShellExecute(hwnd: HWND; lpOperation: string; lpFile: string;
  lpParameters: string; lpDirectory: string; nShowCmd: Integer): THandle;
  external '[email protected] stdcall';

function Elevate: Boolean;
var
  I: Integer;
  RetVal: Integer;
  Params: string;
  S: string;
begin
  { Collect current instance parameters }
  for I := 1 to ParamCount do
  begin
    S := ParamStr(I);
    { Unique log file name for the elevated instance }
    if CompareText(Copy(S, 1, 5), '/LOG=') = 0 then
    begin
      S := S + '-elevated';
    end;
    { Do not pass our /SL5 switch }
    if CompareText(Copy(S, 1, 5), '/SL5=') <> 0 then
    begin
      Params := Params + AddQuotes(S) + ' ';
    end;
  end;

  { ... and add selected language }
  Params := Params + '/LANG=' + ActiveLanguage;

  Log(Format('Elevating setup with parameters [%s]', [Params]));
  RetVal :=
    ShellExecute(0, 'runas', ExpandConstant('{srcexe}'), Params, '', SW_SHOW);
  Log(Format('Running elevated setup returned [%d]', [RetVal]));
  Result := (RetVal > 32);
  { if elevated executing of this setup succeeded, then... }
  if Result then
  begin
    Log('Elevation succeeded');
    { exit this non-elevated setup instance }
    ExitProcess(0);
  end
    else
  begin
    Log(Format('Elevation failed [%s]', [SysErrorMessage(RetVal)]));
  end;
end;

procedure InitializeWizard;
var
  S: string;
  Upgrade: Boolean;
begin
  Upgrade :=
    RegQueryStringValue(HKLM, '{#InnoSetupReg}', '{#InnoSetupAppPathReg}', S) or
    RegQueryStringValue(HKCU, '{#InnoSetupReg}', '{#InnoSetupAppPathReg}', S);

  { elevate }

  if not IsWinVista then
  begin
    Log(Format('This version of Windows [%x] does not support elevation', [
      GetWindowsVersion]));
  end
    else
  if IsAdminLoggedOn then
  begin
    Log('Running elevated');
  end
    else
  begin
    Log('Running non-elevated');
    if Upgrade then
    begin
      if not HaveWriteAccessToApp then
      begin
        Elevate;
      end;
    end
      else
    begin
      if not Elevate then
      begin
        WizardForm.DirEdit.Text := ExpandConstant('{localappdata}\{#AppName}');
        Log(Format('Falling back to local application user folder [%s]', [
          WizardForm.DirEdit.Text]));
      end;
    end;
  end;
end;

Solution 2

There is no built-in way for conditional elevation of the setup process during its lifetime in Inno Setup. However, you can execute the setup process by using runas verb and kill the non-elevated one. The script that I wrote is a bit tricky, but shows a possible way how to do it.

Warning:

The code used here attempts to execute the elevated setup instance always; there is no check whether the elevation is actually required or not (how to decide whether the elevation is needed optionally ask in a separate question, please). Also, I can't tell at this time, if it's safe to do such manual elevation. I'm not sure if Inno Setup doesn't (or will not) rely on the value of the PrivilegesRequired directive in some way. And finally, this elevation stuff should be executed only on related Windows versions. No check for this is done in this script:

[Setup]
AppName=My Program
AppVersion=1.5
DefaultDirName={pf}\My Program
PrivilegesRequired=lowest

[Code]
#ifdef UNICODE
  #define AW "W"
#else
  #define AW "A"
#endif
type
  HINSTANCE = THandle;

procedure ExitProcess(uExitCode: UINT);
  external '[email protected] stdcall';
function ShellExecute(hwnd: HWND; lpOperation: string; lpFile: string;
  lpParameters: string; lpDirectory: string; nShowCmd: Integer): HINSTANCE;
  external 'ShellExecute{#AW}@shell32.dll stdcall';

var
  Elevated: Boolean;
  PagesSkipped: Boolean;

function CmdLineParamExists(const Value: string): Boolean;
var
  I: Integer;  
begin
  Result := False;
  for I := 1 to ParamCount do
    if CompareText(ParamStr(I), Value) = 0 then
    begin
      Result := True;
      Exit;
    end;
end;

procedure InitializeWizard;
begin
  { initialize our helper variables }
  Elevated := CmdLineParamExists('/ELEVATE');
  PagesSkipped := False;
end;

function ShouldSkipPage(PageID: Integer): Boolean;
begin
  { if we've executed this instance as elevated, skip pages unless we're }
  { on the directory selection page }
  Result := not PagesSkipped and Elevated and (PageID <> wpSelectDir);
  { if we've reached the directory selection page, set our flag variable }
  if not Result then
    PagesSkipped := True;
end;

function NextButtonClick(CurPageID: Integer): Boolean;
var
  Params: string;
  RetVal: HINSTANCE;
begin
  Result := True;
  { if we are on the directory selection page and we are not running the }
  { instance we've manually elevated, then... }
  if not Elevated and (CurPageID = wpSelectDir) then
  begin
    { pass the already selected directory to the executing parameters and }
    { include our own custom /ELEVATE parameter which is used to tell the }
    { setup to skip all the pages and get to the directory selection page }
    Params := ExpandConstant('/DIR="{app}" /ELEVATE');
    { because executing of the setup loader is not possible with ShellExec }
    { function, we need to use a WinAPI workaround }
    RetVal := ShellExecute(WizardForm.Handle, 'runas',
      ExpandConstant('{srcexe}'), Params, '', SW_SHOW);
    { if elevated executing of this setup succeeded, then... }
    if RetVal > 32 then
    begin
      { exit this non-elevated setup instance }
      ExitProcess(0);
    end
    else
    { executing of this setup failed for some reason; one common reason may }
    { be simply closing the UAC dialog }
    begin
      { handling of this situation is upon you, this line forces the wizard }
      { stay on the current page }
      Result := False;
      { and possibly show some error message to the user }
      MsgBox(Format('Elevating of this setup failed. Code: %d', [RetVal]),
        mbError, MB_OK);
    end;
  end;
end;

Comments

[TLama]

To decide whether you need to elevate the process or not is a bit more complicated for translation to Inno Setup's Pascal Script. The simplest (and in my view safest) way is attempt to create the folder, or if already exists, write a file there. There might be situations when the Program Files subfolder may have granted write access, or a non Program Files subfolder has not. But this is really topic which deserves its own place in a different question.

[Martin Prikryl]

Thanks for your answer. I've thought it's possible to elevate privileges in-process. But now I see it's not: stackoverflow.com/questions/573086/…

[TLama]

You're welcome! Well, even in Windows Installer setups you can see how the "wizard window is re-created" which actually starts a new elevated process and moves the wizard to the page where you've been with the killed non-elevated one.

[Thomas Levesque]

@TLama the problem with this approach is that InnoSetup will write uninstall information to HKCU instead of HKLM... apparently it's controlled by PrivilegesRequired. Is there a way around it? See stackoverflow.com/q/42655340/98713

[TLama]

Thank you for the bounty and overall contribution, @Martin! [yet I need to review a lot]