Run process from a windows service as the current user with administrative privilege - vb.net

Question

I'm very new in .net. I'm trying to build a windows service to monitor an windows form application so that it starts and keeps running from startup.
The app will also monitor the windows service back and forth to check if its not stopped and it will try to start the service if stopped. I was following this stack post (written in c#, I converted it to vb.net. Pastebin) to run the app as current user from windows service and it is successfully running as expected.
But the problem is that, this process is starting without administrative privilege for which service start trigger is not working when the app monitors the service and finds it stopped.
When I manually run the Application as Run As Administrator it successfully triggers the service if its found stopped. Please suggest how can I run the process as current user with administrative privilege from windows service.
Here is my Service Class
Public Class myService
Dim ApplicationLauncher As New ApplicationLauncher
Private aTimer As System.Timers.Timer
Dim exePath As String = "path_to_exe"
Protected Overrides Sub OnStart(ByVal args() As String)
SetTimer()
If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(GetPCUser()) Then
If Not IsProcessRunning("App_exePath") Then
ApplicationLauncher.CreateProcessInConsoleSession(exePath, True)
End If
End If
End Sub
Protected Overrides Sub OnStop()
End Sub
Private Sub SetTimer()
aTimer = New System.Timers.Timer(1000)
AddHandler aTimer.Elapsed, AddressOf OnTimedEvent
aTimer.AutoReset = True
aTimer.Enabled = True
End Sub
Private Sub OnTimedEvent(source As Object, e As ElapsedEventArgs)
If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(GetPCUser()) Then
If Not IsProcessRunning("App_exePath") Then
ApplicationLauncher.CreateProcessInConsoleSession(exePath, True)
End If
End If
End Sub
Private Function GetPCUser()
Dim strCurrentUser As String = ""
Dim moReturn As ManagementObjectCollection
Dim moSearch As ManagementObjectSearcher
Dim mo As ManagementObject
moSearch = New ManagementObjectSearcher("Select * from Win32_Process")
moReturn = moSearch.Get
For Each mo In moReturn
Dim arOwner(2) As String
mo.InvokeMethod("GetOwner", arOwner)
Dim strOut As String
strOut = String.Format("{0} Owner {1} Domain {2}", mo("Name"), arOwner(0), arOwner(1))
If (mo("Name") = "explorer.exe") Then
strCurrentUser = String.Format("{0}", arOwner(0))
End If
Next
Return strCurrentUser
End Function
Public Function IsProcessRunning(name As String) As Boolean
Dim Result As Boolean = False
Dim GetProcess As Process() = Process.GetProcesses()
For Each pr In GetProcess
If pr.ProcessName = name Then
Result = True
End If
Next
Return Result
End Function
End Class
Here is my Windows Form Application Class
Public Class Form
Dim sc As New ServiceController("myService")
Private Timer2 As System.Timers.Timer
Private Sub Form_Load(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
SetTimer2()
Visible = False
ShowInTaskbar = False
'Some other code
End Sub
Public Sub Form_Startup() Handles Me.Load
'Some other code
End Sub
Private Sub SetTimer2()
Timer2 = New System.Timers.Timer(1000)
AddHandler Timer2.Elapsed, AddressOf OnTimedEvent2
Timer2.AutoReset = True
Timer2.Enabled = True
End Sub
Private Sub OnTimedEvent2(source As Object, e As ElapsedEventArgs)
sc.Refresh()
If sc.Status.Equals(ServiceControllerStatus.Stopped) Or sc.Status.Equals(ServiceControllerStatus.StopPending) Then
sc.Start()
End If
End Sub
End Class

Answer 1

You need modify the manifest file for your service starter (Windows Form Application)
To customise the manifest that gets embedded in the program.
Project + Add New Item
Select "Application Manifest File".
Change the <requestedExecutionLevel> element to
E.g
<requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false" />
This will make make the application show the UAC prompt when they start the program.
Update
As per your comments
You cannot grant elevated privileges without UAC this violate the
basic principle of User Access Control.
There is no way to elevate permissions while avoiding the prompts, by
design. If there was a way to do this, UAC would become useless.
You need to read this question
Start / Stop a Windows Service from a non-Administrator user account
You will need to set the Service permissions to do this