How to check if application is running as administrator VB.NET

Question

I have made an application and some of its features only work with admin rights,

How can I check if application is running with admin rights or not ?

• And show a message box if application is not running with admin rights to run as administrator.

Promptitude

Answer 1

Imports System.Security.Principal

Dim identity = WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent()
Dim principal = new WindowsPrincipal(identity)
Dim isElevated as Boolean = principal.IsInRole(WindowsBuiltInRole.Administrator) 
If isElevated Then
  MessageBox.Show("Is Admin")
End If

In VB.Net there is even a shortcut for this:

If My.User.IsInRole(ApplicationServices.BuiltInRole.Administrat‌​or) Then ... 

Basswood

This should be the accepted answer. It answers the OP's question, and I tested the solution and it works perfectly. – Pagoda

Something is wrong in Windows 10 with this code, all the users are reported like administrators, even Guests without Administrator role – Donalddonaldson

Works fine on my Windows 10. – Weighty

Answer 2

Just change the app.manifest to force require administration:

Solution Explorer --> My Project --> View Windows Settings

<requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false" />

Pancake

Downvoted. Doesn't answer/address the specific question. – Mcgruder

Answer 3

You can try and create a file on the system drive inside a try/catch block, and if it catches an access denied exception, then that means that the app is not running as administrator.

Imports System.IO
Public Class Form1

    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        Try
            File.Create("c://test.txt")
            MessageBox.Show("Is Admin")
            File.Delete("c://test.txt")
        Catch ex As Exception
            If ex.ToString.Contains("denied") Then
                MessageBox.Show("Is Not Admin")
            End If
        End Try
    End Sub
End Class

Methodius

Too much lame answer. I got it in my mind, too. But it's definitely not for production environment. – Bilection

Tricky but not proper answer, Use HKLM instead of C drive – Plenish

Great answer. I love creativity like this. – Mcgruder

@Mcgruder Thank you, yes me too and now that I'm looking at it after 6 years, it's kinda flabbergasted. Thank you! – Methodius

Answer 4

A version for C# 6 (or later), adapted from the Visual Basic solution posted elsewhere on this page. In the interest of general-purpose use¹, here I conceive a bool-valued static property:

(using System.Security.Principal;)

public static bool IsAdministrator =>
    new WindowsPrincipal(WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent())
            .IsInRole(WindowsBuiltInRole.Administrator);

Now having shown this, one must acknowledge that @Mederic's approach does indeed seem superior, since it's unclear precisely what an app might helpfully do after presumably detecting—and reporting—that such a (presumably) critical precondition has failed. Surely it's wiser—and safer—to delegate concerns of this nature to the OS.

---

_{¹ That is, eliding the "MessageBox" desiderata articulated by the OP.}

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