Stuck in "Administrator" mode...how to get out?

Ilkka Lindblom

Re-enabling UAC fixed this issue for me. Unfortunately, probably due to all the uninstalls and reinstalls I made while trying to fix it, NPP seems to have lost my saved session. Still I’m glad to have it working again, so thanks a lot people.

Meta Chuh

side note to @Alan-Kilborn, as this thread was resurfaced by @Ilkka-Lindblom :

i guess my evil upvote finger’s incubation period for “Thanks for everyone’s efforts so far…” is over.
my hooked, crooked finger just went haywire on that damned button … and i sincerely hope you won’t notice it at all 😉

Alan Kilborn

So an update to this thread…

I’m still in Notepad++ 7.5.x land for my day-to-day Notepad++ usage, but recently I had reason to grab a portable 7.6.4…and I noted that running this one it DOES NOT end up in Administrator mode. By this I mean no [Administrator] in the title bar, and able to drag-n-drop files from a non-admin Explorer window.

So just a little nicety waiting for me when I get around to making the Plugin Mgr -> Plugin Admin chasm jump! :)

I don’t know what changed in N++ so that this now happens, but I’m going to mark this thread SOLVED if I can.

Meta Chuh

hi @Alan-Kilborn

aaahhhhh … the upvote thread, lol
i love revisiting things like these 💚
i’ve got a big smile on my face right now 😃

ps:
very intriguing … if 7.6.4 and above don’t trigger administrator mode, but 7.6.3 and below do, could it be that it gets triggered by the existence of a code signing cert on the older versions on your system ?

i have never heard about a behaviour like this if something is code signed, but 7.6.4 was the first release without windows code signing. ⁉️

Alan Kilborn

@Meta-Chuh

I did not do exhaustive testing, but I just went back and tried 7.6.3 and 7.6.2 portable versions. Both of these showed [Administrator] in the title bar. Trying 7.6.4 again…still no [Administrator] there! :)

anselme16

good lord the source code determining if the application should launch in administrator is ugly.

here is a clarified version of it :

Notepad_plus::Notepad_plus()
:   _isAdministrator (false)
{
    // Determine if user is administrator.
    winVer ver = NppParameters::getInstance()->getWinVersion();
    if (ver >= WV_VISTA || ver == WV_UNKNOWN)
    {
        SID_IDENTIFIER_AUTHORITY NtAuthority = SECURITY_NT_AUTHORITY;
        PSID AdministratorsGroup;
        if(AllocateAndInitializeSid(&NtAuthority, 2, SECURITY_BUILTIN_DOMAIN_RID, DOMAIN_ALIAS_RID_ADMINS, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, &AdministratorsGroup))
        {
            BOOL isAdmin;
            if(CheckTokenMembership(NULL, AdministratorsGroup, &isAdmin))
                _isAdministrator = isAdmin;
            FreeSid(AdministratorsGroup);
        }
    }
}

Sorry i couldn’t resist.

Alan Kilborn

@anselme16 said:

here is a clarified version

I’m confused – why is it ugly? Looking at the existing code (below) I’m struggling to see any significant ugliness or even any real differences between it and your version:

Notepad_plus::Notepad_plus()
    /* ... */
{
    /* ... */
    
    // Determine if user is administrator.
    BOOL is_admin;
    winVer ver = NppParameters::getInstance()->getWinVersion();
    if (ver >= WV_VISTA || ver == WV_UNKNOWN)
    {
        SID_IDENTIFIER_AUTHORITY NtAuthority = SECURITY_NT_AUTHORITY;
        PSID AdministratorsGroup;
        is_admin = AllocateAndInitializeSid(&NtAuthority, 2, SECURITY_BUILTIN_DOMAIN_RID, DOMAIN_ALIAS_RID_ADMINS, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, &AdministratorsGroup);
        if (is_admin)
        {
            if (!CheckTokenMembership(NULL, AdministratorsGroup, &is_admin))
                is_admin = FALSE;
            FreeSid(AdministratorsGroup);
        }
    }
    else
        is_admin = false;

    _isAdministrator = is_admin ? true : false;
}

Alex Boyce

I have also experienced this issue and I was able to resolve it.

First, I got into this situation with Notepad++ itself. I tried to edit a file in the Program Files tree and was prompted by Notepad++ that I needed to be in admin mode to do that and did I want to restart Notepad++ in admin mode. I clicked Yes and have been in admin mode ever since.

As noted above, drag and drop from a non-admin explorer doesn’t work, but the context menu Open with Notepad++ does, so it wasn’t too much of a hardship. However, it is annoying, so I tried to find out how to turn it off. There is no setting within Notepad++ for it, nor is the compatibility mode tab on the properties sheet checked.

I did a google search and found this thread. One of the suggestions was to search the registry for Notepad++. I tried this and found the magic key. Under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Compatability Assistant\Store there was a value named C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe. I deleted this value and restarted Notepad++ and it is in normal mode again.

I have been able to repeat this by dragging a file from the Program Files tree into Notepad++ which works fine, but when you try to save it, the reopen in admin mode prompt appears.

Thanks for the help.

Ekopalypse

@Alex-Boyce

thx for the information.
Because you ended with Thanks for the help. I’m unsure if you expect an answer
on an implicit question, which I was not able to identify (non-native speaker).

Alan Kilborn

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