hh.exe problem during switch user

This problem occurs only during switch user to limited account (XP only) in which Process Monitor has its capture events disabled since it requires admin privileges.

You could have Process Monitor running in another (admin) session.  It should pick up the activity resulting from a user switch, etc.  After recreating the problem, switch to the session in which Process Monitor is running, and go over the capture.


Edited by molotov - 12 September 2008 at 2:42am

Hi lyall

We're using the same ways. I think you need to explicitly include the path of your chm file. In my C++ syntax;

CreateProcessAsUser(hUserToken,
       NULL,
       "C:\\WINDOWS\\hh.exe \"C:\\Help\\xx.chm\"",
       NULL,
       NULL,
       FALSE,
       NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS,
       NULL,
       NULL,
       &si,
       &pi);

" " is important when the directory has spaces within. (i.e. Program Files)


Edited by _chew - 12 September 2008 at 2:08am

Hi,

I'm trying to do something similar from C# using p/invokes to the Win32 API functions.

- Windows service (C#) that launches an application.
- Application (also C#) is thus running as SYSTEM account.
- Application needs to launch a .chm help file which cannot be done from SYSTEM account.

I use WTSGetActiveConsoleSessionId() and WTSQueryUserToken() to get the primary token for the active console session.

I then use CreateProcessAsUser to execute the command line "C:\\Windows\\hh.exe helpfile.chm".

The functions all return with no errors but all that happens is, hh.exe pops up a message box saying: "Cannot open the file: helpfile.chm."

My CreateProcessAsUser is as follows:

CreateProcessAsUser(
                                    token,
                                    null,
                                    new StringBuilder("C:\\Windows\\hh.exe helpfile.chm"),
                                    ref saProcess,
                                    ref saThread,
                                    false,
                                    0,
                                    IntPtr.Zero,
                                    null,
                                    ref si,
                                    out pi)


Running "notepad.exe test.txt" works fine. Also, if the application is launched manually by the user, so that it is running under the user account naturally, it has no problem opening the help file using a straightforward CreateProcess (or the .NET equivalent).

Hi there,

Anyone out there who could help me in this. So far, I can't get clearer info/docs regarding this one; I would be more than grateful...

I have an app (impersonated from a service - SYSTEM account) that uses .chm for help topics. Launching the chm file using HtmlHelp API somehow fails when you're SYSTEM account so I changed it using hh.exe, CreateProcessAsUser and WTSQueryUserToken. This works fine in both admin and limited user account during normal logon. However, during user switching, limited user can't somehow launch the chm file.

(SYSTEM account)
logon admin (from startup) -> launch chm file : ok
logon limited (from startup) -> launch chm file : ok
logon admin (from startup) -> switch user (limited) -> launch chm : nothing happens
logon limited (from startup) - switch user (admin) -> launch chm : ok

No messages/warnings from windows event logs. Also, the API's are returning nonzero (success), both WTSQueryUserToken and CreateProcessAsUser.

Though, this is not really a big issue but client is asking for explanations and I can't get straightforward docs online.

Working with XP Prof SP3 and VC++ 6.0. Only happening in XP and Server 2003. Everything works fine with Vista and Server 2008.