Slitherine

This isn’t that big of a deal but how can I stop the security message from showing each time I start up the game?

Message is: “Do you want to allow the following program from an unknown publisher to make changes to this computer?”

I’m on a Windows7 Laptop.

Obviously I just hit the “yes” button and go on with the game, but just wondering if this is something that can be fixed.

Thanks

sorry people - no idea on how this posted twice.
my pc locked up - i hit refresh - rekeyed the subject line and now it here twice.

Probably you've to lower down the UAC, if the message come from it.

Personally in Vista and Win7 the first thing I do to my computers is to disable it completely.
However, remember, that with UAC you're messing with the security of your system.

Take a look at here, never tried, but Hopefully will help you, without having to turn off UAC:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... d3e47bb8b6

Seems to be related to the Autorun.exe. I checked PanzerCorps.exe and it don't need this and will not ask.

Why I know a lot of people which shut off UAC it's still a good idea and I will not switch it off.

But the Autorun.exe needs to be signed first. I believe it's the Matrix Autorun.exe to give the small launcher app. It should be possible to sign the exe during compilation and only invoke UAC and ask for more permissions when using the update.exe to update the game, which needs administrative rights given the default installation location @ %programfiles%.

Switching UAC off after several installations with UAC on might brake some applications. Reason for this is that with UAC on folder and registry access for old applications is using virtualisation to protect key folders and registry folders.

It seems PanzerCorps.exe will run as needed because game settings are stored using APPDATA so no write to %programfiles% is needed. Will check later this evenning.

Can you give us details of your setup as it should not generate any warnings. When exactly does this appear?

In my case Windows 7 64bit SP1 with UAC settings to max. Which is recommended by some sites and even the help text of the UAC slider tells that this is the most secure setting.
When I start the setup it asks for permissions which is fine. A cosmetic failure that the install exe file is not signed but no problem to start the installation and successful install Panzer Corps.

After installation the desktop link to Panzer Coprs links to autorun.exe which requires then ask for "Do you want to allow the following program from an unknown publisher to make changes to this computer?”
After this message the rest runs fine.
However it seems that only Autorun.exe requests this.

iainmcneil wrote:Can you give us details of your setup as it should not generate any warnings. When exactly does this appear?

Exactly what berndN said above.
As soon as you click on the desktop icon the message comes up. you click ok and all is good from there on -- no issues with saving or loading or playing the game.
Like I said before - not that big of a deal but something to clean up.

We'll look in to it as we definitely want to avoid those nasty UAC pop ups.

Thanks for looking in it. No need for top priority as it affects other matrix games which use the autorun.exe application too.

iainmcneil wrote:We'll look in to it as we definitely want to avoid those nasty UAC pop ups.

Thank you much.
.... Now back to the game

If you change it to custom, you should be able to make that one program a trusted program that will not give a message. The problem is that the UAC is st to max, not medium or custom. At max ti will questions almost everything.

No this isn't fixed yet. We're not at all sure what the issue is so we're looking to make some changes that might help but it will be a suck it and see approach until we can find a way to repeat it here. This wont be ready for the first patch unfortunately.

Sounds good. I’m sort of used to the extra click now anyway.


If you need anything (system logs, settings, etc) just let me know… and maybe let me know where to get it. I may be a programmer – but I don’t know much about OS stuff… that’s the job of the guy in the next office.

Thanks - we'll let you know if we need more info

iainmcneil wrote:No this isn't fixed yet. We're not at all sure what the issue is so we're looking to make some changes that might help but it will be a suck it and see approach until we can find a way to repeat it here. This wont be ready for the first patch unfortunately.

One thing would be to sign the launcher with a digital sign certificate because it shows the exe file autorun.exe is not signed.
Or create a manifest file and use the MT command from the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express version to embed the manifest file into the AutoRun.exe
Using this cmd
generates a 'patched' exe file which don't raise the UAC.
You need to use the Visual Studio Command Prompt (2010) and run it as Administrator if AutoRun.exe and AutoRun.exe.manifest is located in the default program folder.

Here's a patched one: http://gem.ebi-service.de/PCAutoRun.zip

By any chance is the exe created with the Wise Script Editor ? Seems the latest version has some switches to deal with Vista/Windows 7 UAC.

None of the exe files are signed so this is not the issue or it would happen everywhere in all our games. It's probably related to read/write issues.

Ian, the main problem seems to be that there's no manifest info in the AutoRun.exe
The command MT as well as the provisioned manifest file in the ZIP file create an AutoRun.exe file which don't show UAC message any longer.

Signing binaries don't help but the advantage of signed binaries is that like a checksum the integrity of a binary is assured. But as you can see with the attached AutoRun.exe, which is not signed, only the manifest info added helps to deal with the UAC prompt. So after creating the AutoRun.exe you need to one time MT it and then create the installation package. Mine is now running fine.

Can you clarify exactly what error you had before, what it does and what you did to change it so I'm clear? I'm not a techie so will pass this on!

Ian, no problem.
The shipped AutoRun.exe file seemed to have been build with some program where Vista/Windows 7 with full enabled UAC wants to run AutoRun.exe with Admin rights and thus asking if it is right to gave AutoRun.exe full access to the harddisk. You have to either disable UAC, which is not an option, or deal with it in a different way.
The program which builds AutoRun.exe seems not to include manifest info into the exe so even createing a AutoRun.exe.manifest file don't help. With a manifest file you can tell Vista/Windows 7 if a program needs elevated rights or can be run as a user without elevated rights.
Now with the MT command you patch the AutoRun.exe and include the manifest info directly into the AutoRun.exe. On my Windows 7 with the patched AutoRun.exe I don't need the AutoRun.exe.manifest file any longer.
The MT.exe used to patch the AutoRun.exe is part of the Microsoft Visual Studio package and takes care of signing as well as the manifest stuff. Actually it's part of the Windows Software Development Kit (Windows SDK). Some information about MT.exe can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... s.85).aspx
While it can be done this way before creating the installation package/CD it would be better to check which program is used to create the AutoRun.exe and maybe use an updated version of this program.

About signing. While there's a lot of stuff about signing binaries, the advantage is that you can a) be sure that the EXE file is the original one and b) that the EXE file has not been altered. So for digital download packages it's an added value for the end user. But signing is not essential.

Edited: Due to the MS link

It seems like AutoPlay Media is used for creating the AutoRun.exe as well as the other stuff. Here's some information from them: http://www.indigorose.com/webhelp/ams/I ... _Later.htm