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Sep 19th, 2017, 11:19 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Lively Member
Prevent user from disabling startup of my program from MSConfig?
I have a VB.net application that runs in the background and collects some system data and places collected data on the same PC for me to later analyse it in case the computer runs into some issue.
I have set the application to run at startup for around 30 minutes.
The thing is, anyone can disable my application on Startup from MSConfig / Task Manager, or even the Registry.
Well, no one in my office is smart enough to disable it from the Registry, but they can do it though the Task Manager / MSConfig.
Is there any way to prevent this?
Yes, and they are all administrator account and I cannot do that because the other softwares that I run on these machines need Administrative account.
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Sep 19th, 2017, 12:57 PM
#2
Re: Prevent user from disabling startup of my program from MSConfig?
If they are running as administrator there isn't an awful lot you can do to stop them making changes to the system, being able to administer just about every aspect of the system is part of that role.
I suppose you could try making your application into a windows service, that wouldn't stop them but it might make it harder for them to find and disable. Other than that I am not sure what you could do to stop someone with admin rights preventing it from running.
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Sep 20th, 2017, 07:34 AM
#3
Re: Prevent user from disabling startup of my program from MSConfig?
If this is in your own office why would they disable an app they need? And why would you let everyone run an Admin account??? Perhaps it's just a training issue, but seems there is some internal conflict going on so just have the boss crack down on those that don't run it.
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Sep 21st, 2017, 09:18 AM
#4
Re: Prevent user from disabling startup of my program from MSConfig?
Originally Posted by topshot
If this is in your own office why would they disable an app they need? And why would you let everyone run an Admin account??? Perhaps it's just a training issue, but seems there is some internal conflict going on so just have the boss crack down on those that don't run it.
I wonder this myself a lot and over time realized the answer is hardest to understand if you've either never worked for a company or only ever worked for very large ones.
At all of my employers so far, if something was important to the company, I was either barred from tampering with it by domain policy or it was made very clear I could be terminated if I interfered with the program. So I didn't bother.
But having "domain security policy" implies you're running a Windows Domain, which requires paying for licenses and having IT staff experienced with such things. I don't think a lot of small businesses have a budget for an IT staff. A lot of the people on this forum work for companies where "IT Staff" is "the person in the office who has solved the most problems", and the "software developer" is "whichever person has tinkered with VBA the most". In those environments there's no domain, so there's practically no control over the machines.
Also in those environments, "screw with this and you're fired" doesn't have teeth. There are often strong relationships between management and employees, and it'd take high-grade felonies to result in a termination. When that's not the case, it's often true there are so few employees the concept of replacing any one of them represents a potentially devastating loss of business while the replacement is being found. And many managers don't understand the designated "IT person" doesn't have a magic wand that makes it impossible for users to tamper with their software: the general public's idea of computers works more like Unix (where this is easy) instead of Windows (where you have to pay Microsoft a lot to do it).
So I quit asking the question because I figured out yes, indeed, in most offices if Joe Accountant disables IT Guy's super duper mission-critical application because it's making his Youtube videos run slow, it will be IT Guy who has a meeting with angry Boss Man.
The only winning move for IT Guy is generally "find another job". That's hard.
This answer is wrong. You should be using TableAdapter and Dictionaries instead.
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Sep 21st, 2017, 01:21 PM
#5
Addicted Member
Re: Prevent user from disabling startup of my program from MSConfig?
Pardon me but what you're trying to achieve here is malware-like activities. A malware author would prevent anyone from seeing/ending/removing his program from startup even by using administrator account! If you are not a malware author (and I think you're not) please follow the previous guys advice and do *not* give your users administrator privileges.
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