VB6 Manifest not working on Windows 7

manifestuacvb6vb6-migrationwindows 7

I have created a manifest file for a VB6 application that is running on Windows 7 (not for any visual style changes, just to make sure it accesses the common registry and not a virtualised one)

The exe name is Capadm40.exe, the manifest is named Capadm40.exe.manifest and contains the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
  <assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0"
     processorArchitecture="X86"
     name="CompanyName.Capadm40"
     type="win32"/>
  <description>Administers the System</description>
  <!-- Identify the application security requirements. -->
  <trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
    <security>
      <requestedPrivileges>
        <requestedExecutionLevel
          level="asInvoker"
          uiAccess="false"/>
        </requestedPrivileges>
       </security>
  </trustInfo>
</assembly>

However, this doesn't seem to make any difference. ie the application is still using the virtualised registry hive. What is also strange is the after I unticked the 'Run this program as an administrator' option in the properties of the application exe, windows still shows a shield on the application icon, leading my to think this is some issue with my windows installation rather than a fault with the manifest. Any ideas?

Best Answer

You're probably running afoul of the fusion cache (and the Explorer Shell's icon cache). External manifests are strongly discouraged anyway, but trying to add one after the program has previously been run often leads to such symptoms.

See Manifest and the fusion cache for a brief description.

You could also touch the EXE to reload the cache.

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Java – Can’t execute jar- file: “no main manifest attribute”

First, it's kind of weird, to see you run java -jar "app" and not java -jar app.jar

Second, to make a jar executable... you need to jar a file called META-INF/MANIFEST.MF

the file itself should have (at least) this one liner:

Main-Class: com.mypackage.MyClass

Where com.mypackage.MyClass is the class holding the public static void main(String[] args) entry point.

Note that there are several ways to get this done either with the CLI, Maven, Ant or Gradle:

For CLI, the following command will do: (tks @dvvrt)

jar cmvf META-INF/MANIFEST.MF <new-jar-filename>.jar  <files to include>

For Maven, something like the following snippet should do the trick. Note that this is only the plugin definition, not the full pom.xml:

Latest doc on this plugin: see https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-jar-plugin/

<build>
  <plugins>
    <plugin>
      <!-- Build an executable JAR -->
      <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
      <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>3.1.0</version>
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            <classpathPrefix>lib/</classpathPrefix>
            <mainClass>com.mypackage.MyClass</mainClass>
          </manifest>
        </archive>
      </configuration>
    </plugin>
  </plugins>
</build>

(Pick a <version> appropriate to your project.)

For Ant, the snippet below should help:

<jar destfile="build/main/checksites.jar">
  <fileset dir="build/main/classes"/>
  <zipfileset includes="**/*.class" src="lib/main/some.jar"/>
  <manifest>
    <attribute name="Main-Class" value="com.acme.checksites.Main"/>
  </manifest>
</jar>

Credits Michael Niemand -

For Gradle:

plugins {
    id 'java'
}

jar {
    manifest {
        attributes(
                'Main-Class': 'com.mypackage.MyClass'
        )
    }
}

Visual-studio – Can you force Visual Studio to always run as an Administrator in Windows 8

In Windows 8 & 10, you have to right-click devenv.exe and select "Troubleshoot compatibility".

Select "Troubleshoot program"
Check "The program requires additional permissions"
Click "Next"
Click "Test the program..."
Wait for the program to launch
Click "Next"
Select "Yes, save these settings for this program"
Click "Close"

If, when you open Visual Studio it asks to save changes to devenv.sln, see this answer to disable it:

Disable Visual Studio devenv solution save dialog

If you change your mind and wish to undo the "Run As Administrator" Compatibility setting, see the answer here: How to Fix Unrecognized Guid format in Visual Studio 2015

Best Answer

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Java – Can’t execute jar- file: “no main manifest attribute”

Visual-studio – Can you force Visual Studio to always run as an Administrator in Windows 8

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