Tray Icon Remains Gray

BLatSD · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Posts: 40

I've just bought a new PC with Window 7 Pro and have been playing with various VVEngine configurations in order to deal with system resource access. Anyhow to make a long story short, my tray icon remains gray now and the only way I can get it to turn blue again is to run VVEngine as a service under the local system account. When I run it as a service under my own logon or if I no longer run it as a service & run it "normally", the tray icon remains gray. When I double click on it, I'm offered a message saying that VVEngine is not running. But I can go to VVENgine via 127.0.0.1:8001 and it displays and runs fine. I just need to get the blue tray icon back. I've tried reinstalling, (but not uninstalling first).

TGRMN Software · Site Admin Joined: 10 Jan 2005 Posts: 8763

When running VVEngine as a "normal" application and not a service, are you running under an account with admin rights or limited account?
thanks
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BLatSD · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Posts: 40

With admin rights, positively verified.

So far, as a service, I've been able to maintain the blue icon by running the VVEngine service under the "Local System" account & the machine's actual "Administrator" account. But when I run the TrayIcon app under my account which is positively a member of the Adminsitrator's group, either manually or as a part of startup, it remains gray.

And, it's interesting to note that when I open Windows 7 task manager and view the list of processes, only the tray icon processes shows. I have to click on the "Show processes from all users" in order for the vvengineservice.exe process to show up also. And when it does, it shows it running under my account name. So obviously, the trayicon app cannot "see" the vvengineservice running task even though by all rights it should since they are both run under the same user account.

I am a seasoned or "advanced" computer user, but Windows 7 Pro is new to me and I've been spending most of my time getting issues like this resolved, but this one's got me stumped so far.

BLatSD · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Posts: 40

And before you ask, the reason I don't run the service under the Administrator's or Local Service account, just to be done with this issue, is because scripts that are run after a VVEngine profile require my user account in order to run successfully. When I run it under anything other than my own account, the executeables within my scripts can't see processes that they require to interact with. You'd think this wouldn't be a problem with the vvengine service running under the adminstrator account, but it is.

BLatSD · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Posts: 40

My latest attempt at a workaround is to run the engine icon executeable under XP compatibility mode. First, I merely changed the icon compatibility mode properties, success. I then tried dragging the modified icon into the startup folder, but the tray icon no longer loads at startup. So I used the Windows 7 compatibility mode wizard and changed it to always run in XP mode. I verified that this works but running the tray icon executeable from command line. Success. So, I've dragged the modified icon out of my startup folder and verified that the tray icon executeable is still listed in misconfig & the run portion of the registry, and all is fine. Alas, the icon no longer loads, in any color!

BLatSD · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Posts: 40

After trying a hundred different hacks & system preference combinations, I've found the soltuion. Go to the VVEngine programs folder, and change the compatibility setting on both VVEngineIcon.exe & VVEngineHome.exe to "Windows Server 2003 SP 1".

I suspect that there's something wrong at your end with the code, but at this point all that matters is I got it working. All this for a stupid tray icon. Smile

TGRMN Software · Site Admin Joined: 10 Jan 2005 Posts: 8763

Hello

It seems the issue is with the icon running under your account instead of the Administrator. What restrictions does this account have? How was this account created?

thanks
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BLatSD · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Posts: 40

I think I mentioned this earlier, the account uses my name, it is a member of the administrators group. My account is a member of the Administrators group plus the "Debugger Users" group, plus the Home Users group. It is the very first account you are greeted to setup when the machine is turned on for the first time out of the box from the factory. I don't see the means to paste a pic of my user account info, so you'll have to take my word for it.

TGRMN Software · Site Admin Joined: 10 Jan 2005 Posts: 8763

Thanks, I am now trying to reproduce this issue.
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TGRMN Software · Site Admin Joined: 10 Jan 2005 Posts: 8763

OK, I can't reproduce the issue, but I found the following:

- my account (which is my name) is also part of the admin group and home user group , but not "debug group"

- when I run VVEngine as a "standard" program under my account, it shows up in the Windows Task Manager Processes without clicking on "Show processes from all users" (it's running under my account), Two processes show up VVEngine.exe (this is the VVengine program running) and VVEngineIcon.exe (this is the icon on the desktop)

- Maybe useful to check the Local Security Policies, in Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Local Security Policies -> Local Policies -> Security Options. The section on "User Account Control", which ones are not "Disabled"
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BLatSD · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Posts: 40

BLatSD · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Posts: 40

I've made some changes, I'm now able to run in "normal" mode, and I'm able to see all VVEngine-related processes in task manager. Of course it's resulted in the disabling of some of the fundamental safeties in Windows 7, but there's no one else on my home network nor am I on a domain or subject to group policy.

Here is my current user account settings that you refered to:

User Account Control: Use Admin Approval Mode for the built-in Administrator account (Disabled)
User Account Control: Allow UIAccess applications to prompt for elevation without using the secure desktop. (Disabled)
User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode (Prompt For Consent)
User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for standard users (Prompt for Credentials)
User Account Control: Detect application installations and prompt for elevation (Enabled)
User Account Control: Only elevate executable files that are signed and validated (Disabled)
User Account Control: Only elevate UIAccess applications that are installed in secure locations (Disabled)
User Account Control: Turn on Admin Approval Mode (Disabled)
User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation (Disabled)
User Account Control: Virtualize file and registry write failures to per-user locations (Enabled)

The ones I changed frome enabled to disabled are the three near the bottom in bold. The rest are as they were.

If any of these three can be set back to enabled and you think I'll still get the same results, let me know. I'd like to have as much security as possible.

How do your settings differ?

TGRMN Software · Site Admin Joined: 10 Jan 2005 Posts: 8763

OK, that's interesting. Settings on my machine are:

User Account Control: Use Admin Approval Mode for the built-in Administrator account (Disabled)
User Account Control: Allow UIAccess applications to prompt for elevation without using the secure desktop. (Disabled)
User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode (Prompt For Consent on the secure desktop)
User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for standard users (Prompt for Credentials)
User Account Control: Detect application installations and prompt for elevation (Enabled)
User Account Control: Only elevate executable files that are signed and validated (Disabled)
User Account Control: Only elevate UIAccess applications that are installed in secure locations (Enabled)
User Account Control: Turn on Admin Approval Mode (Enabled)
User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation (Enabled)
User Account Control: Virtualize file and registry write failures to per-user locations (Enabled)

In bold are the differences with your current configuration.

Changing User Account Control: Turn on Admin Approval Mode to disabled is what I think solved the issue (which is also what setting compatibility with Server 2003 does). But this disables UAC for the whole machine, which is not recommended. VVEngine works with this setting on , so the issue must be a different one.

Maybe you can try using "Prompt For Consent on the secure desktop" but that should not make a difference.

Try also this test: start Notepad with "run as administrator" (right click on Notepad icon and select "run as administrator"). Once Notepad started, open the task manager and check if you can see this process without clicking on "show processes from all users". Then try again starting Notepad normally.

thanks
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BLatSD · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Posts: 40

BLatSD · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Posts: 40

I've now tried many combinations of user account security settings & compatibility mode settings, and every change seems to have ramifications down the line. The 3 problems, "attributes have changed" error, "Target folder not found", and "gray icon" issues all only seem to be resolved by:

1 Setting "User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode" to Prompt For Consent on the secure desktop

2. Changing all target paths to UNC paths (remember the target folder is a network drive). When I use the letter of the drive, I get a target folder not found error.

3. Setting compatibility mode for VVEngine executeables to "Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1" mode. Removing compatibility mode, the icon either remains gray or doesn't load at all.

4. Turn off archiving on all profiles.

Any change to any one of these settings affects one of the three issues or combinations thereof.

The most disappointing aspect of having to make these settings is the user account setting which I feel is insecure. I'd like to put it back to just Prompt for Consent for security's sake. And I'd very much like to run witih archiving in the profiles, but turning it on returns the "attributes have changed" issue we've gone over in the other thread, which as you pointed out had nothing to do with the drive & folder priviledges & owner issues.