[python-win32] COM registration/unregistration and elevation onVista

[MACKEITH Andrew]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: python-win32-bounces at python.org 
> [mailto:python-win32-bounces at python.org] On Behalf Of Mark Hammond
> Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 11:10 PM
> To: 'Python-Win32 List'
> Subject: [python-win32] COM registration/unregistration and 
> elevation onVista
> 
> On Vista, it's necessary to register python COM objects from 
> an "elevated"
> process.  In practice, this means I tend to keep a 
> command-prompt open started with "run as administrator", do 
> registration and unregistration there, then switch back to 
> the normal command-prompt to do testing etc.  I finally got 
> annoyed at this, and came up with a patch that catches this 
> error, then retries the command after prompting for elevation 
> (the infamous Vista "Allow" dialog).
> 
> However, it's not perfect;
> * a new process is created to perform the actual 
> registration, and the output from this process is lost.  The 
> normal ways of getting child process will not work, as the 
> child must be executed via ShellExecuteEx for the elevation 
> to happen.  We can get the exit code of the process, but no output.
> * The elevation prompt simply says "python.exe" wants 
> big-bad-scary access to your computer.  AFAIK, there is no 
> way to have windows use a different string (ie, to indicate a 
> com object is being registered)
> * It might be too magic - should this just be left as the 
> responsibility of the packager?  Will it interfere with 
> "frozen" servers?
> 
> As a result, I'd like some feedback on my approach - both the 
> specific implementation and the general idea, or anything 
> else you can think of.
> I've attached the patch.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Mark
> 

Does this mean that a user needs administrator access to use Python COM
on Vista, or is this only for registering a Python COM object for use as
a COM server?

Andrew