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Using the Standard User Analyzer Tool

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Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Vista

The Standard User Analyzer (SUA) tool enables you to test your applications and to monitor API calls to detect potential compatibility issues due to the User Account Control (UAC) feature in both Windows Vista and Windows 7. UAC, formerly known as Limited User Account (LUA), requires that all users (including members of the Administrator group) run as Standard Users, until the application is deliberately elevated, by using the security prompt dialog box. However, not all applications can run properly with the Standard User role, due to the application requiring access and privileges for locations that are unavailable to a Standard User.

Note

The Application Compatibility Toolkit also installs the Standard User Analyzer Wizard (SUA Wizard), which also enables you to address UAC-related issues; however, it guides you through the process in a step-by-step manner and does not enable the in-depth analysis provided by the SUA tool. For more information, see Using the Standard User Analyzer Wizard.

Using the Standard User Analyzer Tool

The easiest way to align compatibility issues and application fixes is to have your tools perform the alignment for you. SUA performs some of this analysis for you by suggesting application fixes for the UAC-related issues that it discovers after analyzing your application. In this walkthrough, we will run SUA on an application that has known UAC-related issues, and then apply the recommended fixes.

First, use the SUA tool to test an application and to locate the UAC-related issues.

  1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.6, point to Developer and Tester Tools, and then click Standard User Analyzer.

    The SUA tool starts.

  2. In the Target Application box, browse to the \Program Files\Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit\Compatibility Administrator (32-bit)\Demo Application\StockViewer directory, and then double-click StockViewer.exe.

  3. Clear the Elevate check box, and then click Launch.

    The StockViewer tool attempts to start and the Permission denied dialog box appears.

  4. Click OK.

    The StockViewer application starts, despite the warning.

  5. On the toolbar, click the Trends button.

    An error message appears, stating that the application cannot create the object.

  6. Click OK to close the error message.

  7. On the Tools menu, click Options.

    An error message appears, stating that there was an unhandled exception in the application.

  8. Click Continue to close the error message and to continue testing the application.

  9. On the Help menu, click Check for Updates.

    Another error message appears, stating that there was an unhandled exception in the application.

  10. Click Continue to close the error message and to continue testing the application.

  11. Close the StockViewer application.

    SUA automatically collects and shows the data that was found during the application runtime.

Reviewing the SUA Tool Results

After collecting the UAC-related issues from the StockViewer tool, review the information from the various tabs of the SUA tool.

To review the SUA tool results

  1. In the SUA tool, click the Registry tab to review the registry issues.

  2. Click the Token tab to review the issue that occurred due to checking the token.

  3. Click the Name Space tab to review the issues that occurred with the global name space.

  4. Click the Other Objects tab to review the UAC-related mapping issue that occurred.

  5. Click the Process tab to review the issues that occurred while launching a process.

After reviewing the UAC-related information from the various tabs of the SUA tool, you can review and apply the recommended mitigations.

  1. In the SUA tool, on the Mitigation menu, click Apply Mitigations.

    The Mitigate AppCompat Issues dialog box appears.

  2. Review the recommended compatibility fixes. For more detailed information about each compatibility fix, see Windows Vista and Windows 7 Operating Systems or the Windows XP and Earlier topics.

  3. Click Apply.

    The SUA tool generates a custom compatibility fix database and automatically applies it to your local computer, so that you can test the fixes to see if they worked.

See Also

Concepts

Understanding the Standard User Analyzer Tool
Standard User Analyzer Technical Reference

Other Resources

Testing and Mitigating Issues by Using the Development Tools