Process.kill() denied in Windows 7 32bits even with Administrator privileges

Question

Hello every one.

I'm faced with a weird problem. My application has a simple method that in case IE enters a state were it gets unresponsive this method is fired closing all IE process's and then the application restarts its work with IE.

Method code:

foreach (System.Diagnostics.Process exe in System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcesses())
{
     if (exe.ProcessName.StartsWith("iexplore"))
          exe.Kill();
}

Even debugging my application with Administrator privileges the application sometimes runs this method successfully and some other times i get the error Access Denied even running as Administrator.

I even coded my own manifest file specifying the need for this application to be executed with Administrator rights, which i think i got it right.

Manifest Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<asmv1:assembly manifestVersion="1.0" xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" xmlns:asmv1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" xmlns:asmv2="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0" name="Demo.app"/>
  <trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2">
    <security>
      <requestedPrivileges xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
        <requestedExecutionLevel  level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false" />
      </requestedPrivileges>
    </security>
  </trustInfo>
  <compatibility xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:compatibility.v1">
    <application>
    </application>
  </compatibility>
</asmv1:assembly>

Anyone had this same issue before? How can i correct this weird problem.

Thanks

Answer 1

Given that you say you always possess administrative privileges when you attempt to call this method, the following would explain why you have intermittent issues:

System.Diagnostics.Process.Kill:

If the call to the Kill method is made while the process is currently terminating, a Win32Exception is thrown for Access Denied.

If you've quickly hit 'delete' + 'OK' twice, on an entry in Process-Explorer, you'll know what I'm talking about.