advice or help with a visual basic program/code

[Detector]

ive got a website blocker which used to work fine, however after a recent microsoft update everytime i run it and try to block a site it brings up an error.

the program edits the hosts file to add a site to block, when i click on block now it brings an error up saying "access to the hosts file is denied".

if i run the program itself in visual basic and debug it, it works but if i try to run the stand alone program it brings up this error. visual studio does ask to be restarted under admin.

now ive changed the requirements to require admin in the manifest file but its not made any difference

anyone able to have a quick scan for me?

[mysterym]

If your running windows 7, what happens if you right click the exe and run as administrator?

[Detector]

tried all that m8 same thing, im sure M$ has implimented some new security feature in one of their latest updates

i can set the program to require "run as admin" so that it does this auto when run.

but for some reason whatever i try it does not work standalone, it runs if i run visual studio in admin mode and then debug so im guessing its something to do with M$

[Mystical_2K]

had this before mate (with c# not vb tho) and it ended up being the anti virus on the workstation, try disabling, you might need to create an exception as it might sandbox your app as it will most likely detect it as a threat

[Detector]

nope, same with or without antivirus m8

[ap0c]

Have you tried turning off UAC to see if it is deffo a user authentication issue on the pc?

http://www.mydigitallife.info/how-to...-in-windows-7/

[Detector]

yes, plus it does the same thing on other peoples pc's now too where it once worked fine.

i need someone with knowledge of visual basic to have a look at the code for me, im happy to sort a drink out if you can help me fix the issue

[flipper321]

Are all files for the prog and dependencies on the C / Local drive?

[Detector]

it uses the .Net libs which i have all the latest packs installed m8

[akimba]

I can have a look if you want I been a VB.net developer for several years now

[Detector]

cheers m8 will zip code up

[Detector]

i cant understand why its stoped working as ive not changed any code recently.

link sent

[Mystical_2K]

im a c# man myself but started with VB many years ago, happy to have a look too Det if your still stuck

[Detector]

cheers m8 pm sent

[Mystical_2K]

well here is an interesting bit of info mate, it works fine on mine, just tested it with the yahoo.com webpage

when i loaded it into Visual Studio i started it up and it asked for elevated Privileges which i said yes to and it reset itself

tried www.yahoo.com and it worked fine
blocked it with your app and i couldnt access it
unblocked it and it worked fine again

tried the same thing with the .exe on its own and got the same thing, was denied access to yahoo.com

now im using this on 64-bit so its possible that MS have issued an update for 32-bit only machines, if i have time today i will have a look through what updates have been released in the last month and see if i can find out some more info, i work at a uni so have a few machines i can test this on for you

[Detector]

well here is an interesting bit of info mate, it works fine on mine, just tested it with the yahoo.com webpage

when i loaded it into Visual Studio i started it up and it asked for elevated Privileges which i said yes to and it reset itself

tried www.yahoo.com and it worked fine
blocked it with your app and i couldnt access it
unblocked it and it worked fine again

tried the same thing with the .exe on its own and got the same thing, was denied access to yahoo.com

now im using this on 64-bit so its possible that MS have issued an update for 32-bit only machines, if i have time today i will have a look through what updates have been released in the last month and see if i can find out some more info, i work at a uni so have a few machines i can test this on for you

if you could test m8 appreciated im using windows 7 64bit and my sons is 32bit and it wont run on either. ive not messed about with UAC settings on either pc and nothing has changed apart from updates hence i cannot understand why they stopped working now

[Detector]

ive just had a thought, would it be easy to change the code so that the program reads the host file into a text file, does the changes then copies it back into the folder instead of modifying the original if that makes sense.

ill happily pay if someone can get this working on my machine (the guy who is wanting this program is having the same problem as me)

[Mystical_2K]

ive just had a thought, would it be easy to change the code so that the program reads the host file into a text file, does the changes then copies it back into the folder instead of modifying the original if that makes sense.

ill happily pay if someone can get this working on my machine (the guy who is wanting this program is having the same problem as me)

I am happy to have a go of re-coding this for you mate, if you can give me a day or two and wont accept anything for it, you've made me laugh on here too much

i have some suggestions for you too from looking at your code, i will PM them over

p.s. i highly doubt you would be able to over-ride the hosts file but if you can then yes reading it in as a text and then outputting it to a file then over-riding should work

[akimba]

Hi

I have ran the exe on my win 7 pc and it did the update but Microsoft Security Essentials has flagged your program as a SettingsModifier:Win32/PossibleHostsFileHiJack
Alert level = Medium

I think AV is going to be your biggest bugbear as if you click the clean computer button on the warning it emoves the entry of www.yahoo.com from the hosts file.
I dont think MSE is the only AV that will watch the hosts file either as this is such an easy target for ScareWare software to attack

[Detector]

hi m8, yeah thats the only problem such as a false positive, im not sure of another way to do the same job?