Help with understanding why UAC dialog pops up on Win7 for our application

Question

We have a C++ unmanaged application that appears to cause a UAC prompt. It seems to happen on Win7 and NOT on Vista

Unfortunately the UAC dlg is s

Answer 1

Windows automatically elevates applications based on various criteria (listed in Understanding and Configuring User Account Control in Windows Vista):

Before a 32 bit process is created, the following attributes are checked to determine whether it is an installer:

• Filename includes keywords like "install," "setup," "update," etc.
• Keywords in the following Versioning Resource fields: Vendor, Company Name, Product Name, File Description, Original Filename, Internal Name, and Export Name.
• Keywords in the side-by-side manifest embedded in the executable.
• Keywords in specific StringTable entries linked in the executable.
• Key attributes in the RC data linked in the executable.
• Targeted sequences of bytes within the executable.

The best solution to all of these is to create a manifest that prevents elevation, though renaming the file may be enough.