nsShellExecAsUser NSIS Plugin

Personal modified version

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Original Description

ShellExecAsUser plug-in

Execute the specified program using ShellExecute. Useful when the installer process is running with elevated privileges (UAC) but you want to launch an application as the standard logged-in user (e.g., launching the application after installation).

Features

• Launches applications as the current desktop user
• Bypasses UAC elevation if the installer is running as Administrator
• Supports standard ShellExecute verbs (open, runas, print, etc.)
• Supports window show modes (SW_SHOWNORMAL, SW_HIDE, etc.)
• Win95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista/7/8/10/11 support
• NSIS UNICODE support

Usage

ShellExecAsUser::ShellExecAsUser "action" "command" "parameters" "show_mode"

Parameters:

1. action - The verb to use (e.g., "open", "runas", "print"). Can be empty "" for default action.
2. command - Path to the executable or file to open.
3. parameters - Command line arguments.
4. show_mode - Window display mode.

Supported Show Modes:

• SW_SHOWDEFAULT
• SW_SHOWNORMAL (default)
• SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED
• SW_SHOWMINIMIZED
• SW_HIDE

Working Directory:

The plugin uses the current NSIS output directory ($OUTDIR) as the working directory for the launched process.

Example

Section "Launch Application"
    SetOutPath "$INSTDIR"
    ShellExecAsUser::ShellExecAsUser "open" "$INSTDIR\MyApp.exe" "" "SW_SHOWNORMAL"
SectionEnd

To launch a URL in the default browser as the user:

ShellExecAsUser::ShellExecAsUser "open" "https://example.com" "" "SW_SHOWNORMAL"

Include file

There is no wrapper macros file for this plugin. Call the plugin directly as shown in the usage section.

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⚠️ Differences in the Personal Version

Supported Architectures

The project supports all configurations:

• amd64-unicode (x64)
• x86-ansi
• x86-unicode

Visual Studio Project

The project has been updated and reorganized:

• Contrib/ShellExecAsUser/ShellExecAsUser.sln - VS2022 Solution
• Contrib/ShellExecAsUser/ShellExecAsUser.vcxproj - Updated VS2022 Project

Added Files

• build_plugin.py - Python script to compile the plugin for all supported architectures.
• nsis/ - NSIS headers included to facilitate compilation.

Code Changes

• Deprecation Warning Removal: Replaced the deprecated GetVersionEx call in VistaTools.cxx with the modern VerifyVersionInfo API to avoid C4996 warnings when compiling with modern toolsets.
• Build Update: Configuration updated to use the v143 toolset (Visual Studio 2022).

Build

cd nsShellExecAsUser
python build_plugin.py

DLLs are copied to plugins/{platform}/ShellExecAsUser.dll.

Build Options

python build_plugin.py --config x86-unicode      # Single architecture (x86-ansi|x86-unicode|amd64-unicode|all)
python build_plugin.py --toolset 2026            # Specific toolset (2022|2026|auto)
python build_plugin.py --jobs 4                  # Number of parallel MSBuild jobs (default: CPU count)
python build_plugin.py --clean                   # Clean dist/ before build
python build_plugin.py --install-dir "C:\NSIS\Plugins"  # Copy to additional NSIS directory
python build_plugin.py --verbose                 # Extended MSBuild output
python build_plugin.py --version                 # Print version and exit

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See README_IT.md for the Italian version.