UAC prompt every time on Winamp launch

[Whizzmo2]

After updating to 5.6 from 5.5.8.1 (and today to 5.6.0.1), I started getting UAC prompts every time I open Winamp. Before updating to 5.6, I could run Winamp as a Low-Int or Medium-Int user just fine without any start-up prompts.

Here's the rundown:

• OS: Win7 Pro x64
• User level: "normal" (non-admin)
• Skin: Winamp Modern

Running winamp from a shortcut, the executable in program files, or by launching an audio file all result in a UAC prompt.


Settings of note:

Winamp -> Preferences (Ctrl+P) -> General Preferences:

• "Check for new versions at startup" is unchecked*
• "Restore file associations at Winamp start-up" is also unchecked*
• Winamp agent is not installed
• Winamp is not set to associate with video files.

* As recommended from other similar forum threads

Procmon does not show winamp.exe with any "access denied" messages on startup, but shows several Access Denied messages for registry access for consent.exe at the same time as winamp is requesting admin access. I'm assuming that these are related?

FWIW, the consent.exe reg paths that get denied are:

• HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\CA
• HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\CA
• HKLM\Software\Microsoft\EnterpriseCertificates\CA
• HKU\<non-admin_user_guid>\Software\Policies\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\Disallowed
• HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\Disallowed
• HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\Disallowed
• HKLM\Software\Microsoft\EnterpriseCertificates\Disallowed
• HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\Root
• HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\AuthRoot
• HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\Root
• HKLM\Software\Microsoft\EnterpriseCertificates\Root
• HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\SmartCardRoot
• HKU\<non-admin_user_guid>\Software\Policies\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\TrustedPeople
• HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\TrustedPeople
• HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\TrustedPeople
• HKLM\Software\Microsoft\EnterpriseCertificates\TrustedPeople
• HKU\<non-admin_user_guid>\Software\Policies\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\trust
• HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\trust
• HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\trust
• HKLM\Software\Microsoft\EnterpriseCertificates\trust

If it helps, the last thing Winamp.exe accesses (successfully) before calling consent.exe is:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\LanguagePack\DataStore_V1.0





If I run winamp.exe "as an admin" and enter appropriate credentials, no prompt is given. This does not keep subsequent runs (as a normal user) from prompting every time.


Input plugins:

• in_cdda.dll
• in_flac.dll
• in_linein.dll
• in_midi.dll (The reason I updated to 5.6.0.1, right?)
• in_mod.dll
• in_mp3.dll
• in_mp4.dll
• in_vorbis.dll
• in_wave.dll
• in_wm.dll

Output Plugins:

• out_disk.dll
• out_ds.dll
• out_wave.dll

Vis plugins:

• vis_avs.dll
• vis_milk2.dll
• vis_nsfs.dll

DSP plugins:
DSP_sps.dll

General Purpose plugins:

• gen_ff.dll
• gen_hotkeys.dll
• gen_jumpex.dll
• gen_ml.dll
• gen_tray.dll

Medial Library plugins:

• ml_local.dll
• ml_playlists.dll
• ml_addons.dll
• ml_wire.dll
• ml_disc.dll
• ml_history.dll
• ml_downloads.dll
• ml_impex.dll
• ml_plg.dll
• ml_rg.dll
• ml_transcode.dll

So, what did I miss?
-Whizz

[iron2000]

I got the same problem too when I installed 5.6 over the previous install.

But after fiddling around I solved it by reseting my settings via deleting the 'Winamp.ini' file at 'C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Winamp'.

[Whizzmo2]

ok

Sweet. That seems to have fixored it. Good to know.

[Ammaletu]

I just updated to 5.601 from the previous version and also get an admin prompt (UAC) with every single start of the program. It's annoying, and neither deleting the winamp.ini file nor unchecking the 'check file associations on start' option did help so far (I also don't want to lose all my settings). The latter was mentioned on some other page I found via Google as a fix.

I'm using Win 7 Ultimate on a 64 bit machine, if that helps. Any hints how to get rid of the admin prompt would be appreciated.

[DJ Egg]

@Ammaletu
Some 3rd-party plugin to blame, maybe?

[Ammaletu]

Is there an easy way to start Winamp without any plugins? Should I just rename the Plugins folder? Because there's loads of stuff in there that I don't remember installing. Then again, core components like the media library seem to be plugins, so the question should probably be: Is there a way to distinguish official from 3rd-party plugins?

I remember installing a plugin for the Win7 taskbar. Just deleted that, but no changes to the UAC prompt.

Also, I forgot to mention that I use Winamp Pro 5.601 with a German language pack.

[DJ Egg]

Follow the link I posted above which provides instructions on how to generate and attach a List of Plugins.

No, don't rename the Plugins folder, because then you'll have no playback support for anything, no library, no modern skin support, nothing.

If it is some old 3rd-party plugin to blame, then it'll be because it's trying to write settings to either the %ProgramFiles%\Winamp folder or the registry.

[Ammaletu]

Thanks for looking into this. The plugin list is attached, though I also should have mentioned that I have been using Winamp for years and this particular nuisance only showed up after the update (maybe after the previous update to 5.6, I'm not sure as it only was a couple of days between). But who knows, it might still be a plugin. Hope you can see something in the log.

[DJ Egg]

Hmm, so much for that theory then, lol.
No 3rd-party plugins present.
Alas, the plot thickens..... :-(

[Whizzmo2]

Ammaletu: Does your winamp have "Check for new versions on startup" checked? (general Preferences)

Also, have you tried renaming your winamp.ini file to something else (e.g. winamp.old.ini) and see if that fixes your issue?

[Ammaletu]

I disabled "Check for new versions on startup" and restarted Winamp. The UAC prompt still showed up. The same when I temporarily renamed my old winamp.ini.

Now to find the source of this, I installed SysInternal's ProcessMonitor and filtered it for everything winamp.exe does. When I started Winamp, a whole lot showed up, a lot more than I was expecting. I haven't used ProcessMonitor before and I generally don't know much about the inner workings of Windows programs, but some of the files that Winamp apparently accesses seem definitely strange.

At this point I did remember the media library because I suspected that it might scan the whole harddrive on startup. There are three folders entered in the media library for Winamp to look for new media files in. "Scan folders on start" is not checked. So that shouldn't be the source of the UAC prompt.

I'm scrolling through the list of stuff that Winamp does on startup (and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling some more...). I understand why it would access the Winamp program directory, my user directory or the registry. It also accesses C:\Windows\SysWOW64 quite a lot, no clue what that is.

I'm not quite so clear why it would ever access these directories (none of which are the ones that the media library is set up to monitor):
* C:\Program Files (x86)\Avira\Antivir
* C:\Program Files (x86)\Open Office.org
* D:\work [These are my work files! Winamp shouldn't even know about this directory, much less scan the folder structure on startup. There are no media files there, I never opened anything from there. This really does creep me out a bit! This seems to happen right before it scans the folder containing the files currently in the playlist. It also does not scan my whole work folder, but only a specific project?!]

I also just tried to start Winamp, clear the screen in ProcessMonitor and then provide my password in the UAC prompt. This was the first that showed up afterwards:

11:39:47,3373933 winamp.exe 2832 RegOpenKey HKU\S-1-5-21-261571248-1939719002-2589359248-1000_Classes SUCCESS Desired Access: Maximum Allowed, Granted Access: All Access

There were only registry operations afterwards, so I guess Winamp is trying to do something in the registry that it shouldn't, right? "Desired Access: Maximum" sounds like that is the source of the problem, usually the other entries read "Desired Access: Read".

[DJ Egg]

Hmm, so everyone experiencing the problem is logged on to Windows with a standard/limited user profile, yes? (ie. a non-admin profile)

I just tested by enabling my Guest account, and I don't get any UAC prompts.

Maybe try logging into an admin profile (if possible) and then setting the permissions for
%ProgramFiles%\Winamp so that all users have full read/write access
(via: rt-click -> Properties -> Security tab)

[Ammaletu]

Hmm, so everyone experiencing the problem is logged on to Windows with a standard/limited user profile, yes? (ie. a non-admin profile)

Sure. Isn't everybody nowadays?!

Maybe try logging into an admin profile (if possible) and then setting the permissions for %ProgramFiles%\Winamp so that all users have full read/write access

Sorry, but isn't there a reason why normal user's shouldn't be allowed to write to system-critic directories?! This has been a standard for a couple of years now, even under Windows, and I would expect programs like Winamp to honor that convention. I might try this for the fun of it, later, but it wouldn't be a solution. It especially wouldn't help if it really is a registry problem, right?!

[DJ Egg]

Sure. Isn't everybody nowadays?!

Hmm, well there's only one real admin account, and that's the super-hidden one

http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/windows7/windows7_activate_administrator.htm

What I meant was whether the active profile is set to Admin or Standard in Control Panel -> User Accounts.

Sorry, but isn't there a reason why normal user's shouldn't be allowed to write to system-critic directories?! This has been a standard for a couple of years now, even under Windows, and I would expect programs like Winamp to honor that convention. I might try this for the fun of it, later, but it wouldn't be a solution. It especially wouldn't help if it really is a registry problem, right?!

It was just a suggestion.

If I knew the actual cause/solution, then I'd be the first to reveal it here.
But alas, I can't even reproduce the problem.

Giving the Winamp folder or winamp.exe full admin rights should also allow it to write to the registry.
Though the only registry keys that Winamp writes to are the Filetype associations in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, and that's a Windows thing really, not Winamp, and Winamp only writes to them if the "Restore associations at Winamp startup" setting is enabled, otherwise you would need to manually make changes in Prefs -> File Types to receive a UAC prompt.

[Ammaletu]

What I meant was whether the active profile is set to Admin or Standard in Control Panel -> User Accounts.

It's a standard profile, of course. What I meant was 'Isn't everybody working with a standard profile nowadays?'. But I saw in another thread that you don't believe in UAC and working without admin rights. Which is rather worrying, I have to say.

Anyway... I tried something else and found the source of the problem, even if I don't understand it completely. I had already removed the 'check file associations on startup' checkbox some time ago, with no change. Now I opened the preferences, went to 'file types' and clicked the 'none' button. Closed the preferences, closed Winamp, started it back up and no UAC prompt. Closed and started again, no UAC prompt. Great.

Then I opened the preferences, went to the file types tab and all previously selected file types were selected again. I didn't change anything, closed the preferences and immediately got a UAC prompt. I clicked No, closed Winamp and opened it again and no UAC prompt.

So this problem is transformed into 'I get a UAC prompt for no reason whenever I open and close the preferences', which I personally can live with. It's still a bug though. Is there a bugtracker where I should report this or will you do this?

Though the only registry keys that Winamp writes to are the Filetype associations in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, and that's a Windows thing really, not Winamp, and Winamp only writes to them if the "Restore associations at Winamp startup" setting is enabled, otherwise you would need to manually make changes in Prefs -> File Types to receive a UAC prompt.

In the other thread it was mentioned that it should be perfectly possible to change file associations without the UAC prompt. I don't know if that's true, but suspect that it is. At least Winamp should be clever enough to notice when I didn't change anything about the file associations and that therefore there's no reason to write to the registry. Getting a UAC prompt if I actually changed the associations would be ok. Getting one every time I close the preferences is rather strange.