Elevate.exe is a small win32 console utility for Windows Vista or Windows 7/8 to help start other utilities with elevated rights but without having to start them from a batchfile

gistfile1.cpp

/*
*
* Torsten Flammiger, 2012
* (C) AS IS
*
*/

#include "stdafx.h"
#include "windows.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
#include <vector>

using namespace std;

void print_help()
{
  cout << "*****************************************************************" << endl;
	cout << "elevate.exe, v1.0 - (C) 2012, Torsten Flammiger (tfl@netfg.net)" << endl;
	cout << "*****************************************************************" << endl;
	cout << "" << endl;
	cout << "Elevate.exe is a small win32 console utility for Windows Vista" << endl;
	cout << "or Windows 7/8 to help start other utilities with elevated rights" << endl;
	cout << "but without having to start them from a batchfile (where you can" << endl;
	cout << "simply right click and start the batch with administrative rights)." << endl;
	cout << "Just confirm the UAC prompt and you are done..." << endl;
	cout << "" << endl;
	cout << "Usage:" << endl;
	cout << "elevate.exe <program [with optional arguments]>" << endl;
	cout << "" << endl;
	cout << "Example:" << endl;
	cout << "elevate.exe REG ADD HKLM\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Policies\\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f" << endl;
	cout << "" << endl;
	cout << "Note: dont use a double backslash when working with the registry or path names." << endl;
}

std::wstring to_wstring(const std::string& s)
{
	int len;
    int slength = (int)s.length() + 1;
    len = MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, s.c_str(), slength, 0, 0); 
    wchar_t* buf = new wchar_t[len];
    MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, s.c_str(), slength, buf, len);
    std::wstring r(buf);
    delete[] buf;
    return r;
}

int main(int argc, const char* argv[])
{
	int Result = 0;

	if(argc == 1)
	{
		print_help();
		return Result;
	}

	// create a std::string to hold the commandline params
	stringstream args;
	args << "/C ";

	// exclude the program itself from the list of options
	for(int i=1; i<argc; i++) {
		args << argv[i] << " ";
	}

	// convert it into std::wstring
	wstring params = to_wstring(args.str());

	SHELLEXECUTEINFO ShExecInfo;
  memset(&ShExecInfo, 0, sizeof(SHELLEXECUTEINFO));
  ShExecInfo.cbSize = sizeof(SHELLEXECUTEINFO);
  ShExecInfo.fMask = SEE_MASK_NOCLOSEPROCESS;
  ShExecInfo.hwnd = NULL;
  ShExecInfo.lpVerb = _T("runas");
	ShExecInfo.lpFile = _T("cmd.exe");
	//ShExecInfo.lpParameters = _T("/C REG ADD HKLM\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Policies\\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f");
	ShExecInfo.lpParameters = params.c_str();
	ShExecInfo.lpDirectory = NULL;
  ShExecInfo.nShow = SW_HIDE;
  ShExecInfo.hInstApp = NULL;

	wcout << "Executing cmd.exe with command line: " << params << endl;
	if (ShellExecuteEx(&ShExecInfo) == FALSE)
  {
        Result = -1; // Failed to execute process
	}

	return Result;
}