Unable to save an image in the application installation directory

Question

I need to save the background of Form2 to file. It looks like there is a problem with Access to the path for save. It throws the following exception:

A generic error occurred in GDI+

It works when running the application as Administrator, but the program must work without Admin rights.

Here's my code:

Dim sPath As New SaveFileDialog
sPath.DefaultExt = ".\"

Dim bmp As New Bitmap(Form2.BackgroundImage)
Try
    'bmp = Form2.BackgroundImage
    bmp.Save(sPath.FileName + "image.png", System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Png)
Catch ex As Exception
    MsgBox(ex.Message)
End Try

1) What's the path? Are you sure a non-privileged user has access to it? 2) What does the error message say? — 41686d6564 stands w. Palestine, Mar 02 '18 at 08:38
Path is the same as where it is located .exe Error msg say: A generic error occurred in GDI+ — Zdeněk Grůza, Mar 02 '18 at 08:42
And where is the ".exe" file located?! For example, if it's in the Program Files folder, you wouldn't be able to access it without Admin rights. Either [make your application run as administrator](https://stackoverflow.com/a/2818776/4934172) (which is probably not required in your case) or don't save in a folder that you don't have access to. — 41686d6564 stands w. Palestine, Mar 02 '18 at 08:44
Yes, .exe is located in Program Files. If it will not be possible to save the file to a folder with the program (Program Files), you don't know some alternative where the file should save without Admin Rights? — Zdeněk Grůza, Mar 02 '18 at 08:48

41686d6564 stands w. Palestine · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-02T09:15:43.723

As explained in the comments, a non-privileged user doesn't have access to the Program Files folder. So you have two options:

Force your application to run as administrator: Check this answer. However, this is not recommended unless you actually need to have administrator rights.
The other option is not to save in a folder that you don't have access to.

If it will not be possible to save the file to a folder with the program (Program Files), you don't know some alternative where the file should save without Admin Rights?

Well, that depends on what you're trying to save actually:

I see you're using a SaveFileDialog. If this is something the user would be saving, let the user select their preferred destination.
If not, and this is some kind of application data/settings, then you should save it in the application data folder ("%AppData%" or "%LocalAppData%"). These two folders don't require admin rights and they are the right place to store the data of your application.

Here's an example of how you can use one of these foders:
```
'Dim localAppDataDir As String = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData)
Dim appDataDir As String = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData)
Dim imagesDir As String = Path.Combine(appDataDir, Process.GetCurrentProcess().ProcessName, "Images")

Dim imageFilePath = Path.Combine(imagesDir, "YourFilename.png")
bmp.Save(imageFilePath)
```
Note: in this case, you don't need the SaveFileDialog which I don't see any use for it in your code.

Looks like it's saving to AppData works. Still I test it. – Zdeněk Grůza Mar 02 '18 at 09:15 — Zdeněk Grůza, Mar 02 '18 at 09:15
Solved - Thank you very much. – Zdeněk Grůza Mar 02 '18 at 09:19 — Zdeněk Grůza, Mar 02 '18 at 09:19

Unable to save an image in the application installation directory

1 Answers1