Summary

Fixes #4349: Windows admin permissions not persisting between machines

This PR adds configurable UAC (User Account Control) execution level support to the Windows manifest template, allowing developers to specify admin requirements that persist when executables are distributed to other machines.

Problem Solved

Users building Wails applications with admin privileges using custom manifest files reported that:

• Admin requirements worked on the build machine
• Admin requirements were lost when copying executables to other machines
• Using rsrc tool directly resulted in "too many .rsrc sections" errors

Root Cause

The default Wails manifest template didn't include UAC configuration options, and users trying to add their own resource files conflicted with Wails' resource embedding process.

Solution

✅ Enhanced Windows Manifest Template

• Added conditional UAC trustInfo section using {{.ExecutionLevel}} template variable
• Backward compatible: no UAC section when execution level not specified
• Proper XML structure following Microsoft UAC manifest specifications

✅ Project Configuration Support

• Added WindowsInfo struct to project configuration (v2/internal/project/project.go)
• Added executionLevel field for specifying UAC requirements
• Integrated into existing template data processing pipeline

✅ Template Data Enhancement

• Extended assetData struct to include execution level field
• Updated template resolution to extract Windows-specific configuration
• Maintained full backward compatibility with existing projects

✅ Comprehensive Documentation

• Added Windows UAC guide with practical examples (website/docs/guides/windows.mdx)
• Updated project configuration reference (website/docs/reference/project-config.mdx)
• Included usage examples for all supported execution levels

Usage

Developers can now configure UAC execution level in wails.json:

{
  "info": {
    "companyName": "My Company", 
    "productName": "My App",
    "productVersion": "1.0.0",
    "windows": {
      "executionLevel": "requireAdministrator"
    }
  }
}

Supported Execution Levels

Testing

✅ Verification Completed

• Built Windows executable with requireAdministrator setting
• Extracted resources using go-winres extract tool
• Confirmed UAC trustInfo section properly embedded in executable
• Verified requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" present in manifest
• Tested backward compatibility with projects without execution level specified

Resource Extraction Results

<trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
  <security>
    <requestedPrivileges>
      <requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false"/>
    </requestedPrivileges>
  </security>
</trustInfo>

Files Changed

• v2/internal/project/project.go - Added Windows configuration struct
• v2/pkg/buildassets/build/windows/wails.exe.manifest - Enhanced template with UAC support
• v2/pkg/buildassets/buildassets.go - Updated template data processing
• website/docs/guides/windows.mdx - Added comprehensive UAC guide
• website/docs/reference/project-config.mdx - Updated configuration reference

Backward Compatibility

✅ Fully backward compatible - existing projects continue to work unchanged
✅ No breaking changes - UAC section only added when explicitly configured
✅ Default behavior preserved - applications run with invoker privileges when not specified

Impact

• Resolves persistent admin permissions issue affecting Windows developers
• Eliminates "too many .rsrc sections" errors from manual rsrc tool usage
• Provides clean, documented approach for Windows privilege configuration
• Maintains Wails' ease-of-use philosophy with simple JSON configuration

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Co-Authored-By: Claude noreply@anthropic.com