RVL200934: Running RayPack/RayEval Without Administrator Rights

RVL200934: Running RayPack/RayEval Without Administrator Rights

Overview

These applications are configured to always request elevated privileges (UAC prompt) due to an embedded manifest specifying requireAdministrator level. However, for certain use cases, you may want to bypass the UAC prompt and run the application without administrative rights.

This article describes a safe and supported way to do that by overriding the embedded manifest.

🔒 Why It Prompts for UAC

The application binary contains an embedded manifest like:

xmlCopyEdit<requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false" />

This instructs Windows to always launch the app with elevated privileges, triggering a UAC prompt.

✅ Solution: Override Embedded Manifest

Windows allows an external manifest file to override the internal one if the file name matches the executable.

Steps:

1. Navigate to the installation directory.
2. Create a new file named:  
   • RayEval.exe.manifest for RayEval
   • RayPack.exe.manifest for RayPack
3. Open it in a text editor (e.g., Notepad), and paste the following content: [copy from ticket]
4. Save the file.

🔄 Result

The next time you run applications, Windows will use the external manifest and launch it with the current user's privileges, skipping the UAC prompt.

⚠️ Notes

• This change affects only that instance of the app (only in that folder).
• You must have write access to the folder to add the .manifest file.
• Some of the app's features may not work properly.
• If the embedded manifest is digitally signed or enforced via policies, this method may not work.

🔁 To Restore Original Behavior

Simply delete or rename the created file.