How does consent.exe function in Win 7

[vmanral]

Hi,

I noticed that on Win 7 a process called consent.exe runs when i try to install any application. From the consent.exe description i understood that it is the consent UI for administrative apps and i believe it is related to the UAC since when UAC is disabled, this process does not run. Does anyone know what this exe exactly do in the background? I mean what checks does it perform? Does it connect to the internet to validate something?
I have a 1.8 GB setup and it takes almost 2 mins for it to reach the UAC screen when i start installing it.

Thanks,

Vijay

 

[logicearth]

You cannot disable UAC you only set it up to do its work behind the scenes without issuing a dialog to you. It still needs to switch your security tokens when you do an administrative task. The only difference it does not ask for permission or confirmation.

 

[vmanral]

Does this mean, in a UAC enabled scenario, the switching of the security token from Protected Administrator to Elevated Administrator consume a lot of time for bigger setups?
The 1.8 GB setup i am referring to is a self extracting EXE and it basically starts extraction only after a consent is given in the UAC consent UI. But the time to reach the consent UI dialog is about 2 mins in Win 7 but in Win XP or with UAC disabled in Win 7, the extration starts immediately.
Also the time to reach the UAC consent UI for smaller setups (200-300 MB) is much less. So it appears that the time to switch the security token is directly proportional to the size of the setup.
Is my understanding correct?

 

[EzioAuditore]

Does this mean, in a UAC enabled scenario, the switching of the security token from Protected Administrator to Elevated Administrator consume a lot of time for bigger setups?
The 1.8 GB setup i am referring to is a self extracting EXE and it basically starts extraction only after a consent is given in the UAC consent UI. But the time to reach the consent UI dialog is about 2 mins in Win 7 but in Win XP or with UAC disabled in Win 7, the extration starts immediately.
Also the time to reach the UAC consent UI for smaller setups (200-300 MB) is much less. So it appears that the time to switch the security token is directly proportional to the size of the setup.
Is my understanding correct?

Well, it seems so. I don't have any that large sfx/setup so can't say much. Does it make any difference if you choose the 3rd UAC option i.e. not to dim the screen, only display the prompt?
In my case this option does make the UAC appear a little faster.

 

[vmanral]

The UAC option to not to dim the screen does not help.

Another data point is that if i digitally sign this setup, the time to reach the UAC consent UI is almost half.

After reading various articles i understood that the UAC tries to determine whether the setup requires elevated (Administrative) privileges or not and then opens the UAC Consent UI dialog. During this process it also reads the embedded application manifest file to determine the execution level of the application. And it also determines whether the setup is signed or not. Probably these steps to read a huge setup are leading to the increased time for the consent UI.

Could someone share any more information on this topic?