Can a program write to the root directory of a disk when UAC is turned on without having admin privileges?

Question

If I am not an Administrator and start a program which writes to C:\\ some textfile - will I need admin rights...in Windows 7 or Vista? I see in XP there are no problems to writ

Answer 1

Yes. You won't be able to write to C:\Program Files\ or C:\Windows\, but just the root drive C:\ is fine.

Answer 2

That depends on whether C:\ is a filesystem that supports permissions, and if so on the permissions set on the root directory, which can be modified by users with the correct privileges. Use GetTempPath() for temporary files, or SHGetFolderPath passing e.g. CSIDL_APPDATA

Answer 3

No, you can't write to the root of disk even in Windows XP if you are not an administrator. It's just everyone works as administrator in XP; and this assumption is actually wrong.