results from debug diff from release

Question

I have this code here:

#include "windows.h"
#include "Tlhelp32.h"
#include "shellapi.h"
#include <wchar.h>
#include <fstream>

bool enumProcesses();

int main()
{
    enumProcesses();
    ShellExecute( NULL, L"open", L"log.txt", NULL, NULL, SW_SHOW );

    return 0;
}



bool enumProcesses()
{
    std::wofstream log("log.txt");
    PROCESSENTRY32 lppe;
    MODULEENTRY32 lpme;
    HANDLE hSnapshot;
    HANDLE mSnapshot;

    lppe.dwSize = sizeof( PROCESSENTRY32 );
    lpme.dwSize = sizeof( MODULEENTRY32 );
    hSnapshot = CreateToolhelp32Snapshot( TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, 0 );

    if( hSnapshot == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE )
    {
     log << L"Error creating process snapshot.";
     return false;
    }

    if( !Process32First( hSnapshot, &lppe ) )
    {
     log << L"Error enumerating first process.";
     return false;
    }
    else 
    {
     mSnapshot = CreateToolhelp32Snapshot( TH32CS_SNAPMODULE, lppe.th32ProcessID );

     if( mSnapshot != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE )
     {
      Module32First( mSnapshot, &lpme );
     }

     if( wcscmp( lppe.szExeFile, L"[System Process]" ) != 0 )
     {
      log << lpme.szExePath << "\n";
     }  
    }

    while( Process32Next( hSnapshot, &lppe ) )
    {
     if( wcscmp( lppe.szExeFile, L"System" ) != 0 ) 
     {
      if( (mSnapshot = CreateToolhelp32Snapshot( TH32CS_SNAPMODULE, lppe.th32ProcessID )) != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE )
      {
       if( Module32First( mSnapshot, &lpme ) ) {
        log << lpme.szExePath << "\n";
       }

      }
     }
    }

    CloseHandle( hSnapshot );
    CloseHandle( mSnapshot );
    log.close();

    return true;
}

My problem is that whenever I debug this code in VC++ using F5 or CTRL + F5, it shows me all the processes but when I create a release version and run it, some things don't even show anymore and I'm not sure why..

Here's what I'm talking about:

release version:

C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\jusched.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe
C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wscntfy.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe
c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\ide\mspdbsrv.exe
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
C:\Documents and Settings\windows\Desktop\c++ projects\gggg\Debug\gggg.exe

log created on debug:

\SystemRoot\System32\smss.exe
\??\C:\WINDOWS\system32\csrss.exe
\??\C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\jusched.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe
C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\jqs.exe
c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Binn\sqlservr.exe
c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\sqlwriter.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\alg.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wscntfy.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe
c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\ide\mspdbsrv.exe
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\NOTEPAD.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
c:\Documents and Settings\windows\Desktop\c++ projects\gggg\Release\gggg.exe

Does it have something to do with permissions?

EDIT:

Looking at 1800 INFORMATION's post, I tried to "force" it to run under SYSTEM account by using psexec -i -d -s and it worked... Is there any way I could run this without the need of doing such a thing?

Answer 1

I bet that when you debug it, you are running it from within Visual Studio with administrator privileges, while when you run the release build, it does not so it will not be able to see all of the processes in the system. This is the same reason that task manager cannot list all of the running processes unless you elevate.