I cant get the CMD outputs to display in my textbox.

Question

Since Local User Group Management doesnt seem to be something I can query in C#, I figured I would do a down and dirty version of what I an trying to accomplish and I need some advice for best practices.

THE GOAL: Essentially, I need to determine if the current local user's password is set to expire and display the result in a textbox. I have already written a text search so I dont mind that there will be extra data sitting on the output since I will distill the data down to a boolean check for one string.

The Problem: Check out the code below. For some reason the error codes come through from CMD just fine, however, the output does not display in textbox2.

            string userName = System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name.Split('\\').Last(); ;
            user.Text = userName;

            Process cmd = new Process();
            cmd.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
            cmd.StartInfo.Arguments = "/c net user";
            cmd.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
            cmd.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
            cmd.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
            cmd.Start();
            //* Read the output (or the error)
            string output = cmd.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
            textBox2.Text = output;
            string err = cmd.StandardError.ReadToEnd();
            textBox2.Text = err;
            cmd.WaitForExit();

Answer 1

EDIT

USER_INFO_2

The USER_INFO_2 structure contains information about a user account, including the account name, password data, privilege level, the path to the user's home directory, and other user-related network statistics.

usri2_acct_expires

Specifies a DWORD value that indicates when the account expires. This value is stored as the number of seconds elapsed since 00:00:00, January 1, 1970, GMT. A value of TIMEQ_FOREVER indicates that the account never expires.

from USER_INFO_2 used with NetUserGetInfo.

Declared in Lmaccess.h; include Lm.h.

It is really poor practise to shell to a user commands to do simple things.

---

Your essential problem and your very silly conclusion that user management isn't available is wrong.

If another program can do something then so can your program.

If you don't know how you look at the API calls it calls (open it in notepad and look - they are alltogether in the file). .NET has it's own WMI class.

C# and C++ and C all have access to WMI. The command line for what you are doing via WMI is

wmic path Win32_Account get /format:list
wmic path Win32_Group get /format:list
wmic path Win32_GroupInDomain get /format:list
wmic path Win32_GroupUser get /format:list
wmic path Win32_SystemAccount get /format:list
wmic path Win32_SystemUsers get /format:list
wmic path Win32_UserAccount get /format:list

For Help

wmic /?
wmic UserAccount /?
wmic useraccount get /?
wmic useraccount set /?
wmic useraccount call /?

The same thing in vbscript is

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\.\root\cimv2")
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * From Win32_UserAccount")
For Each objItem in colItems
        msgbox objitem.Caption & " " & objItem.Description
Next

A C++ example from WDK

#include "querysink.h"


int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    HRESULT hres;

    // Step 1: --------------------------------------------------
    // Initialize COM. ------------------------------------------

    hres =  CoInitializeEx(0, COINIT_MULTITHREADED); 
    if (FAILED(hres))
    {
        cout << "Failed to initialize COM library. Error code = 0x" 
            << hex << hres << endl;
        return 1;                  // Program has failed.
    }

    // Step 2: --------------------------------------------------
    // Set general COM security levels --------------------------
    // Note: If you are using Windows 2000, you need to specify -
    // the default authentication credentials for a user by using
    // a SOLE_AUTHENTICATION_LIST structure in the pAuthList ----
    // parameter of CoInitializeSecurity ------------------------

    hres =  CoInitializeSecurity(
        NULL, 
        -1,                          // COM authentication
        NULL,                        // Authentication services
        NULL,                        // Reserved
        RPC_C_AUTHN_LEVEL_DEFAULT,   // Default authentication 
        RPC_C_IMP_LEVEL_IMPERSONATE, // Default Impersonation  
        NULL,                        // Authentication info
        EOAC_NONE,                   // Additional capabilities 
        NULL                         // Reserved
        );


    if (FAILED(hres))
    {
        cout << "Failed to initialize security. Error code = 0x" 
            << hex << hres << endl;
        CoUninitialize();
        return 1;                    // Program has failed.
    }

    // Step 3: ---------------------------------------------------
    // Obtain the initial locator to WMI -------------------------

    IWbemLocator *pLoc = NULL;

    hres = CoCreateInstance(
        CLSID_WbemLocator,             
        0, 
        CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, 
        IID_IWbemLocator, (LPVOID *) &pLoc);

    if (FAILED(hres))
    {
        cout << "Failed to create IWbemLocator object."
            << " Err code = 0x"
            << hex << hres << endl;
        CoUninitialize();
        return 1;                 // Program has failed.
    }

    // Step 4: -----------------------------------------------------
    // Connect to WMI through the IWbemLocator::ConnectServer method

    IWbemServices *pSvc = NULL;

    // Connect to the local root\cimv2 namespace
    // and obtain pointer pSvc to make IWbemServices calls.
    hres = pLoc->ConnectServer(
        _bstr_t(L"ROOT\\CIMV2"), 
        NULL,
        NULL,
        0,
        NULL,
        0,
        0, 
        &pSvc
        );

    if (FAILED(hres))
    {
        cout << "Could not connect. Error code = 0x" 
             << hex << hres << endl;
        pLoc->Release();     
        CoUninitialize();
        return 1;                // Program has failed.
    }

    cout << "Connected to ROOT\\CIMV2 WMI namespace" << endl;


    // Step 5: --------------------------------------------------
    // Set security levels on the proxy -------------------------

    hres = CoSetProxyBlanket(
       pSvc,                        // Indicates the proxy to set
       RPC_C_AUTHN_WINNT,           // RPC_C_AUTHN_xxx
       RPC_C_AUTHZ_NONE,            // RPC_C_AUTHZ_xxx
       NULL,                        // Server principal name 
       RPC_C_AUTHN_LEVEL_CALL,      // RPC_C_AUTHN_LEVEL_xxx 
       RPC_C_IMP_LEVEL_IMPERSONATE, // RPC_C_IMP_LEVEL_xxx
       NULL,                        // client identity
       EOAC_NONE                    // proxy capabilities 
    );

    if (FAILED(hres))
    {
        cout << "Could not set proxy blanket. Error code = 0x" 
            << hex << hres << endl;
        pSvc->Release();
        pLoc->Release();     
        CoUninitialize();
        return 1;               // Program has failed.
    }

    // Step 6: --------------------------------------------------
    // Use the IWbemServices pointer to make requests of WMI ----

    // For example, get the name of the operating system.
    // The IWbemService::ExecQueryAsync method will call
    // the QuerySink::Indicate method when it receives a result
    // and the QuerySink::Indicate method will display the OS name
    QuerySink* pResponseSink = new QuerySink();
    hres = pSvc->ExecQueryAsync(
        bstr_t("WQL"), 
        bstr_t("SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem"),
        WBEM_FLAG_BIDIRECTIONAL, 
        NULL,
        pResponseSink);

    if (FAILED(hres))
    {
        cout << "Query for operating system name failed."
            << " Error code = 0x" 
            << hex << hres << endl;
        pSvc->Release();
        pLoc->Release();
        pResponseSink->Release();
        CoUninitialize();
        return 1;               // Program has failed.
    }

    // Step 7: -------------------------------------------------
    // Wait to get the data from the query in step 6 -----------
    Sleep(500);
    pSvc->CancelAsyncCall(pResponseSink);

    // Cleanup
    // ========
    pSvc->Release();
    pLoc->Release();
    CoUninitialize();

    return 0;   // Program successfully completed.

}

The following code is the header file code for the QuerySink class. The QuerySink class is used in the previous code. 


// QuerySink.h
#ifndef QUERYSINK_H
#define QUERYSINK_H

#define _WIN32_DCOM
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
#include <comdef.h>
#include <Wbemidl.h>

# pragma comment(lib, "wbemuuid.lib")

class QuerySink : public IWbemObjectSink
{
    LONG m_lRef;
    bool bDone;
    CRITICAL_SECTION threadLock; // for thread safety

public:
    QuerySink() { m_lRef = 0; bDone = false; 
        InitializeCriticalSection(&threadLock); }
    ~QuerySink() { bDone = true;
        DeleteCriticalSection(&threadLock); }

    virtual ULONG STDMETHODCALLTYPE AddRef();
    virtual ULONG STDMETHODCALLTYPE Release();        
    virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE QueryInterface(REFIID riid,
        void** ppv);

    virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE Indicate( 
            LONG lObjectCount,
            IWbemClassObject __RPC_FAR *__RPC_FAR *apObjArray
            );

    virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE SetStatus( 
            /* [in] */ LONG lFlags,
            /* [in] */ HRESULT hResult,
            /* [in] */ BSTR strParam,
            /* [in] */ IWbemClassObject __RPC_FAR *pObjParam
            );

    bool IsDone();
};

#endif    // end of QuerySink.h

The following code is an implementation of the QuerySink class:


// QuerySink.cpp
#include "querysink.h"

ULONG QuerySink::AddRef()
{
    return InterlockedIncrement(&m_lRef);
}

ULONG QuerySink::Release()
{
    LONG lRef = InterlockedDecrement(&m_lRef);
    if(lRef == 0)
        delete this;
    return lRef;
}

HRESULT QuerySink::QueryInterface(REFIID riid, void** ppv)
{
    if (riid == IID_IUnknown || riid == IID_IWbemObjectSink)
    {
        *ppv = (IWbemObjectSink *) this;
        AddRef();
        return WBEM_S_NO_ERROR;
    }
    else return E_NOINTERFACE;
}


HRESULT QuerySink::Indicate(long lObjectCount,
    IWbemClassObject **apObjArray)
{
    HRESULT hres = S_OK;

    for (int i = 0; i < lObjectCount; i++)
    {
        VARIANT varName;
        hres = apObjArray[i]->Get(_bstr_t(L"Name"),
            0, &varName, 0, 0);

        if (FAILED(hres))
        {
            cout << "Failed to get the data from the query"
                << " Error code = 0x"
                << hex << hres << endl;
            return WBEM_E_FAILED;       // Program has failed.
        }

        printf("Name: %ls\n", V_BSTR(&varName));
    }

    return WBEM_S_NO_ERROR;
}

HRESULT QuerySink::SetStatus(
            /* [in] */ LONG lFlags,
            /* [in] */ HRESULT hResult,
            /* [in] */ BSTR strParam,
            /* [in] */ IWbemClassObject __RPC_FAR *pObjParam
        )
{
    if(lFlags == WBEM_STATUS_COMPLETE)
    {
        printf("Call complete.\n");

        EnterCriticalSection(&threadLock);
        bDone = true;
        LeaveCriticalSection(&threadLock);
    }
    else if(lFlags == WBEM_STATUS_PROGRESS)
    {
        printf("Call in progress.\n");
    }

    return WBEM_S_NO_ERROR;
}


bool QuerySink::IsDone()
{
    bool done = true;

    EnterCriticalSection(&threadLock);
    done = bDone;
    LeaveCriticalSection(&threadLock);

    return done;
}    // end of QuerySink.cpp

Answer 2

First you're putting the output variable textBox2.Text, then you are replacing the textBox2.Text with err and I believe you're getting nothing from err variable, that's why TextBox2 is not displaying what you're expecting.

try to run the snippet below to check how output and err variable are getting:

string userName = System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name.Split('\\').Last(); ;
            string text = userName;

            Process cmd = new Process();
            cmd.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
            cmd.StartInfo.Arguments = "/c net user";
            cmd.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
            cmd.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
            cmd.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
            cmd.Start();
            //* Read the output (or the error)
            string output = cmd.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();

            string err = cmd.StandardError.ReadToEnd();

            Console.WriteLine("Output: "+output );
            Console.WriteLine("Err: "+err);
            cmd.WaitForExit();
            Console.ReadKey();