In order to programmatically reboot a Windows NT or Windows 2000 system, the process requires the SE_SHUTDOWN_NAME privilege. By default, Visual Basic applications do not have this privilege and therefore will not reboot the machine.
In order to get ExitWindowsEx API to reboot the system under Windows NT or Windows 2000, the SE_SHUTDOWN_NAME privilege must be set. The following steps describe how to get the ExitWindowsEx API to work under Windows NT and Windows 2000.
Create a new standard EXE in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.
View the code for Form1. In the Declarations section, add the following
code:
Private Type LUID
UsedPart As Long
IgnoredForNowHigh32BitPart As Long
End Type
Private Type TOKEN_PRIVILEGES
PrivilegeCount As Long
TheLuid As LUID
Attributes As Long
End Type
Private Const EWX_SHUTDOWN As Long = 1
Private Const EWX_FORCE As Long = 4
Private Const EWX_REBOOT = 2
Private Declare Function ExitWindowsEx Lib "user32" (ByVal _
dwOptions As Long, ByVal dwReserved As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetCurrentProcess Lib "kernel32" () As Long
Private Declare Function OpenProcessToken Lib "advapi32" (ByVal _
ProcessHandle As Long, _
ByVal DesiredAccess As Long, TokenHandle As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function LookupPrivilegeValue Lib "advapi32" _
Alias "LookupPrivilegeValueA" _
(ByVal lpSystemName As String, ByVal lpName As String, lpLuid _
As LUID) As Long
Private Declare Function AdjustTokenPrivileges Lib "advapi32" _
(ByVal TokenHandle As Long, _
ByVal DisableAllPrivileges As Long, NewState As TOKEN_PRIVILEGES _
, ByVal BufferLength As Long, _
PreviousState As TOKEN_PRIVILEGES, ReturnLength As Long) As Long
Add a procedure called AdjustToken with the following code:
Private Sub AdjustToken()
Const TOKEN_ADJUST_PRIVILEGES = &H20
Const TOKEN_QUERY = &H8
Const SE_PRIVILEGE_ENABLED = &H2
Dim hdlProcessHandle As Long
Dim hdlTokenHandle As Long
Dim tmpLuid As LUID
Dim tkp As TOKEN_PRIVILEGES
Dim tkpNewButIgnored As TOKEN_PRIVILEGES
Dim lBufferNeeded As Long
hdlProcessHandle = GetCurrentProcess()
OpenProcessToken hdlProcessHandle, (TOKEN_ADJUST_PRIVILEGES Or _
TOKEN_QUERY), hdlTokenHandle
' Get the LUID for shutdown privilege.
LookupPrivilegeValue "", "SeShutdownPrivilege", tmpLuid
tkp.PrivilegeCount = 1 ' One privilege to set
tkp.TheLuid = tmpLuid
tkp.Attributes = SE_PRIVILEGE_ENABLED
' Enable the shutdown privilege in the access token of this process.
AdjustTokenPrivileges hdlTokenHandle, False, _
tkp, Len(tkpNewButIgnored), tkpNewButIgnored, lBufferNeeded
End Sub
Add a CommandButton to the form. In the Click event, add the following code:
Private Sub Command1_Click()
AdjustToken
ExitWindowsEx (EWX_SHUTDOWN Or EWX_FORCE Or EWX_REBOOT), &HFFFF
End Sub
Save the project and build an executable. When you run the executable
and click the CommandButton the computer will reboot as expected.