Verify Developer mode is set on Windows before running extension

[adam-fowler]

@compnerd, @tristanlabelle Is there an easy way to find this out?

[compnerd]

What is it precisely that you are after? Developer Mode not being enabled doesn't prevent the functioning of the extension. I wonder what exactly you are trying to determine.

[tristanlabelle]

I believe this comes from seeing that the lack of developer mode breaks testing functionality due to the missing symlink.

Developer mode can be tested through a registry key: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/get-started/developer-mode-features-and-debugging#use-regedit-to-enable-your-device . This NPM package could be used: https://www.npmjs.com/package/regedit

[compnerd]

If it is just symbolic link support, I think that querying for SeSymbolicLinkPrivilege should be checked for. Some people, including myself, do not enable Developer Mode, but do have the privilege which allows everything to work as expected.

[adam-fowler]

SeSymbolicLinkPrivilege

So what key and what value would I test for? Also are there instructions somewhere for an individual to enable this?

[compnerd]

There are instructions at https://portal.perforce.com/s/article/3472 (and various other sites, including the steps I've posted to the forums previously).

SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege would be the key - that is the privilege itself that needs to be checked for. https://github.com/microsoft/Windows-classic-samples/blob/1d363ff4bd17d8e20415b92e2ee989d615cc0d91/Samples/ManagementInfrastructure/cpp/Process/Provider/WindowsProcess.c has an example of how to enable the privilege and should be helpful for determining how to check the privilege (just need to check the attributes for SE_PRIVILEGE_ENABLED I believe).