UAC shield icon (BCM_SETSHIELD) not on a button

The UAC (User Account Control) shield icon, often represented by the blue and yellow shield, indicates that an action requires administrative privileges and prompts the user to elevate their permissions when clicked. The BCM_SETSHIELD message is commonly used to add this icon to buttons or other controls in a user interface.

However, you mentioned that you want to place the UAC shield icon on something other than a button. This requires a bit of a workaround, as BCM_SETSHIELD is designed for buttons. One common approach is to use a Static control (a label) to display the shield icon, and then handle the click event to trigger the elevated action.

Here's a basic example of how you might achieve this in a Windows API-based GUI application (using C++ as an example):

cppCopy code
#include <Windows.h>

#include <Uxtheme.h> // For UxTheme API



LRESULT CALLBACK WindowProc(HWND hwnd, UINT uMsg, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)

{

    switch (uMsg)

    {

        case WM_CREATE:

        {

            // Create a static control to display the shield icon

            HWND hStatic = CreateWindow(L"STATIC", L"", WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | SS_ICON,

                                        50, 50, 32, 32,

                                        hwnd, NULL, GetModuleHandle(NULL), NULL);



            // Load the UAC shield icon

            HANDLE hIcon = LoadImage(NULL, L"shell32.dll, -32518", IMAGE_ICON, 0, 0, LR_DEFAULTSIZE | LR_SHARED);

            SendMessage(hStatic, STM_SETIMAGE, IMAGE_ICON, (LPARAM)hIcon);

        }

        break;



        case WM_COMMAND:

            if (LOWORD(wParam) == IDOK)

            {

                // Handle the UAC shield-click event here

                // This is where you can trigger the elevated action

            }

            break;



        case WM_CLOSE:

            DestroyWindow(hwnd);

            break;



        case WM_DESTROY:

            PostQuitMessage(0);

            break;

    }



    return DefWindowProc(hwnd, uMsg, wParam, lParam);

}



int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)

{

    const wchar_t CLASS_NAME[] = L"MyWindowClass";



    WNDCLASS wc = {0};

    wc.lpfnWndProc = WindowProc;

    wc.hInstance = hInstance;

    wc.lpszClassName = CLASS_NAME;



    RegisterClass(&wc);



    HWND hwnd = CreateWindowEx(0, CLASS_NAME, L"UAC Shield Icon Example",

                               WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW, CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT, 400, 300,

                               NULL, NULL, hInstance, NULL);



    ShowWindow(hwnd, nCmdShow);



    MSG msg = {};

    while (GetMessage(&msg, NULL, 0, 0))

    {

        TranslateMessage(&msg);

        DispatchMessage(&msg);

    }



    return 0;

}

In this example, the UAC shield icon is displayed on a Static control. When the user clicks the icon, the WM_COMMAND message is triggered, allowing you to handle the elevated action.

Please note that this example uses native Windows API and C++. If you are using a different programming language or framework, the approach may differ, but the concept of using a non-button control to display the UAC shield icon and handling its click event remains the same.