[Vista only] file IOException in system folders...

Question

i get IOExceptions thrown if attempting to write to system folders. this behavior only occurs in windows vista when User Account Control is ON. if i turn it off, the error goes away.
windows xp, 2000 and mac os x are all fine. damn vista!
as far as i know, most programs get this access by invoking the annoying user account control popup (do you want to give this program permission to execute?) or the like. this seems to be automatically invoked for .exes but not with .jars. is there a way i can invoke this permission for my java.exe / javaw.exe program?
at the moment, the only workaround i have is a popup asking users to disable User Account Control. i think all would agree this is a poor solution. its not even a solution. its an embarrassing workaround...
any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance!
-mark
example below.
import java.io.BufferedWriter;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
public class VistaFileIO
public VistaFileIO()
  String startMenuPath = "C:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\javaFile.txt";
  String randomSystemFolderPath = "C:\\AppData\\Default\\AppData\\Local\\javaFile.txt";
  if (writeToFile(startMenuPath) && writeToFile(randomSystemFolderPath))
    JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,
      "\n\n Successfully wrote both files.\n\n", "Success!", JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE);
public static void main (String[] args)
  new VistaFileIO();
boolean writeToFile(String path)
  try
      BufferedWriter fout = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(path, false));
      fout.write("tying to write some text!");
      fout.newLine();
      fout.close();
      return true;
  catch (IOException e)
    JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,
      "\n\n Couldn't write to the file '" + path + "'\n\n" + getStackTrace(e),
      "IOException Caught", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
    return false;
static String getStackTrace(Exception e)
     String trace = "\n";
     StackTraceElement[] stack = e.getStackTrace();
     for (int i = 0; i < stack.length; i++)
         trace += "\n" + stack;
return trace;

Answer 1

While Vista is not my OS of choice, I like how it actually forces people to think about security ('though it might be better if they didn't just think of it as another annoying message box, but one can't have everything).
Why do you need to write to a system file area anyway? The only valid reason I can think of is if you are trying to write an installer. And if you do that and can't find documentation on how to do that, then you're probably better of to just use an existing one, since writing an installer is far more complex and tiresome as sounds.
Especially with things like UAC in Vista.
Just grab one of the existing (Java) installers (google helps find them!) and be done with it.
If you're not writing an installer, then I'd be curious to know why you need to access those directories.