Running compiled python (py2exe) as administrator in Vista

Following the examples from Python2x\Lib\site-packages\py2exe\samples\user_access_control just add uac_info="requireAdministrator" to console or windows dict:

windows = [{
    'script': "admin.py",
    'uac_info': "requireAdministrator",
},]

Do you mean that you want Windows to prompt for elevation when your program is run? This is controlled by adding a UAC manifest to the EXE's resources. This blog entry explains how to create the manifest and how to compile it into a .RES file.

I don't know what facilities py2exe has for embedding custom .RES files, so you might need to use the MT.EXE tool from the Platform SDK to embed the manifest in your program. MT.EXE doesn't need .RES files; it can merge the .manifest file directly.

Following up Roger Lipscombe's comment, I've used a manifest file in py2exe without any real knowledge of what I was doing. So this might work:

# in setup.py
# manifest copied from http://blogs.msdn.com/shawnfa/archive/2006/04/06/568563.aspx
manifest = '''
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
       <asmv3:trustInfo xmlns:asmv3="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
         <asmv3:security>
           <asmv3:requestedPrivileges>
             <asmv3:requestedExecutionLevel
               level="asInvoker"
               uiAccess="false" />
           </asmv3:requestedPrivileges>
         </asmv3:security>
       </asmv3:trustInfo>
     </assembly>
'''

setup(name='MyApp',
      #...
      windows=[ { #...
                  'other_resources':[(24, 1, manifest)],
                 }]
     )

You may need to do some fiddling though..