The EU book The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader reveals that Vader personally gave the stormtroopers the order to kill Owen and Beru Lars, and that he knew who he was condemning to death before he gave the order:
“Lord Vader,” said one of the sandtroopers, adjusting a control on his helmet so that only Vader could hear his voice. “The Jawas sold a protocol droid and an astromech to these moisture farmers, but both droids are gone.”
Moisture farmers? Intrigued, Vader examined the holograms of the kneeling couple and said, “The farmers’ names?”
“Owen and Beru Lars, sir,” the sandtrooper responded. “They say they don’t know where the droids are, but it looks like a landspeeder is missing from their garage.”
Owen and Beru, Vader recalled...
“Tell Mr. and Mrs. Lars that they seem to have trouble keeping protocol droids on their property.”1
Not certain if he had heard correctly, the sandtrooper said, “Sir?”
“Then you may extend to them every courtesy that you showed the Jawas before you continue your search. Establish checkpoints to detain any droids entering Mos Espa or Mos Eisley spaceports. And one more thing.”
“Yes, Sir?”
“Do not stop transmitting until I break the connection.”
“Understood,” said the sandtrooper.
Vader watched the sandtroopers carry out his orders on their helpless victims. He found the sight of rising flames — even holograms of flames burning millions of light years away — to be most satisfying.
I had always assumed that the stormtroopers killed the Larses on their own initiative, or in accordance with a previously given order. The version of events in this book is interesting, but it raises the question of why it took Vader so long to figure out who Luke was.
In canon, who gave the order to kill Owen and Beru Lars? If Vader was involved, did he recognize the couple before he gave the order?
1 A reference to the fact that Anakin took C-3PO from the Lars homestead the last time he was on Tatooine, without informing the Larses that he would do so.
Answer
The (canon) factbook Ultimate Star Wars states that they were murdered on Darth's direct orders.
There's no specific indication why he chose to do so or whether this was more of a "kill anyone who might have seen the plans" sort of order, but given how closely Darth micro-manages his troops, it's very possible that he was aware of their identities before they were killed.
"Many years later, and despite Owen's best efforts to keep Luke safe from the Empire, Stormtroopers arrive at the Lars homestead and on orders from Darth Vader execute both Owen and Beru."
This aligns very nicely with what we know about the incident from the (no longer canon, but still widely respected Official Star Wars Fact File #10 which indicates that the troopers were under general orders from Vader not to leave any witnesses who may have come into contact with the plans.
MASSACRE AT THE FARM
Unaware of this error of judgement, the Desert Sands troopers approached the Lars homestead. Marching right into the compound, they rounded up the couple who lived there. While their commander interrogated Lars and his wife, the remainder of the party quickly and efficiently scoured the buildings. The senior trooper learned that the Lars' nephew, Luke, had left early that morning to have the droids start work. Suspecting Luke of being, at the very least, a Rebel sympathizer, the commander ascertained where the boy should be working, and dispatched a squad to search for him, although he did not expect them to find the young man.
Having learned all he could at the homestead, the senior trooper took the majority of his squad back to Mos Eisley. The others were instructed to follow once they had killed the old couple, destroyed the remaining droids, and set fire to the property. There could be no evidence of what the Imperials were really doing on Tatooine.
As they had done with the Jawas, the Imperial Stormtroopers killed Owen and Beru Lars and destroyed their home. The search for the droids was too important to leave any witnesses.
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