Home »
Windows
»
Windows Configuration
Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.
Allowing everything admin access isn't the only bad thing that turning off UAC will do.
For example. File & Registry Virtualization is only active when UAC is turned on, so user settings and configuration files may be installed to a different place (a system directory rather than a user-specific directory) if UAC is switched off than they would be otherwise. This won't affect you if you turn if off immediately you first install Vista and keep it off forever, but if you've had UAC on for a while and now turn it off, you may well run into problems when programs file calls to the "program files" folder aren't redirected to your userspace.
Also note that Internet Explorer 7's "Protected Mode", whereby the browser runs in a sandbox with lower privileges than the standard user, relies on UAC; and won't work if UAC is disabled.
Basically, keep UAC on if at all possible. Unless you REALLY know what you're doing (and don't use internet explorer).
Posted by: Simon at October 5, 2007 11:09 AMThis is the FIRST thing I do/did when I bought my new computer. Very annoying. Maybe we need to tie our mittens to our coats too??? LOL.
Posted by: Carl R. Goodwin at October 5, 2007 8:03 PMBy the time a malware hits I will be numb with just clicking permissions for spyware, firewall, and UAC without even attempting to read the cryptic messages. I shut off UAC. Have shut off spyware in past.Just paid for Sunbelt. May have to find another solution (router or ?). Even if I could see these permissions they are unintelligible to me.
Posted by: terry coon at October 5, 2007 9:29 PMsuperb this website provided by leo is just great & the information provided is also very important & useful!!
Posted by: robin monteiro at October 6, 2007 8:20 PMThe great thing about Microsoft is that they have enough walls and enough things to throw them at that something eventually sticks. Hopefully they'll take the advice of some of the more vocal columnists and write off Vista as Windows ME 2.0, and shoot out something a heck of a lot better to replace it... soon.
Posted by: Greg at October 6, 2007 10:17 PMOk, so i tired turning off the UAC and every time i click the button i get nothing. Can't access User Accounts and I'm running under Administrator with no password. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by: mike at November 11, 2008 7:57 PMDid you turn it off with nlite? If so I had a problem when I turned it back on after not installing it with a clean Vista install. Anything that normally be questioned by UAC wouldn't work anymore. Only fix I found was reinstalling Vista without UAC and never trying to turn UAC it on again.
Posted by: johnjohn at November 28, 2008 2:01 PMget TweakUAC, freeware. Turn off most annoyances on the fly without reboot.
Posted by: philalethes at December 23, 2008 11:19 AMThanks for the help. Trying to set up some medical diagnosis software for a palm pilot and even as administrator I still get an elevation request. I'll probably turn UAC back on after I install the sw.
Posted by: Steve Haley at January 11, 2009 9:47 PMso XP has both Admin and "Limited Account"
how can I create same limited account (as XP) on Vista ?
please do let me know if you know..
Posted by: sendi at January 29, 2009 6:34 PMTo post a comment on "How do I turn off User Access Control (UAC) in Windows Vista?", please return to that article's main page.