Vista - Disable UAC Prompt for Certain Applications

Hi MilesAhead,

It is true that the most important thing is to prevent the malware from being installed on the computer in the first place. UAC cannot protect you from everything, but it can definitely help. You might read this for more information on UAC to help you decide if it is worth it or not.

Security : Inside Windows Vista User Account Control -- TechNet Magazine, June 2007

Hope it helps,
Shawn

Thanks for the link. I've been lucky in that I was able to get by with Restore Points and a Registry state saver freeware for a long time. My one encounter with a nasty online attack glommed onto IE as a helper object. After that I bought imaging backup software.

From that my conclusion is just because you suffer with every click of the mouse doesn't mean you're safe while you surf. Back up your system with something and test it so you know restoring actually works(after everything is hosed is the perfect time for such a test because not a lot of time is invested in program installs and customizations.)

I look at it philosophically. If I had shut the system down sooner or just restored the deleted partition, I probably would've spent days trying to make sure my system was actually clean. Might as well just wipe and reinstall or restore and be sure.

The thing I can't stand about UAC is that it doesn't learn and remember what programs you allow to run, at least for the few times I left it enabled. For this reason I have UAC turned off and am relying on Comodo Firewall Pro which has a more sophisticated form of UAC called "defense plus" built into it, which is separate from, and in addition to, the firewall function. CFP's Defense Plus is also a PIA especially at first, but at least it learns and remembers and eventually stops bothering you, except when installing new stuff. I think it is considerably more sophisticated than UAC and, best of all, it's a free program.

Are you sure it's UAC that's the problem here oder might it be the secure desktop used by UAC? Let me explain the details:

When UAC poses a question on you, it normally does that using the so called "secure desktop": Your screen is frozen and goes a bit darker, then the UAC dialog pops up and needs to be answered before you can do anything else. This is of course to prevent other programs watching out for UAC dialogs and answering them by sending "button pressed" -messages to the UAC dialog window.

Using two monitors myself, this was my worst annoyance with UAC, since with two monitors, both of them go black for a split second before displaying the frozen and darker image of your desktop.

Fortunately, you can turn off using secure desktop without giving up UAC alltogether. Here's how:

Under Vista Ultimate and Vista Business, follow these steps (taken from Vista: Disable Secure Desktop When Prompting for Elevation - Tech-Recipes.com)

1. Press the WinKey+R to bring up the Run dialog box.

2. Input secpol.msc.

3. Click OK.

4. When the UAC prompt appears, select Continue.

5. The Local Security Policy window will appear.

6. In the left pane, expand Local Policies.

7. Select Security Options.

8. In the right pane, scroll down to the bottom.

9. Double-click User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation.

10. Under the Local Security Setting, select the Disabled radio button.

11. Click OK.

12. Close the Local Security Policy window.

When using Vista Home, you don't have the required file secpol.msc, so you will have to use regedit instead:

1. Press the WinKey+R to bring up the Run dialog box.

2. Input regedit

3. Click OK.

4. When the UAC prompt appears, select Continue.

5. In RegEdit, navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

6. Find the DWORD value "PromptOnSecureDesktop" and doubleclick it.

7. Set the value to 0.

Voilá - you're done. UAC prompts appear on your normal desktop now and don't interfere with any programm you're running. Sure enough, it's a litte bit more unsafe than using secure desktop, but much safer that turning off UAC....

I have UAC turned off, but I am very security conscious. I run good anti-virus software, and keep Windows Defender active. I know there are risks, but I am willing to take them. This is not a good idea for people that don't fully understand security.

If you are unsure, leave UAC on.

UAC exceptions sound like a great idea, but it's not. If there were exceptions, virus writes would take advantage of them by finding weaknesses in commonly excepted (is that a word) programs. It's all or nothing. That's why even Microsoft programs are affected by UAC.

In my opinion, UAC is annoying. The fact that it can easily be turned off is nice.

Paul

I found out another way, if anyone is still interested. However, it blocks UAC COMPLETELY!
Copy the following into a text doc.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin"=dword:00000000


Save it TWICE.
1. as a .txt call it anything. i called it uac.txt
2. save as any name again but you must put a .reg in the file name. close the text doc, and then delete the .reg file.
UAC should now not be a pain. let me know if otherwise

I hope I'm not OT here in this 3d.....
I'm trying to teach at UAC to learn a "behavior" !!
I've some USB MyBook external drives and so I need the "WDBM" WesternDigital Button Manager because for Vista 64 there was no drivers, no programs to manage them.
Every time I reboot I'm asked for permitting to load WDBM...... It makes me crazy!
I find some instructions to make a fix (sdbinst C:\Fix\WDBM.sdb) after having created a WDBM.sdb file..... but don't work.... still UAC ask every time the permission....
I'm me too on Vista 64 and I don't want to disable UAC' control.
Does someone of you guys have any idea on how to solve the problem?
Thanks in advance and sorry for my little english

well i do understand UAC gives some level of protection from malwares but i agree that there should have been a exception list and specially when you already have a good anti virus like norton or mcafee securing you. you would be looking at these UAC pop ups as annoying as already we get pop ups from anti virus program. so is there any reg key or tweak or tool to create a exception list.

Hi Bossmayank,

It's a hit or miss deal on if it will work for the program, but the link in the 1st post shows you how to create an exception list for UAC.

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-news/1...tml#post558745

Shawn

hey guys. damn that link in your first post is gone from the ms site.