Published by

**Brink** · 16 Mar 2007

How to Turn User Account Control (UAC) On or Off in Vista

Information

UAC or User Account Control is used to increase the security of the operating system by helping the user gain more control over the actions that are performed with administrative rights on their computers. Anytime a action requires administrative rights, UAC will confirm the action with you first. When a program asks for your permission to run with a UAC prompt, this means that program is asking for complete and unrestricted access to every part of your computer. This keeps you in control of what is happening on your computer. For more information, see:

Note

Normal default administrator accounts run like a Standard User until a program or application requests elevation to run with administrator privileges. You then have a choice of allowing or denying the elevation. To allow, you must then click Continue or Run in the Administrator account, while in a Standard User account you must enter the administrator account's password to do so.

Warning

This also turns Protected Mode in IE7 off and on. Also, please note that if UAC is disabled, you may have compatibility issues when installing some older programs since Vista is now acting like XP. (See related link 7 below) This can result in some unexplained Access Denied error messages. You will also not be notified to confirm a action of a program you did not know was going to use administrator privileges. You may wish to do releated link 1 instead to help prevent possible compatibility issues with some programs with UAC turned off.

Tip

To Have UAC Progam Exceptions to not have UAC ask for your permission on certain programs, then you can use the Norton UAC Tool for this.

If you really must stop the UAC prompts, then it would be better to elevate the administrator accounts instead so they will no longer be bothered by the UAC. This way UAC is not completely off and IE7 Protected Mode is still on.
For better security, it is recommended that you leave the UAC turned on and not elevate the administrator account.

EXAMPLE: UAC Prompt

OPTION ONE

Through the Control Panel

1. Open the Control Panel. (Classic View)

2. Click on the User Account icon.

3. Click on Turn User Account Control on or off. (See screenshot below)

4. To Turn Off UAC

A) Uncheck Use UAC to help protect your computer. (See screenshot below step 5)
NOTE: When you turn off UAC, the Security Center will give you an alert warning notification in the notification area of the taskbar until you turn UAC back on. To turn this alert off, see: How to Disable or Enable the Security Center Alert Warning Notification in Vista

B) Go to step 6

5. To Turn On UAC

A) Check Use UAC to help protect your computer. (See screenshot below)

6. Click on OK.

7. Click on Restart Now to apply the changes. (See screenshot below)
WARNING: This will restart the computer when clicked on. Be sure to save and close anything else running first.

OPTION TWO

Using a REG File Download

1. To Turn UAC On

A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below.

Turn_UAC_On.reg

B) Go to step 3.

2. To Turn UAC Off

A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below.
NOTE: When you turn off UAC, the Security Center will give you an alert warning notification in the notification area of the taskbar until you turn UAC back on. To turn this alert off, see: How to Disable or Enable the Security Center Alert Warning Notification in Vista

Turn_UAC_Off.reg

3. Click on Save, and save the .reg file to the Desktop.

4. Right click on the downloaded .reg file and click on Merge.

5. Click on Run, Continue (UAC), Yes, and then OK when prompted.

6. When done, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

7. Restart the computer to apply changes.

OPTION THREE

Manually in Registry Editor

1. Open the Start Menu.

2. In the white line (Start Search) area, type regedit and press Enter.

3. Click on Continue in the UAC prompt.

4. In regedit, go to: (See screenshot below)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

5. To Turn UAC Off

NOTE: When you turn off UAC, the Security Center will give you an alert warning notification in the notification area of the taskbar until you turn UAC back on. To turn this alert off, see: How to Disable or Enable the Security Center Alert Warning Notification in Vista

A) In the right pane, right click on EnableLUA and click on Modify. (See screenshot above)

B) Type 0 (Number Zero) and click on OK. (See screenshot below)

C) The registry will now look like this. (See screenshot below)

D) Go to step 7.

6. To Turn UAC On

A) In the right pane, right click on EnableLUA and click on Modify. (See screenshot above)

B) Type 1 (Number Zero) and click on OK. (See screenshot below)

C) The registry will now look like this. (See screenshot below step 4)

7. Close regedit.

8. Restart the computer to apply changes.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

**markvanh** · 22 Jun 2007

Hi, Thanks for posting this. Got Vista Home Premium 2 weeks ago with new notebook. So far I am really struggling to find any improvements over XP..

I completed this registry edit procedure, and restarted, to find I'm still denied access to Docs & Settings folders, and blocked from changing Permissions/Privileges to allow this. Logged on as Admin, and UAC not active (tho i also tried with UAC active). secpol.msc is not found...

I just want to get into my Docs & Settings folders to backup my Thunderbird folders.

Thanks for any suggestions,
mark

**Brink** · 22 Jun 2007

Hi Mark,

Sounds like you need to Take Ownership of the folder. Go to this link for details on how:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67717-take-ownership-file.html#post331161

Hope this helps you,
Shawn

**markvanh** · 22 Jun 2007

That did the trick-- Thanks so much Shawn!!

**Brink** · 22 Jun 2007

Mark,

Glad to hear.

Regards,
Shawn

**Malevolent** · 27 Oct 2007

Any way you can turn off or limit the UAC for individual programs. I don’t want to disable UAC due to the protection it offers but at the same time I don’t want to be annoyed by the UAC pop ups on my everyday programs I use.

**Brink** · 27 Oct 2007

Hi Malevolent,

Welcome to the forum.

Sorry, with UAC it is all or nothing with that. The only workaround that I can think of that allows UAC to be on without bugging you is this below. It is the safest method.

1. Use a Standard account for everyday stuff, and use a Administrator account with elevated privileges to prevent the UAC from bugging you and still be on. This tutorial will show you how.

How to Elevate Administrators Privilege Level in Vista

Hope this helps,
Shawn

**Malevolent** · 27 Oct 2007

Thank you brink,
I was afraid of that

Oh well, better safe than sorry.

**Brink** · 27 Oct 2007

Your welcome Malevolent,

Wish there was a way to.

**New64Pooter** · 17 Apr 2008

so i have done this disabling thing... but now i get a warning in the task bar every time i boot telling me it is disabled... how can i stop that?

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