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Vista Tutorial - User Account Control (UAC)

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User Account Control (UAC)
How to Turn User Account Control (UAC) On or Off in Vista
Published by Brink
03-16-2007

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
  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 how, see: How to Elevate Administrators UAC Privilege Level in Vista . For better security, it is recommended that you leave the UAC turned on and not elevate the administrator account.
RELATED LINKS: EXAMPLE: UAC Prompt
uac_prompt.jpg


METHOD 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)
uac.jpg
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)
check-uncheck.jpg
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.
restart.jpg



METHOD TWO:
Through the Registry
Through a Download:
1. To Turn UAC On -
A) Click on the download button below to download the Turn_UAC_On.reg file.

B) Go to step 3.

2. To Turn UAC Off -
A) Click on the download button below to download the Turn_UAC_Off.reg file.
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

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

4. Right click the .reg (On Desktop) file and click on Merge.

5. Click on the Run button for Security Warning pop-up.

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

7. When done, you can delete the .reg file (On Desktop).

8. Restart the computer to apply changes.

The Manual Way:
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
reg1.jpg
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)
Name:  Modify_Off.jpg
Views: 15656
Size:  33.3 KB
C) The registry will now look like this. (See screenshot below)
reg2.jpg
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)
Name:  Modify_On.jpg
Views: 15637
Size:  33.2 KB
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

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Old 06-22-2007  
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Re: User Account Control (UAC)

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
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Old 06-22-2007  
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Re: User Account Control (UAC)

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
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Old 06-22-2007  
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Re: User Account Control (UAC)

That did the trick-- Thanks so much Shawn!!
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Old 06-22-2007  
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Re: User Account Control (UAC)

Mark,

Glad to hear.

Regards,
Shawn
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Old 10-27-2007  
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Re: User Account Control (UAC)

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.
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Old 10-27-2007  
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Re: User Account Control (UAC)

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
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Old 10-27-2007  
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Re: User Account Control (UAC)

Thank you brink,
I was afraid of that
Oh well, better safe than sorry.
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Re: User Account Control (UAC)

Your welcome Malevolent,

Wish there was a way to.
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Old 04-17-2008  
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Re: User Account Control (UAC)

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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account, control, security & system tools, uac, user, user accounts

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