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Just reformatted and did a fresh install. Gotta say thanks for a great tutorial! No longer annoying to use Vista Home Premium.

I've used XP as administrator since the beginning. Had a virus one time in more than 5 years. In XP (and now in Vista Home Premium) I use AVG Anti Virus, Spyware Blaster, AdAware SE and regularly do a full scan with Windows Defender.

Damn, I dont understand why you people feel the urge to turn off security features..
Still everyone to thier own

Simply because anyone with experience is going to get quicky frustrated having to click yes to every change they make.

I understand the theory about protecting your pc but to be honest the amount of pop ups vista has is ridiculous and could even cause inexperienced users even more problems. I know my Mum would be ringing me every 10 minutes!

thx for sharing.Im a new member be here and wish get more infos ,thats great.

alright i just did this and i want to delete this account named "administrator" but I don't know how... can anyone help?

1- Click Start, and type "secpol.msc" in the search area and click Enter. (You may receive a prompt from UAC, approve/login and proceed)
2- In the left list, choose "Local Policies", then "Security Options"
3- Set "Accounts: Administrator account status" to Disabled.

Note that doing so will undo the new behavior, if that what you want to do.

Hello.

Firstly thanks Tantawi for the useful guide, however:

From what I can see running Vista HP in this Administrator account is pretty much the same as the Admin account created during setup, with the exception it disables UAC.

* I still cannot rename notepad.exe to notepad2.exe as I could in XP under Admin, admittedly I cannot think of a reason I'd ever want to muck about with SYSTEM32 files but still.
* I still cannot gain access to folders such as "Documents and Settings" without taking Ownership of them which annoyingly doesn't propagate down to all subfolders even though I set it to, and even then on some folders that isn't working.

Is there a way of setting Vista "exactly" how Admin worked in XP? So you have cart blanch? I'm having to amend each folder I get access denied on and giving my own permissions back to me.

Cheers

Brad.

p.s - Keep up the good work

This post has been edited by bradavon: Apr 29 2007, 21:29

Another reason to use the proper Admin account is you UAC is completely disabled but you can still enable it so as to keep Windows Security Center happy. If you just disable it via the "Users" GUI front end WSC starts complaining it's switched off.

I fail to see how UCA is any use for System Admins anyway (it's definitely useful for Standard Users) as an Admin will know what he's doing anyway and will just click Continue making the prompt pretty useless. AFAIK it has no effect on Hackers, Viruses or Spyware and is purely a User Access Control. For example: I know full well meddling with the options in the System window (in Control Panel) can do damage but I also know how to use it.

Like I said UAC from what I understand it is a User not Hacker prompt, unless I'm mistaken? . That said disabling UAC does disable Internet Explorer 7's Protected Mode, which doesn't interest me much as I don't use it anyway.

There is no folder named Documents and Settings in Vista!

You're mistaken, like XP you need to enable "Hidden and System Files" from Options . Trust me it's definitely there. "ProgramData" seems to be both "All Users" and your current User mixed together. Then there is also "Users" I've not figured out how it and ProgramData differ yet.

I only bought my new Vista HP Laptop today and have spent the evening working out how to gain access to my folders

Hi bradavon,

Congratulations on your new laptop, and welcome to Neowin

You may be looking to this tweak:

From: http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=499870

Good luck

Hello Tantawi, thanks for the welcome.

Thanks for that reg fix. It looks like it adds a context menu which dumps you at a DOS command prompt. It's a start but I'd prefer a Full Admin account like XP.

Even if I didn't use it all the time it would be nice to know it's possible. For example I've not worked out how to be able to rename files in the WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 folder (unless I take ownership of that too) which you may need to do if you need to delete/rename a system file.

Has anyone worked how to do this? Surely it's possible. I believe the difference here is the Administrator account (the proper one) in Vista still doesn't own certain folders, they're owned by the SYSTEM account (which cannot logged in with) as opposed XP where you own each and every folder.

That thread is great though, it's chocker block with goodies. I'll have to get reading

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Can I suggest you add a disclaimer to your first post explaining disabling UAC takes Vista's IE7 Protected Mode with it.

This basically lowers IE7 to a Limited User (lower than the Semi-Admin you're logged in with). This is something IE7 users may not be aware of, even if you enable Protected Mode from Internet Options it stays disabled (just like UAC). There is a fix however.

If you want UAC disabled but Protected Mode on use DropMyRights which was written for XP but works just the same in Vista (I tested it last night), not only that but using it actually turns Protected Mode back on (i.e - instead of saying Protected Mode: Off it will say On). Therefore proving Protected Mode and DropMyRights are on and the same thing.

What is DropMyRights I hear you say, read on: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms972827.aspx

It was written by a Microsoft bloke but isn't officially supported. I use the /c switch to make it even more secure. I've been using it for months and bar ActiveX installs (which need admin rights) not one website has fallen over. You can prove it works by trying to save a file into the SYSTEM32 folder, it won't let you.

The great thing is it's completely seamless, works on XP or Vista (probably 2000 too) and lets you get the good bits out of UAC without the bad. Just set the shortcut for each Internet enabled program to use it and make sure you choose Open "Minimised" and it's seamless.

This post has been edited by bradavon: Apr 30 2007, 12:13

Here is a few other methods for disabling the Built-In Administrator Account.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista...3.mspx?mfr=true

I recently switched to Linux at work. I'm trying to get hold of
Vista but somehow I can't. Dunno why.



_______________
Leo
Download Prima user's manuals

Wow thanks, iv been wanting to use the admin account for so long fed up of everything poping up in my face now i feel i have more control over the system then it having more over me