How to remove UAC shield icon from shortcuts when UAC is disabled?


Recommended Posts

There are countless articles online on how to remove the UAC shield icon from shortcuts and absolutely none of them work.  

I run Windows 11 with UAC disabled.  I do not need nor want it.  But I also have several of my Desktop shortcuts set to "run as admin".  

Is there an actual working  way to get rid of them, they are quite annoying and make my icons look like ######.  

Deleting the cache won't work because I don't want to remove "run as admin", the shield icon just comes back.  

Is it possible to get rid of these ugly shields without enabling UAC or removing "run as admin"?  

Not to mention that clearing the cache doesn't seem to be truly possible because even in safe mode the files in users\*username*\appdata\local\microsoft\windows\explorer that are named with "iconcache" are always in use so even via command prompt you can't truly delete them.  Annoying.  AF.  

You can't do that easily, because behind the scenes, you can't actually turn off UAC. What the "Never notify" setting of the User Account Control Settings does is, as it says, is to never notify you when a program is launched with elevated privileges. But the principle of least-privilege remains. If you remove the shield icon, you won't have any way of knowing that a specific program or shortcut will be launched using elevated privileges. That's a security risk.

There might be a way to remove the shield (that is technically an Explorer overlay icon), but it seems that, for the shield icon, Microsoft has implemented some changes in the latest updates to disallow removing that specific overlay. Say you find a working workaround: it might be not stick because a future update will revert the change.

If you really don't want the shield overlay for a given icon on your Desktop, a better workaround would be to:

  1. Create a .bat to launch the desired program (so the .bat won't run elevated, but the program launched by the .bat will)
  2. Make a shortcut to this .bat, and then
  3. Customize the shortcut's icon so that it has the launched program's icon

There is a how-to here.

Edited by Newinko
  • Like 1

Doesn't Winaero Tweaker have a setting to remove them? 

I won't comment on the foolishness of trying to turn off a feature that literally keeps someone from ruining your computer.

The other option?  Don't have shortcuts to apps on your Desktop.  I will never understand why some folks insist on shortcuts on their desktop.  

  • Like 5
On 21/09/2023 at 07:26, devHead said:

I won't comment on the foolishness of trying to turn off a feature that literally keeps someone from ruining your computer.

You keep saying that but it is user choice, you are not entitled to demerit, just because you say so, somebody's choice on how they want windows to be handled.

 

On 21/09/2023 at 09:48, Arceles said:

You keep saying that but it is user choice, you are not entitled to demerit, just because you say so, somebody's choice on how they want windows to be handled.

 

Who is saying it's not an user choice? One can certainly comment that something is not a good security practice. You should not assume the OP has any idea what they are doing.  The fact they thought they "disabled" UAC (when didn't) and stated they don't need it suggests they do not.

On 21/09/2023 at 09:52, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

Who is saying it's not an user choice? One can certainly comment that something is not a good security practice. You should not assume the OP has any idea what they are doing.  The fact they thought they "disabled" UAC (when didn't) and stated they don't need it suggests they do not.

You can warn but not demerit because for the latter you are also assuming the user understanding of what it is doing.

A trick that I use is to run programs that need UAC elevation through the Windows Task Scheduler.  I create a task that starts a program that needs elevation.  I make sure to select to "Run with highest privileges" and "Allow task to be run on demand".  Then I create a shortcut to run that task, like:
C:\Windows\System32\schtasks.exe /Run /TN "The exact name of the task you just created"

That shortcut will have the command prompt icon by default, but you just right-click and "change icon" and point to the executable of the program in the task to select that icon.  You can also rename the shortcut to the name of the program.  That shortcut will now launch without a UAC popup and no shield on the icon.  Plus, UAC is still running at the default level theoretically protecting you a little.

 

edit: I forgot that I also select to "run minimized" so I don't see the command prompt when the shortcut is used.  So far all of my programs still pop up normally.

On 21/09/2023 at 06:48, Arceles said:

You keep saying that but it is user choice, you are not entitled to demerit, just because you say so, somebody's choice on how they want windows to be handled.

 

I can demerit.  The default is to protect the user. He doesn't want to be protected or think he needs to be.  I have an opinion that is different from his, and mine is the right one, because it's the one that protects my computer.  You're right, he can do whatever he wants and do not care if he wants to.  But I can demerit him. 

On 21/09/2023 at 21:26, devHead said:

I can demerit.  The default is to protect the user. He doesn't want to be protected or think he needs to be.  I have an opinion that is different from his, and mine is the right one, because it's the one that protects my computer.  You're right, he can do whatever he wants and do not care if he wants to.  But I can demerit him. 

To be fair, it's not even demeriting. You're just stating the facts.

On 21/09/2023 at 22:26, devHead said:

I can demerit.  The default is to protect the user. He doesn't want to be protected or think he needs to be.  I have an opinion that is different from his, and mine is the right one, because it's the one that protects my computer.  You're right, he can do whatever he wants and do not care if he wants to.  But I can demerit him. 

Suuuuure, just because you say so. Sere is a uno reverse card for you, if you really wanted to be secure you would not be using windows and since it is *my opinion* is the correct one. Typical.

  • Facepalm 3
On 22/09/2023 at 12:41, Arceles said:

Suuuuure, just because you say so. Sere is a uno reverse card for you, if you really wanted to be secure you would not be using windows and since it is *my opinion* is the correct one. Typical.

In the past that may have been true, but it's due more to obscurity not actual security.

 

macOS has vulnerabilities.
iOS has vulnerabilities.
Android has vulnerabilities (arguably more than iOS).
Windows has vulnerabilities.
Linux has vulnerabilities.
BSD has vulnerabilities.

 

UAC is the graphical equivalent of the sudo command on *nix, as such it should never be bypassed if you want to keep good security practices. 

On 22/09/2023 at 10:54, Matthew S. said:

In the past that may have been true, but it's due more to obscurity not actual security.

 

macOS has vulnerabilities.
iOS has vulnerabilities.
Android has vulnerabilities (arguably more than iOS).
Windows has vulnerabilities.
Linux has vulnerabilities.
BSD has vulnerabilities.

 

UAC is the graphical equivalent of the sudo command on *nix, as such it should never be bypassed if you want to keep good security practices. 

Every single OS has vulnerabilities... but then again, whose servers are most of the stuff being run on? Linux. And if there are vulnerabilities to be addressed is exactly there.

What's the point of running something as an administrator if you are an administrator and you have user account control disabled? Wouldn't that just run it in the security context of your current user?

On 22/09/2023 at 09:41, Arceles said:

Suuuuure, just because you say so. Sere is a uno reverse card for you, if you really wanted to be secure you would not be using windows and since it is *my opinion* is the correct one. Typical.

Problem is when you try to use opinion to defeat fact.

 

Fact always wins.

On 22/09/2023 at 22:07, DewThePDX said:

Problem is when you try to use opinion to defeat fact.

 

Fact always wins.

That is cute, therefore, you can demerit because of facts instead of using facts to advise of the dangers of having a particular setting being removed... not surprised really.

On 22/09/2023 at 21:44, Arceles said:

That is cute, therefore, you can demerit because of facts instead of using facts to advise of the dangers of having a particular setting being removed... not surprised really.

You keep using that word, 'demerit'.  I don't think it means what you think it means.

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
On 23/09/2023 at 07:48, devHead said:

You keep using that word, 'demerit'.  I don't think it means what you think it means.

Way too late for you to say that.

On 24/09/2023 at 00:26, DewThePDX said:

It's really not.

All I'm seeing here is a pile of logical fallacies in search of a dopamine hit.

Cool, the only fallacy I see here is how a bunch of people that believe themselves security experts think that everything should be one way, the windows way and I seriously disagree with it.

On 24/09/2023 at 07:14, Arceles said:

Cool, the only fallacy I see here is how a bunch of people that believe themselves security experts think that everything should be one way, the windows way and I seriously disagree with it.

A bunch of people who think that the way Windows helps protect your PC is the correct way.  We're not security experts, but I would say that someone who wants to disable a security feature is also NOT a security expert.  Plus, it doesn't matter whether you agree with the way Windows handles security for the PC - heck, you're not even running Windows according to your signature.  So who are you to keep posting here and trying to correct others?  A fallacy means that something is false.  Are you saying that it's false to assume that having UAC enabled helps keep a PC more secure than when it's completely disabled?  Try running everything in Debian as root.  Would you do that? 

On 24/09/2023 at 08:44, devHead said:

A bunch of people who think that the way Windows helps protect your PC is the correct way.  We're not security experts, but I would say that someone who wants to disable a security feature is also NOT a security expert.  Plus, it doesn't matter whether you agree with the way Windows handles security for the PC - heck, you're not even running Windows according to your signature.  So who are you to keep posting here and trying to correct others?  A fallacy means that something is false.  Are you saying that it's false to assume that having UAC enabled helps keep a PC more secure than when it's completely disabled?  Try running everything in Debian as root.  Would you do that? 

Because you simply do not know and your assumptions are making you look rather silly. Sure I do not for the most part use windows, but I have to use it in my ROG ALLY because Linux is not supported there yet. And I have been using windows even prior it had a GUI for it to know how the entire PC landscape, as well as security, works and that is why I switched to Linux after Window 11 came in. TRUE, you expose yourself to dangers whenever setting administrator rights to everything and this is a problem for the user that does not know anything and handle such PC as a normal everyday use one, but that does not mean that such case has an use, for example, in offline PCs and or legacy applications.

The absolute view of the people that things should be handled one way here is just baffling, unable to accept that there are reasons to do stuff out of the conventional way, quite akin to fascism.

On 24/09/2023 at 07:50, Arceles said:

Because you simply do not know and your assumptions are making you look rather silly. Sure I do not for the most part use windows, but I have to use it in my ROG ALLY because Linux is not supported there yet. And I have been using windows even prior it had a GUI for it to know how the entire PC landscape, as well as security, works and that is why I switched to Linux after Window 11 came in. TRUE, you expose yourself to dangers whenever setting administrator rights to everything and this is a problem for the user that does not know anything and handle such PC as a normal everyday use one, but that does not mean that such case has an use, for example, in offline PCs and or legacy applications.

The absolute view of the people that things should be handled one way here is just baffling, unable to accept that there are reasons to do stuff out of the conventional way, quite akin to fascism.

Fascism?  What are you smoking bro?  The OP is not using Windows 11 for offline or legacy usage.  I'm talking in general about how UAC protects your PC. You're right; I don't know his use case, but I know that any computer with UAC enabled is generally more secure than without it.  

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Helium Browser 0.13.4.1 by Razvan Serea Helium is a private, fast, and honest Chromium-based web browser — built for people, with love. It offers the best privacy by default, unbiased ad-blocking, and a clean experience free from bloat and noise. Proudly based on Ungoogled-Chromium, Helium removes Google’s clutter while keeping a fast, efficient development pipeline. With thoughtful touches like native !bangs and split view, Helium is a people-first, fully open-source browser that puts control back in your hands. Privacy, security, and control come first. Ads, trackers, and third-party cookies are blocked automatically, HTTPS is enforced everywhere, and all Chromium extensions work seamlessly — while Google can’t track your activity. Helium’s 13,000+ offline-ready !bangs let you jump straight to sites or AI tools like ChatGPT instantly. Open-source, people-first, and unbiased, Helium delivers a browsing experience that’s fast, secure, and free from noise, ads, and compromises. Helium Browser key features: Performance Fast, efficient, and lightweight — built on Chromium’s optimized engine. Energy-saving and consistent — stays fast over time without slowing down. No bloat — stripped of unnecessary components for maximum speed. Minimalist interface — compact, clean, and distraction-free. Customizable toolbar — hide elements you don’t need. Smooth and stable — no flicker, lag, or animation glitches. Comfort-focused experience — intuitive and unobtrusive. Privacy & Security Best privacy by default — blocks ads, trackers, phishing, and third-party cookies. Unbiased ad-blocking — powered by community filters and uBlock Origin. No telemetry or analytics — zero background web requests on first launch. Strict HTTPS enforcement — warns for insecure sites. Passkeys supported — modern authentication made simple. No built-in password manager or cloud sync — your data stays yours. Extension Compatibility Full Chromium extension support — including MV2 extensions. Anonymized Chrome Web Store requests — Google can’t track extension installs. Extended MV2 support — maintained for as long as possible. Smart Features Native !bangs — browse faster using 13,000+ offline-ready shortcuts. AI integration — use !chatgpt and others directly from the address bar. Offline functionality — bangs work without an Internet connection. Philosophy People-first design — open source, transparent, and community-driven. No ads, no noise, no bias — privacy and honesty over profit. Helium Browser 0.13.4.1 changelog: 0a4f1149 revision: bump to 4 (#1969) 4848de1f helium/core: enable the chromium screenshot feature (#1968) e0dec3f5 onboarding: integrate strings to i18n system (#1948) 417fa5bc i18n: fix newline parsing for onboarding 7a339b39 i18n: add foraged translations for onboarding 4f090cff i18n/generate: add handling for onboarding strings bfe48d58 i18n_apply: manually override parent grd logic for onboarding strings ab214e3c onboarding: bump in deps, wire up grdp afa6a059 helium/core: disable pdf infobar feature (#1965) eba585e7 helium/ui/vertical: fix new tab button alignment and icon size (#1964) 6ecfc9e0 helium/ui/tabs: fix horizontal tab hover background color (#1963) 3db87dc0 helium/ui/tabs: fix new tab button hover/press colors (#1962) 6bbdcc3e helium/ui: improve tab group UI in all layouts (#1961) 53deb314 helium/ui/tabs: enable tab group hover cards e93aece7 helium/ui/vertical: fix tab group appearance, prevent line overlap 629f5495 helium/ui/tabs: restore solid group header colors, enable new colors 961c962e helium/ui/tabs: move horiz tab group underline to bottom, make it thick c96deab6 merge: update to chromium 149.0.7827.155 (#1959) 36db56b4 i18n: update source.gen.json 5ce006ae patches: refresh for chromium 149.0.7827.155 b4c1ea62 merge: update ungoogled-chromium to 149.0.7827.155 4e5e8671 Update to Chromium 149.0.7827.155 08a3e7da helium/ui/layout: disable mute on collapsed vertical tabs (#1778) a0a5bbaf helium/core: simplify context menu and prevent huge widths (#1951) c4732aac devutils/i18n: add forage command (#1944) 11d16986 devutils/i18n: add an option to translate using local CLI tools (#1942) d820c3a2 i18n/prompt: tighten translation rules to prevent common errors (#1940) cf827007 Update to Chromium 149.0.7827.114 6e3d5164 Update to Chromium 149.0.7827.102 Download: Helium 64-bit | Portable 64-bit |~100.0 MB (Open Source) Download: Helium ARM64 | Portable ARM64 Links: Helium Home Page | macOS | Linux | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Glow 26.10 by Razvan Serea Glow provides detailed reporting on every hardware component in your computer, saving you valuable time typically spent searching for CPU, motherboard, RAM, graphics card, and other stats. With Glow, all the information is conveniently presented in one clean interface, allowing you to easily access and review the comprehensive hardware details of your system. Glow provides detailed information on various system aspects, including OS, motherboard, processor, memory, graphics card, storage, network, battery, drivers, and services. The well-organized format ensures easy access to the required information. You can export all the gathered data to a plain text file, facilitating sharing with others for troubleshooting purposes. No installation needed. Just decompress the archive, launch the executable, and access computer-related information. Glow runs on Windows 11 and Windows 10 64-bit versions. Glow 26.10 changelog: New Features The bootstrapping algorithm has been completely redesigned. The software can now launch directly without requiring TS Preloader. As part of this change, the startup splash screen displayed during initialization has been removed. In addition, spikes in CPU usage have been eliminated, resulting in a more stable architecture with significantly lower memory consumption. The Microsoft Office detection infrastructure within the Operating System section has been enhanced. Additional detection support has been added for Office C2R (Click-to-Run) installations. Furthermore, the license status evaluation system has been improved, and the priority order has been revised as follows: Licensed > Grace Period > Other (NOTIFICATIONS, EVALUATION, etc.). Glow now includes preliminary support for Wi-Fi 8 technology, allowing more detailed information to be displayed for Wi-Fi 8-compatible network adapters. Glow now provides full support for Bluetooth 6.2. Adapters supporting Bluetooth 6.2 can be analyzed in greater detail and with improved accuracy. The disk distribution view in the Disk section has been modernized, replacing the traditional table layout with a new 2×2 card-based design. The TS Custom Controls module has been updated to v26.7. Thanks to the new custom controls, all Türkaysoft applications now offer a more modern and consistent user interface aligned with Windows 11 design standards. Bug Fixes Potential line-ending handling issues in the Office detection code within the Operating System section have been resolved. Additionally, the output format has been standardized to UTF-8 to prevent character encoding issues and ensure consistent data processing. Several stability and file management issues within the Debugging infrastructure have been addressed. Problems that prevented new log files from being created after Debugging was disabled, as well as issues causing debug records to be lost, have been fixed. File deletion and reaccess issues that occurred after file locks were released have also been resolved. In addition, a bug that caused newly recreated log files to remain locked after deletion has been eliminated. Unnecessary blank lines within debug logs and the extra empty line that could appear at the end of log files have also been corrected. A shortcut key conflict caused by assigning identical hotkeys to both the DNS Test Tool and the Donation page has been fixed. The DNS Test Tool can now be accessed using CTRL + Shift + D, while the Donation page is available via CTRL + Alt + D. Changes The service responsible for providing the Public IP Address and Internet Service Provider information in the Network section has been updated to use the ipinfo.io infrastructure. This change improves the accuracy and consistency of the displayed data. (No external requests are made while Hiding Mode is enabled.) Some terms in the Dutch and Korean language files have been updated to make them clearer and more user-friendly. [TS Updater] Before the update process begins, users are now prompted to choose whether they would like to view the release notes. Note: Always unzip the program before using it. Otherwise you may get an error. Download: Glow 26.10 | 1.8 MB (Open Source) Links: Glow Homepage | Screenshot | Github Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Maradona if hydration breaks had existed in Mexico 86.
    • The quantum search for Time's origin had an equally mind-boggling conclusion by Sayan Sen Image by Steve Johnson via Pexels A theoretical study from researchers at the University of Surrey suggested that the direction of time may not be fundamentally fixed in certain quantum systems. The work, published in Scientific Reports, examined how the “arrow of time” could emerge from microscopic physics and found that time-reversal symmetry can remain intact even in models used to describe processes such as energy loss and thermalisation. The arrow of time refers to the observed one-way direction from past to future in everyday life. In macroscopic processes, this is easy to see. Spilled milk spreads across a table and does not gather back into a glass, and heat flows from hotter objects to colder ones. These processes shape the common sense idea that time moves in a single direction. However, at the level of fundamental physics, many equations do not prefer a direction of time. Time-reversal symmetry means that the same physical laws can describe a system whether time moves forward or backward. This has made it difficult to explain why irreversible behaviour appears in the large-scale world even when the underlying rules do not require it. Dr Andrea Rocco, Associate Professor in Physics and Mathematical Biology at the University of Surrey, described this contrast: "One way to explain this is when you look at a process like spilt milk spreading across a table, it's clear that time is moving forward. But if you were to play that in reverse, like a movie, you'd immediately know something was wrong – it would be hard to believe milk could just gather back into a glass. However, there are processes, such as the motion of a pendulum, that look just as believable in reverse. The puzzle is that, at the most fundamental level, the laws of physics resemble the pendulum; they do not account for irreversible processes. Our findings suggest that while our common experience tells us that time only moves one way, we are just unaware that the opposite direction would have been equally possible." The study focused on open quantum systems, which are quantum systems that interact with a surrounding environment. This environment, often described as a heat bath, can exchange energy and information with the system. The researchers used this framework to study how a direction of time might appear even when the underlying physics does not enforce one. A key part of the analysis involved the Markov approximation. This is a simplification used in many models where the system is assumed not to retain memory of its past states. The idea is that changes depend only on the current state, not on earlier history. This is commonly used when studying thermalisation, which is the process where a system settles into equilibrium with its environment. The study also used concepts such as master equations, including the Lindblad and Pauli equations, which describe how probabilities of different quantum states change over time. Another related model discussed was quantum Brownian motion, which describes the random-like movement of a quantum particle interacting continuously with its environment. In these descriptions, a “memory kernel” can appear, which is a mathematical term that accounts for how past states influence current behaviour. The researchers found that applying the Markov approximation did not break time-reversal symmetry. Even when the system interacted with an effectively infinite heat bath, the resulting equations of motion remained symmetric in time. This meant that the same mathematical description could, in principle, run forward or backward in time without contradiction. The study further showed that standard frameworks used in open quantum systems, including quantum Brownian motion and master equations like the Lindblad and Pauli forms, could be written in a time-symmetric way. These equations are typically used to describe processes that look irreversible, such as dissipation and thermalisation, but the results suggested they can also be interpreted as allowing evolution in both time directions. Thomas Guff, Research Fellow in Quantum Thermodynamics, said: "The surprising part of this project was that even after making the standard simplifying assumption to our equations describing open quantum systems, the equations still behaved the same way whether the system was moving forwards or backwards in time. When we carefully worked through the maths, we found that this behaviour had to be the case because a key part of the equation, the "memory kernel," is symmetrical in time. We also found a small but important detail which is usually overlooked – a time discontinuous factor emerged that kept the time-symmetry property intact. It’s unusual to see such a mathematical mechanism in a physics equation because it's not continuous, and it was very surprising to see it appear so naturally." The researchers also noted that deriving a one-way arrow of time from time-reversal symmetric microscopic dynamics remains an open problem across fields such as thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, particle physics, and cosmology. Their results suggested that some standard descriptions of irreversible behaviour in open quantum systems may be better understood using a time-symmetric formulation of Markovianity. According to the study, processes such as thermalisation, which are usually treated as irreversible, could in theory be described in a way that allows evolution in either time direction under the same rules. This does not imply that time reversal occurs in everyday life, but rather that the underlying equations do not strictly enforce a single direction. Overall, the findings suggested that the perceived direction of time may emerge from how physical systems are modelled and approximated, rather than from a fundamental asymmetry in the laws themselves. The researchers noted that this perspective could have implications for ongoing work in quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, and cosmology on the origin of time’s arrow. Source: University of Surrey, Nature This article was generated with some help from AI and reviewed by an editor. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, this material is used for the purpose of news reporting. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing
  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      BizSAR earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • First Post
      AndreaB earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      Huge Trailer earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      Classifyskilleducation earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      eurospharma62 earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      581
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      182
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      75
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      73
    5. 5
      neufuse
      64
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!