The Great UAC Debate!

[revvo]

It really is no wonder Windows has such a horrible security reputation that persists even to this day: It seems that a large portion of its user base simply doesn't care about security.

If you know what you're doing, UAC won't help much. UAC helps those who don't know what UAC is but end-users with a bit of intelligence to question what's happening and not simply click allow or cancel blindly.

I myself changed the UAC setting from completely off to on in quiet mode with TweakUAC. At least the admin rights are elevated when I want to install something and don't want to get bothered by it because I know what I'm doing & clicking.

[jamesVault]

I know what I'm doing & clicking.

but the point is that you don't know what a program will do, unless you're a CPU :rolleyes:

[smooth_criminal1990]

security? I thought it was just incase you clicked "Computer Management" by accident :p

tis useful for that if nothing else :D

[ViperAFK]

If you know what you're doing, UAC won't help much. UAC helps those who don't know what UAC is but end-users with a bit of intelligence to question what's happening and not simply click allow or cancel blindly.

I myself changed the UAC setting from completely off to on in quiet mode with TweakUAC. At least the admin rights are elevated when I want to install something and don't want to get bothered by it because I know what I'm doing & clicking.

Yeah silent mode is still more secure. I think it's just dumb to turn it completely off when you can use silent mode.

[Matrix XII]

I found out how to turn it off like 6 months ago, which was pivotal.

I actually like Vista, especially since that feature had been turned off.

...and no it didn't save me. I'm sure it did some people though.

[asoldier]

As a hobby during off hours and occasionally during work hours, I persevere to help people with various software-related issues. On a regular basis I have to show people how to disable and enable certain features of their XP-based systems. Surprisingly a huge amount of Windows users are still using XP. Unsurprisingly, this kind of hesitation is brought about from a well-placed fear for Vista's instability.

Vista boasted a list of features that users have been craving since some of the early releases of XP, but there were flaws. Naturally, bugs, glitches, and eventually crashes are ultimately native to all software. Especially high-demand operating systems like the Windows platform. One of the best-yet-underrated features of MS Windows Vista is User Account Control, sometimes called User Access Control (UAC) is so discredited for it's persistant annoyance anytime someone wants to change the system configuration, install programs, or affect the registry.

Here's the fact about UAC. UAC can prevent unauthorized installation (and in some cases, authorized installation) of malicious software by forcing the user to pay attention to nearly everything affecting their system. One of the problems is, people go into "autopilot" and have a habit of clicking OK/YES/ACCEPT on every prompt without actually reading the description and scrutinizing unrecognized applications or registry entries.

When UAC is off, you're susceptible to the mounting plague of viruses spyware and malware invading the internet, p2p software and even offline networks. Even though UAC isn't 100% effective at preventing malicious viral attacks, I have been saved several times when moving data from portable/external drives to PCs.

If you're an advanced user and can solve viral issues yourself, it's not really a big deal. However, if you're not willing to spend hours trying to recover your system, can't afford industry-level virus protection, and simply don't have persistant internet access to receive virus /trojan definition updates on a regular basis, you might consider turning UAC back on.

If you're insistant on disabling the UAC utility in Windows Vista, I urge you to consider a 3rd party option. They can be as or even more effective in preventing these sorts of infections/attacks. Here's a few of the more popular ones to consider.

AVG Antivirus (Free).

I have used this with XP since I discovered it in 2006 and have had unparalelled success in stomping and preventing infections.

Spybot Search & Destroy (free)

Spybot kills spyware, plain and simple, but it also blocks literally thousands (possibly in the hundreds of thousands) of threats to your system. It includes an Immunization tool as well which (with current updates) prevents the installation of over a hundred-thousand infections. The program also includes an array of advanced mode features which include a system integrity scanner / registry scanner and startup config utility. Spybot also includes two plug-ins which provide UAC-like support, but are not nearly as persistantly annoying. Some email support is also included.

ClamWin (Free)

This powerful light-weight virus scanner (found at portableapps.com) updates in less than a minute. It has an ultra light-weight memory footprint, supports file, folder, drive, entire system scans. It's robust with usable features, and downsizes on the things that don't fall under "Virus Scanner".

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[bradavon]

Surely not using UAC means you're an Admin user? So what does:

No (I use a Standard Account) - Mean?

The Aministrator account and Standard Accounts with UAC off are effectively the same.

p.s - There's next to no reason anyone should ever completely disable UAC. Given that it's the prompts and not security people hate, simply set it to Silent mode. Problem sorted.

Security Software alone isn't really enough. UAC works with not instead of security software. If the Security Software fails UAC will prevent access to the System folders.

Edited December 4, 2008 by bradavon

[Dhilian]

Instead of using UAC i prefer to use comodo's defense+ which tells me what softwares are actually trying to do or what process they are trying to mod into the memory.

[live627]

UAC is on hasn't saved me

(o wise me lol)

I wish W7 had an option to bring back the Vista prompts :(

[Brandon Live Veteran]

I wish W7 had an option to bring back the Vista prompts :(

Win7 has a new UAC settings control panel where you can set it back to exactly the same behavior as Vista.

[hadouken]

I turn UAC off as part of my standard Vista install. I would class myself as a very competant Windows user and know how to maintain an install. The only reason I would consider enabling UAC is if I was going to ditch my anti-virus and needed a little extra assurance.

[ViperAFK]

I turn UAC off as part of my standard Vista install. I would class myself as a very competant Windows user and know how to maintain an install. The only reason I would consider enabling UAC is if I was going to ditch my anti-virus and needed a little extra assurance.

Just put uac in silent mode, no prompts bothering you + extra assurance.

[Skulltrail]

Has UAC been improved? I just upgraded from Home Premium x86 to Vista Ultimate x64 and I don't get confirmation messages as much as before, and I'm using just about the same applications. Anyone notice this? Or is it just me?

Then again, I did upgrade to Norton Antivirus 2009 Gamer Edition instead of the good ol' Kaspersky. But I doubt that'll make a difference.

[ViperAFK]

it's been improved slightly on sp1. it prompts MUCH less in windows 7 though and is customizable.

[junk angel]

To be honest, I'd actually let it on.

Had it been not too effective. There are many application, be it games, or even completely different, that sometimes use lua modding etc.

UAC does not prompt, no window comes up, but it does not allow the changes from many of these things to take effect.

[Pompeius]

I use UAC, on the highest settings. I will say that sometimes (very rarely) it causes problems with certain executables in that they will never load, and it will just be waiting for the UAC prompt to come up and ends up slowing the entire system down considerably. I've only experienced this on one program installer, and generally have never had any problems. It can be circumvented by installing through the command prompt.

[bradavon]

To be honest, I'd actually let it on.

Had it been not too effective. There are many application, be it games, or even completely different, that sometimes use lua modding etc.

UAC does not prompt, no window comes up, but it does not allow the changes from many of these things to take effect.

For Apps that fail, right click and Run as Admin.

Turning UAC off means Malware can run as Admin too (like XP). No Anti-Malware software is 100% effective.

[bradavon]

Here's an interesting Microsoft blog on UAC and where it's headed:

http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2008/10/0...nt-control.aspx

[BigCheese]

I never got viruses or spyware running XP with an admin account, so why should I need UAC popping up and annoying me all the time.

[NEVER85]

I never got viruses or spyware running XP with an admin account, so why should I need UAC popping up and annoying me all the time.

It doesn't pop up all the time, unless you're constantly doing things that require elevation, and there's no reason why you would be.

[deletedxyz]

TweakUAC is the best of both worlds.

http://www.tweak-uac.com/home/

[Annihlist]

I turn off UAC and accept anything that goes wrong with my PC. The annoyances far outweigh the benefits. The less pop ups the better. I even tweak some windows registry entries to get rid of other annoyances.

[Subject Delta]

Although I totally see the benifits of UAC, it annoys me, therefore as a tech savvy user I trust myself enough to leave it turned off

[Guest xiphi]

Although I totally see the benifits of UAC, it annoys me, therefore as a tech savvy user I trust myself enough to leave it turned off

It's not about trusting yourself. It's about trusting the applications you use and the web sites, good or bad, you visit. By turning UAC off, you trust that such things won't change any system settings or install applications to system directories without your say so. Which is what can happen now that UAC is off. Therefore, you do not see the benefits of UAC. If you truly did see the benefits, you would have left it on.

In the end, I do not see UAC prompts often enough or in places I feel they shouldn't be to consider them annoying. The benefits of UAC far outweigh any potential annoyances it could provide.

[speeddemongto]

turned off....I dont install alot of programs but when I do it gets annoying