Allow a Start-up Program to run unhindered

[Guest]

I have two programs that always result in a alert when I start Vista. One is
for a mouse and the other is for a PDF file converter. The only options on
the start-up pop-up are Close and Allow. I have tried to change the program
properties from Explorer and every time I change it, after rebooting it
reverts back. How can I fix this situation? I really don't want to turn off
the Access Control, but I would like to be able to boot up Vista and not get
the annoying pop-ups. I do like the pop-ups to ask if it is OK to run a
program, but I would like the option to tell it that the software is OK and
it remember that fact.

Any help will be greatly appreciated,
Benny

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Hello,

Unfortunately, Vista does not allow programs to be marked as "always run
with admin permissions", because if such a facility were allowed, malware
would be able to run such programs in the background and use them to bypass
security restrictions, thereby rendering the security invalid.

Imagine the case where you marked the command prompt to always run with
admin permissions. Malware could then start a command prompt without you
knowing about it, and be able to take over your computer using this command
prompt.

Microsoft does realize having these prompts come up from startup programs is
a pain, and is working on a way to remove these prompts. Please stay tuned
to the UAC blogs at http://blogs.msdn.com/uac for more information on this
topic.

You should find as we move closer to RTM and afterword that programs will be
redesigned for Vista and will not require startup programs to run as
administrator, and that this problem will eventually disappear entirely,
although it will take time.

- JB

Vista Support FAQ
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/

 

[David J. Craig]

Yes, you can set a shortcut in the "Quick Launch" and assign it elevated
rights. It always prompts for an OK if your account is an admin member. I
never tried it from a regular account.

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Right, you can have it always ask for permission, but you cannot have it to
always run with admin privileges without asking.

- JB

Vista Support FAQ
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/

 

[Guest]

I'm finding this feture of Vista absurd. You can run iTunes without the
alarms going off, but not Spybot. You can run Firefox without alarms, but
not check disk. It seems like it has some means of identifying programs that
it allows without the annoying "do you really want to do this"...but doesn't
give users the means to say "yes for the 50th time, I really do mean to run
check disk which comes with the OS in the first place". This is a bad
solution to a real problem....

 

[Tony Hoyle]

I'm finding this feture of Vista absurd. You can run iTunes without the
alarms going off, but not Spybot. You can run Firefox without alarms, but

iTunes is a user application.
Firefox is a user application.
Spybot is a system level hook that needs admin rights.
Checkdisk is an admisitrative application that needs to lock the disk.

I see no problem with UAC here - that exactly what it *should* be doing.

Tony

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Do you want malware to run chkdsk and possibly exploit some bug in chkdsk
that whacks your computer?

How about command prompt ... would you like malware to be able to open up a
command prompt behind your back and start modifying system files?

Because if you start allowing programs to ALWAYS run in admin mode, with
full control of the system, that also means that malware can start those
programs as well, essentially bypassing any security you had in the first
place.

It seems to me that allowing a program to always run in admin mode would be
a bad solution to a real problem.

Whereas, when the system always alerts me when a program requests admin
permissions, I am smart enough to know if I started that program and stop it
if I didn't, so I won't get whacked by sneaky malware. Seems like an
excellent solution to me.

I can't really think of a better way to do it myself (that keeps the current
level of security).

- JB

Vista Support FAQ
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/

 

[Mark D. VandenBeg]

Isn't the real issue that startup software for a mouse (just guessing,
Logitech SetPoint?) does not need to run at Administrative level and this is
simply a prime example of poorly written software?

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Yes.

- JB

Vista Support FAQ
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/

 

[Joey]

One thing to remember is the concept of least privilege. Once third party
developers start releasing applications that are able to run under a
standard user, than the number of alerts that we receive from UAC are going
to reduce.

 

[Guest]

Of course no one wants malware...my view though is this is a clumsy
solution...and I'm finding I can run some things like Disk Cleaner and
antivirus that seem as invasive as spybot without the warnings...so it
strikes me as at least at least on the surface inconsitant, and again, a
clumsy solution to a real problem...i.e., there has to be a better answer.

 

[Guest]

Sorry to keep harping on this, but it's important to. I think I've got
Scheduled Tasks to run a defrag that I defined, and along the way it asked me
for a password. In this way, I can run this task daily without interference
from the User Control message. I.e., Vista is letting me do this from
Scheduled Tasks but not from command line...seems goofy and inconsistant.
Also, though haven't gotten it to work yet, believe you can import tasks and
run them from the command line (someone smarter than me will probably try to
figure out how to hack the password piece of it). So if you can set up a
task with a password saying "yes I really do want to do this on my machine",
seems like Vista shouldn't need to stop you at the command line for tools
they provide with the OS...and others as well (though the previous note about
vendors simply needing to catch up makes sense to me)