How to cope with or disable Vista's security features?

[clintonG]

I'm an experienced user about to get my first machine configured with Vista
Home Premium.

I'll have a lot of work to do uninstalling and installing software to set up
my new machine. Learning to cope with the security features that I've heard
gets in the way so much seems to be the first thing I would want to learn to
do eh?

Does anybody have any referrals to blogs about setting up Vista in this
context to make it more user friendly? Is there a known blog or guide yuo
can refer me to?

 

[XS11E]

I'm an experienced user about to get my first machine configured
with Vista Home Premium.

I'll have a lot of work to do uninstalling and installing software
to set up my new machine. Learning to cope with the security
features that I've heard gets in the way so much seems to be the
first thing I would want to learn to do eh?

The very first thing you'll have to do is remove all the "crapware"
that comes installed on new computers these days and you might just
want to disable the User Account Control while doing so.

To maintain security you can NOT connect to the internet (unplug the
modem) until you've removed all the programs you don't want and
installed all the programs you do want and when that's done you can
turn the UAC back on and then connect.

Here's how:

To turn off UAC open User Accounts from Control Panel and you'll see
"Turn User Account Control on or off", click on it, uncheck the box,
you'll need to reboot.

To stop being nagged about UAC being off, open Security Center from
Control Panel, click "Change the way Security Center alerts me" and
select one of the "Don't notify me" options.

Just do the reverse after you've removed/installed what you need and
then it's safe to reconnect your modem.

Does anybody have any referrals to blogs about setting up Vista in
this context to make it more user friendly? Is there a known blog
or guide yuo can refer me to?

I don't know of one but reading this group can sure help and I'm sure
someone else can direct you to such a guide.

 

[mayayana]

I don't have any specific links, but here are three
basics that I've collected:

------- Turn off UAC -------

1. Click Start
2. Click Control Panel
3. Click User Accounts and Family Safety
4. Click User Accounts
5. Click Turn User Account Control On or Off
6. Uncheck the checkbox
7. Click OK

------ Fix the admin account so that it really is admin -----

1) Open the command prompt with Administrative privileges by opening the
Start Menu, typing cmd in the search box. Then press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER to
open cmd with admin rights.

2) Type the following in the command prompt and then press Enter:

net user administrator /active:yes

You must type it in just as it appears above.

3) Restart the computer and then log in as Administrator.

---------- Turn off security center nags ----------

1/ Click the Start Button

2/ From the Start Menu click Control Panel

3/ In Control panel click the Security Center Icon

4/ On the Left hand side of the Security Center window you will see a list
of option

5/ Click on the Change the way Security Center alerts me option

6/ Another box will now appear marked 'Do you want to be notified of
Security issues?'

7/ Look down the list of options and click on Don't notify me and don't
display the icon (not recommended) option

8/ The box will now close and Security center will no longer notify you of
any Security issues

9/ To re-enable notification click on the 'Yes notify me and display the
icon (recommended) option

----------------------

There are probably some other basic things to
fix. If it were me I'd also uninstall PCHealth /
System File Protection, though I'm not sure whether
that can be done in Vista. (In WinME/XP there's an
uninstall string in the Registry, under the
HKLM\....\Uninstall\PCHealth key which can be
run from the Run window to uninstall the whole thing
and stop the endless, periodic disk thrashing caused
by SFP scanning for deleted or changed files.
(Note that you lose Windows Help functionality in
the process on both ME and XP.)

Along the same lines I would turn off indexing, which,
as far as I can see is another useless function to kill
off hard disks before their time. (I don't remember ever
waiting a problematic length of time for Windows to
find specific text in any file on a given disk partition, and
I don't have any indexing running.)

 

[Steve Thackery]

For goodness' sake, you haven't even tried it yet!

Don't, whatever you do, let this newsgroup influence important security
decisions. The people here are NOT representative of the whole user base.
Most are here because they have a problem, or because they like solving
problems. Hence all you get to hear about are problems.

Remember, UAC is there for a reason, and if you turn it off it has a number
of other subtle side effects, such as removing the IE7 extra-secure sandbox.

UAC prompts are fairly rare once you've finished installing all your
software and messing about getting everything set up correctly. Software
which isn't properly Vista compatible causes more prompts, so I suggest you
avoid it.

Speaking for myself, I'm rather glad that UAC warns me when something with
security implications is about to happen. In that respect it's just the
same as the elevation prompts in Linux and Mac OSX.

Please consider my advice: take at least a week, and preferably two, before
deciding whether to disable UAC.

If you are still tempted, consider this as a good alternative: make your
account an Administrator, and set your UAC such that it only requires you to
click the button, not to enter your password. The security advantages are
virtually identical if you are the sole user of the PC, and it honestly is
no bother at all to click the button.

SteveT

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

Hi clintonG:

Here are some resources I have developed over the past year for Windows
Vista, starting out with my review:
http://www.activewin.com/reviews/software/operating-sys/vista/index.shtml

My QuickStart Guide for Windows Vista PDF/XPS edition, you can download and
read in your own leisure:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E8E5CC039D51E3DB!16516.entry

 

[clintonG]

Thanks to all and Steve, your suggestion sound like a nice middle of the
road solution. I'm also off to read Andre's documents...

 

[Vigilante]

I have to warn you ahead of time.
Disabling UAC has reverse effects of actually being able to uninstall or run many programs still.
If one way does not work you may have to try the other.

The UAC at its core is likely a good bit of software.
From the end user aspect, why didn't they simply setup the feature to allow the administrator to set what programs warn me and which ones do not?
Just list the program types in Groups like Sysinternals or Windows Defender or MS Config does and the UAC would not be such an eyesore after a few months.
A very simple piece of logic could have gone much farther with last February's deployment.

I'm an experienced user about to get my first machine configured
with Vista Home Premium.

I'll have a lot of work to do uninstalling and installing software
to set up my new machine. Learning to cope with the security
features that I've heard gets in the way so much seems to be the
first thing I would want to learn to do eh?

The very first thing you'll have to do is remove all the "crapware"
that comes installed on new computers these days and you might just
want to disable the User Account Control while doing so.

To maintain security you can NOT connect to the internet (unplug the
modem) until you've removed all the programs you don't want and
installed all the programs you do want and when that's done you can
turn the UAC back on and then connect.

Here's how:

To turn off UAC open User Accounts from Control Panel and you'll see
"Turn User Account Control on or off", click on it, uncheck the box,
you'll need to reboot.

To stop being nagged about UAC being off, open Security Center from
Control Panel, click "Change the way Security Center alerts me" and
select one of the "Don't notify me" options.

Just do the reverse after you've removed/installed what you need and
then it's safe to reconnect your modem.

Does anybody have any referrals to blogs about setting up Vista in
this context to make it more user friendly? Is there a known blog
or guide yuo can refer me to?

I don't know of one but reading this group can sure help and I'm sure
someone else can direct you to such a guide.

 

[Vigilante]

Honestly,
I did not have many issues setting up Vista.
With my new hardware I bought a Builders License of Ultimate and was done with setup and installation in a surprising 1/2 hour.
Out of surprise I installed another drive and ran an Action Pack install of Windows Media Center 2005.
It took an hour and a half because of all the additional updates that have passed by.

With Vista,
Installing my other software however and figuring out where everything was moved to did take awhile.
Many programs that connect to the web for installation may require right clicking on the executables in the Program Files folder
(Program Files (x86) folder for 32 bit apps installed in Vista 64 bit.
Yes two separate Program Files folders on 64 bit and I actually thought that was another great idea to help users manage their software over the long term.)
When you right click on the executable select properties, you may have to set it to run compatibility mode as Win XP SP2 by clicking a checkbox.
Also you may have to click another checkbox to Run this Program as Administrator.
All of these are on the Properties under the Compatibility tab of any exe file.
Get used to it, you may have to use it often until Software vendors actually understand how to write for Vista.

Make sure you are not pressed for time.
Enjoy getting to know the interface it is attractive and does have some fairly well placed items.
Yes it will take awhile to get used to but you may actually enjoy something new if you let yourself.

I have had issues, and a few disappointments but I am still using it at home.
I am just not prepared to contend with troubleshooting the OS along with the already volatile software platforms currently in use.
When Vista present itself with an easy system to manage services and startup items only when the program itself requiring them is started.
Then I'll consider it beneficial and actually making progress toward making my life easier as well as hardware conscious.


I'm an experienced user about to get my first machine configured with Vista
Home Premium.

I'll have a lot of work to do uninstalling and installing software to set up
my new machine. Learning to cope with the security features that I've heard
gets in the way so much seems to be the first thing I would want to learn to
do eh?

Does anybody have any referrals to blogs about setting up Vista in this
context to make it more user friendly? Is there a known blog or guide yuo
can refer me to?

 

[XS11E]

Disabling UAC has reverse effects of actually being able to
uninstall or run many programs still.

I've found only one that requires UAC to install, that's Adobe Acrobat
reader (which I don't use) and none that won't uninstall or run.

The UAC at its core is likely a good bit of software.

I'd say the IDEA of UAC is good, the execution is VERY flawed. I'm
forced to turn it off and leave it off as it doesn't allow IEPrivacy
Keeper to function and I believe IEPrivacy Keeper to be more important
to my PCs security than UAC.

From the end user aspect, why didn't they simply setup the feature
to allow the administrator to set what programs warn me and which
ones do not?

Very good idea, possibly one that might be accomplished with an add on
of some kind?

BTW, please turn off HTML when posting to newsgroups.