New tool available to selectively bypass the UAC prompt

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

This is a developers tool that will allow you to selectively enable programs
to bypass the UAC prompt. Recommended for Vista Business, Enterprise and
Ultimate.

How to disable the User Account Control Prompt for certain applications:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946932

Testing it now.

 

[Jon]

This is a developers tool that will allow you to selectively enable
programs to bypass the UAC prompt. Recommended for Vista Business,
Enterprise and Ultimate.

How to disable the User Account Control Prompt for certain applications:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946932

Testing it now.

Worth noting that this won't do what many people will anticipate that it
will do. What it won't do is allow you to launch an elevated process from a
non-elevated one without a UAC prompt. If you launch an application in the
standard way (eg via Start menu or clicking on an application shortcut),
then the modified process will just launch with standard user privileges.

NB I've not tried it, but that is how I would interpret the significance of
the instructions on the page, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong there,
following your testing.



You can also achieve the same by adding a path / 'RUNASINVOKER' registry
entry under

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
or
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers

which is a probably simpler way of achieving the same.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Worth noting that this won't do what many people will anticipate that it
will do. What it won't do is allow you to launch an elevated process from
a non-elevated one without a UAC prompt. If you launch an application in
the standard way (eg via Start menu or clicking on an application
shortcut), then the modified process will just launch with standard user
privileges.

NB I've not tried it, but that is how I would interpret the significance
of the instructions on the page, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong
there, following your testing.



You can also achieve the same by adding a path / 'RUNASINVOKER' registry
entry under

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
or
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers

which is a probably simpler way of achieving the same.

Jon

These are just prliminary results of some testing.

It worked on a file utility that I use. (ShellExView)
It failed on Acronis Disk Director and True Image.

I am aware of the registry keys you mentioned, but the Application
Compatibility Tool doesn't appear to make any changes to those registry
keys.

Still testing.

 

[Jon]

Jon

These are just prliminary results of some testing.

It worked on a file utility that I use. (ShellExView)
It failed on Acronis Disk Director and True Image.

I am aware of the registry keys you mentioned, but the Application
Compatibility Tool doesn't appear to make any changes to those registry
keys.

Still testing.

Yeah, that would make sense since the last 2 would require full elevated
privileges for uninhibited disc access, whereas you'd anticipate viewing
current user shell extensions to require less privileges.

Interesting that it's independent of those registry keys though....

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Yeah, that would make sense since the last 2 would require full elevated
privileges for uninhibited disc access, whereas you'd anticipate viewing
current user shell extensions to require less privileges.

Interesting that it's independent of those registry keys though....

Jon

You were correct about the Acronis programs, they 'must' have admin
privileges to run. The utility that I mentioned ran OK until I tried to
perform an action that required it to create a registry value and then it
failed.

I found that the ACT tool does write a entry in the registry, but it creates
it's own key called 'InstalledSDB'.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\InstalledSDB

It also adds an entry to the Control Panel/Programs and Features/Uninstall
or Change A Program so that any particular component that you create can be
easily uninstalled.

 

[Jon]

I found that the ACT tool does write a entry in the registry, but it
creates it's own key called 'InstalledSDB'.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\InstalledSDB

It also adds an entry to the Control Panel/Programs and Features/Uninstall
or Change A Program so that any particular component that you create can
be easily uninstalled.

Interesting .. thanks for sharing Ronnie.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Hi Ronnie,

I tried it on the program CCleaner, and it did not prevent the UAC
prompt for it. Even after a restart. I also tried it with combinations
of "RunAsAdmin" and "RunAsHighest" with the "RunAsInvoker" to see if it
made any difference. Nope. I am using the 64 bit Vista Ultimate.

Hope this helps with the testing on it. Any ideas?

Shawn


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Hi Shawn

It really is a hit or miss tool.

I used the tool on a utility called ShellExView, which is a program that
displays and can change context menu items. It always pops up the UAC prompt
when it is started. After using the ACT tool, the program started without
the UAC prompt and displayed the information for the context menu handlers.

However, as soon as I tried to use the program to make a change to one of
the handlers (which required the program to make a change in the registry)
it simply failed. I had to restart the program and use the 'Run as
administrator' option to make it work properly.

Other programs, such as Acronis Disk Director or True Image, will simply
display an error message when you try to start them after using the ACT
tool. You can still use the 'Run as administrator' option and they will work
properly.

The tool adds a registry key at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags called 'InstalledSDB' that contains several
DWord and String values.

The ACT tool also adds an entry in the Control Panel/Programs and
Features/Install_Uninstall Programs, so that you can can easily remove the
changes that the tool makes for a particular program that it is used on.

The conclusion seems to be that the tool is very limited in scope with what
it can actually do. What it will not do is override the UAC prompt if a
program attempts to make systemwide changes.