UAC "unidentified program"

[Guest]

This is NOT a question about elevation to administrator privileges!

As near as I can tell, UAC pops up an "unidentified program" prompt for any
program that has not been properly "signed".

Is there any way to tell Vista that a specific program that does not wish to
be elevated, but does not have the appropriate publisher information, should
be run without whining every single time you run it?

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Hello,

Can you describe the prompt you are seeing a bit more? (What does it say
exactly, what buttons are there, does it have a checkbox?)

 

[Andre Da Costa [ActiveWin]]

No, because the application is not designed to work that way. You would be
compromising the integrity of UAC since the application might be designed to
write to certain parts of Vista that is not allowed by the OS.

 

[Guest]

OK, when I say yes to run an "unidentified program" I am under the impression
that I am only allowing it to run under user privileges. There is no
separate request to elevate (hence my prologue). How is this a security
breach????

The program comes from a reputable company and runs fine under Vista (well
if you don't count that the help menu is MIA), but is obviously not fully
Vista tweaked.

The user *will* use the program. And now the user will be ticked off every
time he runs it and has to do the "Simon says" routine.

Frankly, I am thrilled that UAC will keep the user from doing a lot of other
things, but I'm not understanding how a user level program that does not have
a signature is per se a threat.

 

[Jimmy Brush]

This prompt means the program wishes to be elevated.

 

[Not Me]

I see that with the BOINC software I run for medical research.
(Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Networked Computing)
It's a Vista annoyance that is really irritating.
The first time you run a program, I could deal with the prompt; but
prompting every time it wants to run is just stupidity on the part of the
programmers.
All UAC does is condition people to click through to get the damn thing ouf
of the way.

 

[Guest]

User Account Control (yellow bar)

"An unidentified program wants to access your computer"

Options: Cancel / Allow

Period!

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

"All UAC does is condition people..."
Only those that ignore the intent of UAC.
I rarely see UAC prompts.
Once a computer has hardware and software installed and windows is
configured, UAC will seldom be seen.
Non typical users and those running older/poorly written programs will
see UAC more.

In this case it seems BOINC is poorly written.
What have they said when asked about Windows Vista compatibility?

Instead of simply clicking through anything without trying to
understand what is meant, people need to learn and practice safe
computing.
That applies to any operating system from any source.

 

[HeyBub]

The program comes from a reputable company and runs fine under Vista
(well if you don't count that the help menu is MIA), but is obviously
not fully Vista tweaked.

You need to run the program:

Windows6.0-KB917607-x86.msu

which will translate .HLP files into HTTP files.

 

[Guest]

I poked around in task manager and discovered that it *was* being elevated.

When I searched before querying here, all I found was a lot of software
developers discussing how this was being caused because their programs did
not have proper "credentials" and needing root certificates and such.

IMHO, if this prompt is trying to tell you that a program is going to be
taking over your whole machine (elevated) and not that an "unidentified
program" wants to run, then that's what it should say!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Every other elevation prompt I recall seeing made it clear that the program
was asking for special privileges. This one appears to merely ask if it can
be allowed to run.

How is a user supposed to make semi-intelligent decisions when the choice
being made is not articulate properly? Earth to Microsoft!!!

Thanks for your help!!