Uninstall User Account Control (UAC) ?

V

Valentin

Is it possible to uninstall UAC? And if it is, will there be any negative
consequences?
As an "Administrator" of my Vista Home Premium computer I find it odd "to
give permission to myself" every time the UAC window comes up with that
silly question: "Windows needs your permission".
 
C

Carey Frisch [MVP]

UAC is designed to make you stop and think before taking an action
that could potentially cause problems. Leave it be.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

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

Is it possible to uninstall UAC? And if it is, will there be any negative
consequences?
As an "Administrator" of my Vista Home Premium computer I find it odd "to
give permission to myself" every time the UAC window comes up with that
silly question: "Windows needs your permission".
 
B

Bob F.

Valentin said:
Is it possible to uninstall UAC? And if it is, will there be any negative
consequences?
As an "Administrator" of my Vista Home Premium computer I find it odd "to
give permission to myself" every time the UAC window comes up with that
silly question: "Windows needs your permission".

You can turn it off. Please go to:

Control Panel > User Accounts > Turn User Account Control on or off.
 
A

Augustus

A

Aaron Gray

Valentin said:
Is it possible to uninstall UAC? And if it is, will there be any negative
consequences?
As an "Administrator" of my Vista Home Premium computer I find it odd "to
give permission to myself" every time the UAC window comes up with that
silly question: "Windows needs your permission".

The machine is very vulnerable to viruses and worms without UAC !

Aaron
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

Is it possible to uninstall UAC? And if it is, will there be any negative
consequences?


You can't uninstall it, but you can turn it off.

As an "Administrator" of my Vista Home Premium computer I find it odd "to
give permission to myself" every time the UAC window comes up with that
silly question: "Windows needs your permission".


What you may not be realizing is that Windows can't distinguish
between you and an intruder. If you turn it off, you will give
automatic permission to yourself, but also to everyone and everything
else--including malware.
 
B

Bill Martin

What you may not be realizing is that Windows can't distinguish
between you and an intruder. If you turn it off, you will give
automatic permission to yourself, but also to everyone and everything
else--including malware.

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

And that's poor programming IMHO. Microsoft should be able to tell
that an install or whatever was initiated by my mouse click rather
than by software. And thus not have to badger me three times about
what I already manually told it to do.

Or not...

When you say "turning it off gives automatic permission...", I presume
this is no worse than the existing state of affairs in XP? i.e.
Microsoft didn't to anything to actually make the problem worse?

Bill
 
S

SG

Microsoft should be able to tell that an install or whatever was
Hi Bill,

Not the case at all. A mouse click is done by code and what about the
Keyboard? how would they distinguish that?. A mouse click and Keyboard can
be programmed without you ever touching it, so there is no way for MS to
program anything that could tell the difference if you or an automatic code
pressed the buttons or keys.

--
All the best,
SG

ALEX NICHOL
(1935-2005)
http://www.aumha.org/alex.htm
You will never be forgotten my friend
 
M

Michael Palumbo

SG said:
Hi Bill,

Not the case at all. A mouse click is done by code and what about the
Keyboard? how would they distinguish that?. A mouse click and Keyboard can
be programmed without you ever touching it, so there is no way for MS to
program anything that could tell the difference if you or an automatic
code pressed the buttons or keys.

--
All the best,
SG

ALEX NICHOL
(1935-2005)
http://www.aumha.org/alex.htm
You will never be forgotten my friend

And if I may add to that, a good percentage of malware is installed BY THE
USER, the user not knowing that the "cool" new screensaver or game he/she
just downloaded is actually a Trojan Horse, or some other bit of malware.

Mic
 
B

Bill Martin

Hi Bill,

Not the case at all. A mouse click is done by code and what about the
Keyboard? how would they distinguish that?. A mouse click and Keyboard can
be programmed without you ever touching it, so there is no way for MS to
program anything that could tell the difference if you or an automatic code
pressed the buttons or keys.

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

What you say describes Vista as written and delivered. Note however
that Microsoft has full control of the hardware. They could, if they
wished to so code it, make all mouse clicks, etc., go directly through
their hands first -- so that they could distinguish my mouse click
from some software emulating one.

Microsoft has all the control they need to tell whether I clicked the
mouse or some software did. They chose not to provide Vista with this
capability. I understand that choice, but it doesn't mean it would
have been impossible to write it the other way.

It's just easier for them to keep asking me whether I initiated the
action or not.

Bill
 
S

SG

Answered inline....



ALEX NICHOL
(1935-2005)
http://www.aumha.org/alex.htm
You will never be forgotten my friend

Bill Martin said:
-----------------------

What you say describes Vista as written and delivered. Note however
that Microsoft has full control of the hardware. They could, if they
wished to so code it, make all mouse clicks, etc., go directly through
their hands first -- so that they could distinguish my mouse click
from some software emulating one.


A Click event passes Event Arguments to its Event Handler, so it only
indicates that a click has occurred. There is no way for any code to
distinguish if you physically casued this action or some other code did.
It's all done by code and there's no other way around it. How do you think
computers work?

Microsoft has all the control they need to tell whether I clicked the
mouse or some software did. They chose not to provide Vista with this
capability. I understand that choice, but it doesn't mean it would
have been impossible to write it the other way.


If you could please explain how this is done I sure would be interested.
Have you ever used Voice Recognition software? do you really think the
system actually hears what you say like a human? It's all done by code
period.
It's just easier for them to keep asking me whether I initiated the
action or not.

Guess what, by them asking you is also done by code Bill.
You deserved a reply and I respect your thoughts on this, but I think we
are wasting time and it's time to move on.
 

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