A Complete Guide for Tweaking User Account Control (UAC) in Windows Vista

Microsoft has added a new feature "User Account Control (UAC)" in Windows Vista which is a good addition. It prevents malicious programs to install in your system as well as it also prevents basic users to accidentally change system critical settings which can be harmful to the system.

Although its a good feature but sometimes it becomes annoying to experienced users who know what they are doing with their system. You can disable UAC completely from Control Panel -> User Accounts. But I'll not advise you to disable it but you can tweak it to decrease the no. of prompts.

You can tweak UAC using "Local Security Policy". Following is a step by step guide with all customizable settings:

1. Type "secpol.msc" in RUN dialog box and press Enter. It'll open Local Security Policy.

2. Now goto "Local Policies -> Security Options". In right-side pane, scroll down to last and you'll see following options related to UAC:

User Account Control: Admin Approval Mode for the Built-in Administrator account

Enabled
Disabled

User Account Control: Allow UIAccess applications to prompt for elevation without using the secure desktop.

Enabled
Disabled

User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode

Elevate without prompting
Prompt for credentials
Prompt for consent

User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for standard users

Automatically deny elevation requests
Prompt for credentials

User Account Control: Detect application installations and prompt for elevation

Enabled
Disabled

User Account Control: Only elevate executables that are signed and validated

Enabled
Disabled

User Account Control: Only elevate UIAccess applications that are installed in secure locations

Enabled
Disabled

User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode

Enabled
Disabled

User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation

Enabled
Disabled

User Account Control: Virtualize file and registry write failures to per-user locations

Enabled
Disabled

You can change them according to your requirements. Like you can enable "Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode" to remove those annoying prompts if you are using administrator account. You can disable "User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation" to disable the screen fluctuation when the UAC prompts appear.

3. If you are a Windows Vista Home Basic or Home Premium user and want to tweak UAC (User Account Control) settings using secpol.msc, then you'll be out of luck cause secpol.msc is a part of Group Policy Editor and its not included in Vista Home editions.

But don't worry, the same settings can be applied using Windows Registry Editor, so you can also enjoy the UAC tweaks in Vista Home editions using registry editor:

How to Tweak User Account Control (UAC) Options in Windows Vista Home Basic & Home Premium?

4. You can also use a software "TweakUAC" to change the settings easily.

TweakUAC is a free software tool that you can use to quickly turn UAC (User Account Control of Windows Vista) on or off, or to make UAC operate in the quiet mode.

Download TweakUAC

This article was posted in Windows Vista.

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3 Comments

netbox

I came up w/ this very annoying thing..
nice tip bro! Thank you!
Keep up the good work..
Lucy

Hi all!!! Good and nice site!! I ad this site to bookmark!!! Regards!!!!!!!
I4U

I just would like to authorize an application without desactivate UAC(Samsung Smart Thru Office BackupServer). Does it exist a possibility?