If you're like me you think it's great UAC protects you but you hate it's (less frequent with Vista SP1) prompts?
Well the good news is that you can set it to not prompt if you're an administrator.
Microsoft’s recommendation is that User Account Control (UAC) remains enabled. There are several options within Vista that allow you to “tune” UAC to the level you're comfortable with.
There's a fairly detailed explanation on TechNet that you can read for background but the quick steps are...
- Start the Local Security Policy Editor
- Navigate to Local Policies | Security Options
- Edit "User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode"
You have three options - in ascending order of protection and descending order of nagging:
- No prompt - The elevation occurs automatically and silently (UAC is still enabled).
- Prompt for consent (default) – An operation that requires a full administrator access token will prompt the administrator in Admin Approval Mode to select either Continue or Cancel
- Prompt for credentials – An operation that requires a full administrator access token will prompt an administrator in Admin Approval Mode to enter an administrator user name and password.
Before you change the settings read the warnings and information about each of the choices.... Vista is getting a good reputation as being the most secure version of Windows ever and a lot of that is down to the behavior of UAC so don't increase your risks without knowing what you're doing