Disable User Account Control(UAC) For Administrators Only
If you can’t stand the User Account Control prompts, but you’d still like to retain a little bit of security, you can disable it for Administrator accounts only. What we’ll be doing is actually changing Windows Vista to automatically elevate the privilege level for administrators without prompting.
Note: Disabling UAC will lead to a less secure system, so be warned.
The nice thing about doing it this way is that regular users as well as Internet Explorer still run as regular users, and would still use the normal security mechanisms.
Disable on Windows 7 or Vista Business or Ultimate
To configure this setting on Windows 7 / Vista Business and Ultimate, you can use the Local Security Policy configuration. Just type in secpol.msc into the Start menu search box and hit enter.
Now browse down to Local Policies \ Security Options
Find the following in the list: “User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode” and double-click on it.
Change the setting to “Elevate without prompting”. You should be all done.
Disable for Windows 7 or Vista Home
For Windows Vista Home users, the Local Security Policy doesn’t come with the distribution, so you’ll have to use the following registry file.
Just download, extract and double-click on the registry hack file to add the information into the registry. That’s all there is to it. Update: I’ve added in another registry hack file to re-enable UAC again.
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THANK YOU. I have been back and forth with Incredimail for weeks now.The purchased Gold gallery was not useable.I did the turn off permission control and it knocked my incredimail back to basic useage.I put my purchased license numbers back in and have complete useage of incredimail now.Apparently this permission thing has everything gummed up.Thanks for your help in a roundabout way!!
Rosie
My wife switched from Bell South to Indredimail and is highly dissatisfied…however, it’s impossible to figure out how to disable so that she can have her Bell South account as her primary email!!! I wish I was a geek — can you help.
the disable UAC file for admin. (vista prem) worked great, you know your stuff. thanks
great info. awesome link. I think someone went a bit off topic in this link. I wish them luck.
When I dbl-clck on the extracted zip file all it does is ask what program to use to open it. What else do I need to do?
Used the reg patch for vista home and now I have a red shield warning in my task bar. How is running the patch differnt than just turning UAC off in security settings?
How do I get this stupid warning off?
Just go to windows security center from your control panel and click on the left where it says “Change the way security center alerts me” you then have the choice between:
Yes, notify me and display the icon
Don’t notify me, but display the icon
Don’t notify me and don’t display the icon.
Just click the last option and wola no more annoying warning in your task bar. Hope this helps.
Vince. you are the man.
Vince, thanks alot for that tip. It helped quite a bit!
No more stupid pop-up everytime i start my computer
Vince you rock. That “Don’t notify me and don’t display the icon” fix stopped me from sceaming at my computer loud obscenities at 3am waking the household and neighborhood. Vista is new to me but im an old hat at microsoft.. I’m very close to installing *NIX after installing vista. its got a lot of fun features.. but overall im very unhappy. then again ive been unhappy with every micro* product since dos 6.22. Again.. THANKS!
So, there’s no way to shut off the message just for the user control thing? Because I actually like the security center, for all it’s other functions. But it becomes quite the pest as soon as you’re not using default settings. Any way of just disabling that Windows Security Center is monitoring the UAC?
I also disabled it through Local Security Policy, however something I need to install requires it back. I went back into the LSP to activate UAC but it is greyed out and I can not activate it again.
Does anyone have any answers?
I use FireFox web browser and every time I go to surf the web I get the pop up (user Account control) Is there a way to let this access the web without the popup? I really don’t want to turn the entire security system off. Why does IE web browser get the green light with out a popup?
Thanks,
its because firefox is enabled as ‘Run as administrator’ this is why it asks for your consent. to fix this go into firefox\properties\compatibility\.. and uncheck the box saying run as administrator hope that helped you.
“simon (lol im 14)”
Sorry it did not work.. Maybe it will work when your 15?
Burt
To disable uac easily just do this: start menu –> run –> msconfig, click on tools tab then scro.ll down to disable uac then click launch.
Chris –> If you do it that way, it will be disabled for other users as well, correct?
As a Vista Home user, I’m happy to have got rid of the annoyance of UAC. But I’m not convinced about the patch at the top of this page which is supposed to disable UAC for Administrators only. My non-admin user can now do things that would previously have had a UAC warning. I may as well have simply disabled it myself without this patch. Has anyone been truly able to get rid of UAC for Administrators ONLY on Vista Home??
How do I turn UAC back on again once i add this registry file, I tried deleting it, but regedit could not find the entry.
You know, Windows has spoilt users that they don’t use the command prompt and write such big article for things which can be done in single command line and without a system restart…
Probably you may want to try “LEACfg setpromptpolicy admin 0″
LEACfg? Google returns very few references to that command, and it doesn’t appear to exist on my Windows Vista Business machine.
In my humble opinion, so long as you wear a virtual rubber, you’re pretty much safe. I have Avast, use NoScript with Firefox, and stay away from shady downloads.
How do I undo the registry changes this file made? some of my programs don’t function anymore grrrrr
Sorted!
Thanks so much for this.
As always, there’s (potentially) more to the instructions:
I searched for “secpol.msc” – got nothing in the indexed locations. no surprise.
I got 10 instances in my “C” drive.
I took the most recent one and changed that one.
Is there a (generic) simple and direct way to test if it worked?
Will service pack installations require changing this again?
God Bless You for this. I was about to destroy this machine (almost out the window). The UAC was so annoying and disabling it caused the machine not to boot.
FYI: The “hack” is built-in to “Administrative Tools > System Configuration > Tools > [Scroll all the way down, to ] “Disable UAC”. & click “Launch”
…and just below “Disable UAC” is “Enable UAC”…
(as it says, both “hacks” require a reboot.
This option executes the following: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
(BTW: This is as of Vista SP1… not sure with previous releases)
cheers Ed that has worked perfectly for me. once again thanks.
Hi,
Everytime I turn off UAC (less a ’security feature’ than a ‘bl**dy annoying feature’, if you ask me), I am instantly unable to use Firefox. I don’t like IE, so what should I do?
I have spent the last day or so trying to sort this out, and have so far only succeeded in losing my bookmarks. Aaaargh!
You all are going to like what I did {:>
After you disable UAC do this:
1. Go to your Windows Security Center and enable “Don’t notify me but display the icon”
2. Place your cursor in the blank space UNDERNEATH BUT NOT TOUCHING the Windows Security Center icon that is now displaying in your taskbar’s system tray. Now RIGHT click and select “Properties” to open your “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” window and go to the next step.
3 .Click the “Notification Area” tab
4. Click the “Customize…” tab
5. Click the “Windows Security Alerts” tab and a drop down menu appears to the right of the icon.
6. Select “Hide”
I
Supersnake, that’s not really any different than the previous suggestions and has twice as many steps.
As mentioned before, If you want to get rid of the annoying red tray shield and/or “UAC is disabled” NAG just do this:
1. R.Click the annoying red shield in the tray and pick “Open Security Center”
2. Click “Change the way Security Center Alerts me” (it’s in the left column)
3. Pick “Don’t notify me and don’t display the icon”
I should mention (as did Johny) that in either case you are ALSO disabling the shield/nag for other useful features such as notifying you if:
- AntiVirus/AntiSpyware is disabled or out of date
- Firewall is off
- Windows Updates is turned off
- Internet Security Settings are disable
In Windows XP you could pick and choose WHICH of the above you wanted the tray/nag disabled for but (I don’t use Windows Firewall so I would disable the nag for JUST that and voila, no annoying red shield. But if my AntiVirus failed, there it was!). In Vista it’s all or nothing which is unbelievably stupid. Way to “improve security” Microsoft… UAC is terrible because it encourages users to blindly click “Allow” and if you want it shut off with no annoying nag you lose all of the actually USEFUL warnings?!? Smaaaaaart. It’s probably intentional to force you to accept UAC. We’re being punished for hating it. If anyone knows how to disable ONLY the UAC nag please share!
Guys – all good stuff BUT… is there not a way to trust an application – so once you trust it and flag it as such.. UAC knows its safe… and runs it without a prompt.. NOW that would make sense.
Perhaps i missed something but using Leopard is such a pleasure – then i need to work on my vista box and i just cannot understand why they did what they did – XP is also a pleasure next to Vista.
Thx.
the hack “reenableuacforadmin” does not restore password uac for admin. I changed the value to 00000001 from 00000002 in this hack and it seems to have worked correctly and my password uac for admin is working now.
tim
please help me i cant download anything i ant even go on msn because of the user account control
please help me i cant download anythig i cant even go on msn because of the user account control tried so many asswords but the guy hu fied r computer forotthe password of he thing
THank u love eevan bhullar
Thanks!
arggg I hate Vista Home!
thanks for posting this saves me a lot of pain…
OMG!! Thanks .. I HATE UAC . its the ford Pinto of security measures.. even the FREE linux builds all have better UAC controls!
WTF .. is going on over at MS .. are they using this crap themselves? Or are they just too damn focused on online advertising to give a shit about the OS they are charging people for? windows 7 pfffttt! not a chance.
hi, i have a problem with my vista. i forgot the admin p.w. and now i can’t do anything to protect my pc or retrieve any of my work. is there a way to get it back or reset it? the UAC will not let me do anything.
I tried using the secpol.msc command but it is not recognized nor can it be found on my computer. I clicked on the Disable User Account Control(UAC) For Administrators Only but I haven’t restarted as yet and I don’t know if I should or if I should recheck the control. I certainly do not like the control that Vista uses and since I’m the only user on this computer, I as the administrator feel that I should be able to move files around or delete files and it at times prevents me from doing this as I don’t have the authority. How else do I get the authority.
Is this considered a comment or a question as if I post it on the forum I have no idea if anyone really knows the solution. RHartsook
Hello, I have Windows Vista and it seems that I have forgotten my password (even though I wrote it down it doesn’t work – maybe I changed it or something) for my Administrators account. My son said to research this on-line and I found this site. My question is how to disable the administrators account and can I get the account back again and will I be able to assign a new password to it? I have tons of updates that I can’t get because I need the “permission” from the administrator. One searched site said I would have to re-install windows. Is that true???? Yikes!