Windows Vista 101: How to turn off UAC

Turn off UAC

I’m really really really sorry Jesper, but when every 5th topic at the Neowin forums is a rant about Vista’s User Account Control (UAC), I must spread the word.

I, and I’m sure many beta testers as well, understand the reasons behind UAC and find it a little but not inefficiently obstructive. However, a group of people out there just can’t withstand UAC and might even cut off their arms and legs in protest. So in the prevention of lost limbs when Windows Vista launches, I have produced a quick 28-second video showing how stupidly easy it is to turn off UAC and its associated prompts. Please note, after you’ve disabled UAC, the shield icons will remain, but Windows Security will not prompt you to elevate your permission.

How to turn off UAC screencast
Click image to play video (H.264, 28secs)

For your convenience, if you do not have or like Quicktime installed, you can watch the low-quality YouTube version to get an idea.

12 insightful thoughts

  1. You might add that this will produce a security alert every startup. People who follow this advice won’t know if the security alert is just a nag or also pertaining to another problem, for example, with the firewall.

    Thanks for a great blog. (no sarcasm)

    peace,
    mjh

  2. Even quicker: when you open Control Panel, just type “UAC”. The focus is in the Control Panel search box already.
    The search result will bring up a link that takes you directly to the page in User Accounts where you can turn off the UAC prompts.

    Typing other stuff like “prompt”, or “turn off UAC” or similar keywords will bring up the same link.

    Cheers,
    Andrew McGlinchey
    Program Manager, Vista Control Panel

  3. @Andrew: I could have searched for it, but people might call that ‘cheating’ to achieve a fast time. I mean if doing it the ‘long-way’ doesn’t take over 30 seconds, then it must be really easy.

  4. Yeah, thats the easy part, but how do you disable the pop-up nag that you get constantly when you shut UAC off? sorry still whining…

  5. Long Zheng, thank you for the helpful information. All though it was what i thought i was seeking, it didn’t help me, as its for something else. ANYWAYS. i have a hp pavilion dv6000 laptop, i bought from sam’s club. When i purchased it, they were all out of stock on the shelf, and were not going to get new ones, because its an older model. So, negotiating, i bought the display. It appeared to be in mint condition, got all the manuals, original box, manuals, etc etc, with it for $750. Bargain i thought. Well, there seems to be an administrator account on this computer, that i cant get to. It isn’t on the login screen, so i don’t know how to access it. To my problem, the administrator account, has access to certain things blocked, hence the screen saver, the background, and among a few others i believe. Do you know ANY way i can enable these things, or delete that administrator account? I have called Sam’s Club, and basically they told me, unless defective in a major way, blah blah, it wasn’t there problem basically. Please help, it would be appreciated, and a donation to this site or a recommended one through Paypal, assuming your magical trick will work!

    Sincerely,
    Brandon

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