User Account Control (UAC) is a technology introduced in Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system. It aims to improve the security of Microsoft Windows by limiting application software to standard user privileges until an administrator authorizes an increase in privilege level. In this way, only applications that the user trusts receive higher privileges, and malware is kept from receiving the privileges necessary to compromise the operating system. In other words, a user account may have administrator privileges assigned to it, but applications that the user runs do not also have those privileges unless they are approved beforehand or the user explicitly authorizes it to have higher privileges. UAC is responsible for the message boxes that are forced to the foreground (background is blacked out) requesting user confirmation for an action.
It is usually useful to leave UAC active as it mitigates the damage of viruses, spyware, and misguided users. However, there are times when UAC becomes an annoyance. If you want to disable UAC, you can run the following reg file:
- Click here, save the file to your desktop.
- Double click on the “Disable_UAC.reg” file on your desktop.
- Click “Continue” when prompted.
- Press “Yes” when prompted.
- Press “OK.”
- Reboot your computer.
If you want to re-enable UAC, download this reg file and merge it with the registry following the same process as above. Remember to restart your computer.