Windows 7: What are the implications of disabling the UAC

Also see is it bad to turn off user account control?.

Good God. I didn't think we had one that long, but the first page sums it up pretty well. People were complaining all the time that XP wasn't secure enough. MS adds something to make it more secure, and now everyone hates that. I've worked on a couple Vista machines, and I gotta say, even Vista's UAC does not annoy me, and almost everything causes it to pop up.

Well... I have a particular view on UAC...

First of all, UAC is intended for "unexperienced users" that use windows... you know, the typical guy that just chats, check emails and post things on facebook... and does some stuff on office... this kind of user is not aware about system security or how to "keep himself secure" from attacks, so, to avoid that kind of infections -wich, at least in my country, are the MAIN reason why everyone has virus in their PC's- Microsoft decided to add this control... if you see this closely, is similar to the Linux kernel protections... when you run stuff with your own user, but you always need to invoke the "super user" to add programs, updates and stuff, so you need to give permission to Linux to contiue... UAC is based on that... Is new for many users because they were always on windows and never had to test a Linux enviornment... basically now you need to give permission to windows for doing "X" action, if you are unsure or you know that is not trusable, you can cancel any action before it harms your system.

If you think you have good protection (good anti-malware) and the sites you visit are secure, and you dont instal anything what you see... you can turn UAC off... anyway, I only recommend this for experienced users... you must know what you are doing.

Personally, I know what I do, but it doesn't botter me to have UAC on... if you think UAC is annoying, you never used Vista then... there IT WAS a pain in the a**... at least in 7 is quire reasonable how it works.

See ya!!

For those who don't want to read the large thread that I mentioned, here's my answer from that thread: is it bad to turn off user account control?.

Spiderplant,

If you aren't connected to the Internet, then run that slider all of the way down.

If you are connected to the internet, then one step down from the top.

Reason being that sometimes the bad guys get a jump ahead of the anti-virus/anti-malware boys and the consequences could be very undesirable. It's a gamble. There are people who go up in an airplane just to jump out knowing full well that sometimes things go astray and they become only a memory.

Anyone who thinks UAC is a lot of hassle should try working with systems, that require a 20+ character, random Generated, Strong Password, to access admin/root commands.

If you are running as a standard user as default and not using IE then I would accept that running without UAC is acceptable, but with reasonable password rules running this way would be likely to be more hassle, than the UAC prompts

No one will ever be advised by me to revert to the way the majority of home users ran XP, as a full admin with no other control.

Don't you know Petey7.....no ones EVER satisfied...with anything...

Hi, Thanks for all the replies. Sounds like I'll be reasonabley safe with UAC off (I'll turn it on again once I've figured out how to solve all the glitches).
In reply to cluberti, an example of the problems I'm having with the UAC: Using a program called gMapCreator, I get the error "java.io.FileOutputStream.open" when trying to save. Running as administrator doesnt help. Maybe its poor design that causing it to do this but I still need to use it. (I'll open another thread if I cant figure out how to eliminate this problem with the UAC on).
Thanks

lets virus control your computer if infected

Well, I cannot say that I agree with this. I put myself far from the level of "unexperienced user" and I leave my UAC enabled. In fact, I configured my box using a limited user access account with UAC...so not only do I have to click ok, I also have to type in a username and password each time. Honestly, this only happens to me 2 or 3 times in any given day at work.

Sites that I visit on the web could be compromised, and a DNS attack could lead me to a bogus site. How could I ever be absolutely sure...even as a knowledgeable user. Same goes for the applications that I use, I do understand their intended purpose...but if I have an app that somehow wants escalated permissions, I certainly want to know about it.