Windows 7 - I want to completely disable all this security

Ok, so seems that ive been schooled. In my defence, am a recent XP convert that hates Vista's annoying UAC so my first thought with 7 was to turn it off and disable the security to get it back like XP which is apparently not the thing to do. What would you personally recommend for security settings? Leave UAC all the way on? run as a guest user only giving admin access to programs that need it to work and auto-setting them to always run as admin? I want non-intrusive, but apparently disabling it is not the way to go, even though it has worked in the past. Suggestions? I want to be secure, but not so much that it restricts and/or annoys me.

I just use UAC at default and Microsoft Security Essentials. Doesn't restrict/annoy me one bit.

-

I should add that I haven't been infected at all this way either.

As far as UAC is concerned, I left it at the default which is the third tick mark. This way, UAC notifies you when programs attempt to elevate to admin. The top tick mark simply notifies you when you make a change...which you already know that you are making since you have a handle on what you are doing.

I've not really had much of a need to change any of my program settings to run as admin. Which applications are you experiencing issues with and what are you trying to do?

Carey

You aren't the only one it annoys. UAC is intrusive. Some of us feel like you do and run with it off. We also run as admin. Did it in vista, doing it now. we just make sure we have good current av's and firewalls. Good malware etc. If we were a bit hard on you it is out of concern. We have had too many ppl who thought they were safe and "knew what they were doing" that we had to help format and re-install.

If the uac is problematic we can work around it and help you. welcome

Ken J

This point of view has to be considered:

There are users that do backups. There are users that do not mind risking infection because of this. So to these users, running without any hassle and taking full risk is still a better alternative that to running with restrictions all the time.

For some people, computing is not their lives. If their machine gets wiped out, life goes on and some may have backup.

Only thing wrong with this is info possibly being stolen. Otherwise, if backup, who cares?...is my point.

Microsoft should be applauded for UAC but the instant my eyes first ever saw it on Vista, gone.

Adobe Updater wouldnt install updates and ApexDC++ was messing up. For ApexDC++ i just changed all of its directories out of program files and now it works. Also, i do have a good AV (MSE), i do frequent backups, and i run antimalwarebytes. Im not a complete idiot

Didnt figure you were but we get quite a few as you can imagine.

Welcome aboard Mate

Ken J

ok, so just clarifying, the only way to give a program acess to the program files directory is to run it as admin from the right click menu even if you are an administrator? or if you are an administrator does it have access without the right click -> run as admin?

and yes i can imagine

You could right click the program > Properties > Compatibility Tab > Check the 'Run this program as administrator' box.

That way you wont have to right click every time.

I'm the type that can recover in a heartbeat if my machine gets screwed up. I have a file server at home and everything important to me is on my server and not on my workstation. And I keep multiple backups, on external drives...some of which are offisite.

While I do have backups, I still don't accept the risks of running with all of the security disabled as I'm just as worried about somebody getting access to personal information or possibly compromising my identity.

I find it sad that so many, like you, simply disabled UAC the first instant they saw it. Like I said, I very rarely see an UAC prompts after getting my machine setup and working. And when I do see them, I have 1 button click. Certainly not a painstaking annoyance.

I mean with all of the owned Windows XP machines in the world, Microsoft had to do something to tighten down their security. And Unix/Linux have been using a similar system for many years and it's proven to be quite effective in those environments. Generally, even if a service is compromised, it's ability to compromise the rest of the system is almost non-existent.

But hey, it's a free world and I cannot stop anybody who really wants to disable their security. But I can say that as a systems engineer for a living and a person using PC's almost my entire life...I've rarely had a problem myself at home and can easily use my computers and do whatever I need to do with things like UAC enabled.