That was one of the most useless blog posts that I have ever read. I'm not sure why the author expected that the UAC system would stop malware from installing.
His conclusion: You still need anti-virus with Windows 7. Is there anybody on the planet who actually thought otherwise????
My conclusion: Some computer users should be required to obtain a license to blog before doing so.
Bit of a hijack, but is there a way to disable UAC for a single application? I think it's really stupid to have to click "allow" when I run Task Manager and other things.
I wouldn't mind it if it monitored non-sandboxed apps like Firefox or Thunderbird, but as a poweruser, I want to be able to open MSConfig or Task Manager without interruption.
I wasn't exactly clear...But I want to make sure this point gets across.
UAC is not a security boundary but rather a convenience. A convenience so you do not have to run as administrator yet still be able to do administrative task without changing accounts.
Sorry for the hijack,
Back on topic, on my Windows 7 box, I have UAC enabled, it's on the 3rd tick mark (defaults)....and I can open both Task Manager as well as msconfig without any prompts whatsoever.
You must have your UAC all the way to the max....which prompts when YOU, the admin does something specifically which requires admin level control. Bring it down 1 tick mark and then it won't nag unless the application itself tries to gain admin rights.
I think that the UAC prompt when using Taskmanager or MSConfig to change something depends on the actual item you are attempting to change
if you are attempting to stop a system process then I am, personally, willing to accept the UAC prompt as this is a useful checkpoint
Others have a right of course to have there own opinions, which is why UAC is configurable :)
But how does UAC decide when to kick in - for instance I have a tax return program which loads without UAC coming in but with a payroll program it asks for permisson each time.
There are several triggers for the UAC prompting for elevation ...
If the program is designed with the requirement. this is complicated as many older programs designed for XP, where the norm is to run as admin, are set this way although they have no need to be because the programming is simpler for the developer.
If the program needs to access data that does not have permissions set for a standard user then the prompt will be triggered. This happens with a standard admin user as the user is actually running as a standard user.
You can also stipulate that a program always runs with admin rights by use of the compatibility mode
Quote