How do I allow an "unknown" program - *permanently* ?

[shiphen]

Hi

How do I stop Windows 7 (64Bit) from asking "Do you want to allow the following program from an unknown publisher to make changes to this computer?"

i.e. How do I give permanent permission just to specific programs to allow them to run?

e.g. fscapture.exe
e.g. Everything (desktop search)
e.g. Dreamweaver MX2004
e.g. Disk Defrag (Auslogistics)
e.g. Malwarebyte's Ant-Malware
e.g. Hitman Pro

Many thanks


John
John Smith

P.S. Btw, apologies for the newbie question.

 

[Monsoon]

So the programs are already installed, and you don't want to jump through hoops every time you run them?
This sounds like a UAC issue. You could bump the level down a notch to see if it stops nagging you for this stuff.

If you're running those programs, chances are you have your computer locked down tight enough to be safe anyway.

 

[Mark Phelps]

I read online about UAC Trust Shortcut. See the blog below for more:

Disable UAC on specific individual Programs Trusted Software

Can't vouch for this personally as I haven't used it -- yet. But I have the same problem and will be trying this out in the near future.

 

[thishik]

Tried the UAC Trust shortcut. Works for administrators but not for standard users. Still requires an administrator password.

 

[MilesAhead]

This may be helpful:

Sudo for Windows | Download Sudo for Windows software for free at SourceForge.net

 

[shiphen]

I read online about UAC Trust Shortcut. See the blog below for more:

Disable UAC on specific individual Programs Trusted Software

Can't vouch for this personally as I haven't used it -- yet. But I have the same problem and will be trying this out in the near future.

Disaster. This does not work for me. I tried linking to the local PC file searching tool with the (stupid) name of "Everything" - i.e. I added:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\everything\Everything-1.2.1.451a.exe" as the path but it simply goes into a loop calling itself which is almost impossible to break out of.
Aaarggh! :banghead:

 

[shiphen]

This may be helpful:

Sudo for Windows | Download Sudo for Windows software for free at SourceForge.net

I tried this too but after I installed it, I couldnt find any trace of it on my computer.

So I GIVE UP. I have turned off all notifications. I know it's "the wrong thing to do" but life is too short. I have a business to run. GOD I hate Micro$oft.

J

 

[MilesAhead]

This may be helpful:

Sudo for Windows | Download Sudo for Windows software for free at SourceForge.net

I tried this too but after I installed it, I couldnt find any trace of it on my computer.

So I GIVE UP. I have turned off all notifications. I know it's "the wrong thing to do" but life is too short. I have a business to run. GOD I hate Micro$oft.

J

The first thing to do would be open a command prompt and type
sudo

as shown in the screen shot. It's probably an exe in the Windows or System32 folder.

I used to run Windows NT Server 4. There was a user group called "Operators" that let you install and uninstall programs, register and unregister ActiveX, etc. but you couldn't delete system files. A user account in Operators is roughly equivalent to the Administrator user group that Windows uses now. Seems like it's fine to run it from there without UAC to me, esp. if you make regular image backups.

Some people actually try to run more than one Real Time AV program at the same time. After awhile all these prophylactic devices actually interfere with using the PC. It's up to you how much of a safety net you want to use. I just advise being multiply backed up. An alternative is using a program like Sandboxie.

To me the least enjoyable part of buying a new PC is running it that first hour until I get the Norton crap off and turn UAC and indexing off so I can use it the way I want since I paid for the damn thing! A fun experience has now become a drudgery.

 

[sgkhalsa]

rename program to avoid the "make changes" notification

I encountered this problem as well. After reviewing this forum and others the only workable solution was to disable ALL such notifications, which seems too extreme and potentially dangerous in itself.

My solution: change the name of the program. Instead of RunPatches.exe my program is now named RunPatcches.exe. Note the extra "c".

I found that any program name that contains these words will trigger the notification:
Update
Patch
Setup
Install

So, WeatherUpdate.exe will get this warning.
So will, ResetUptownMeters.exe (contains the string "setup")

MakeChangesToThisComputer.exe does not give this warning

The heuristics used for detecting such dangerous programs are quite puzzling.

regedit.exe by Miocrosoft, gets this warning, albeit from a "known" publisher.
However, regedit.exe by me, does not get the warning.

Apparently, anyone can write a registry editor program, AND name it regedit.exe, and not get the warning.

hope this helps.

 

[Alejandro85]

This may be helpful:

Sudo for Windows | Download Sudo for Windows software for free at SourceForge.net

I tried this too but after I installed it, I couldnt find any trace of it on my computer.

So I GIVE UP. I have turned off all notifications. I know it's "the wrong thing to do" but life is too short. I have a business to run. GOD I hate Micro$oft.

J

It's intentionally designed in that way, a program requesting admin rights will trigger an UAC prompt EVERY time it's run, regardless of anything. The shortcut workaround is the messy "solution" which works if you use that icon to run the program. Otherwise you may need to look for a newer version that is Win7 compatible.
As a sidenote, I agree with "it's the wrong thing to do", I used to think as you, and disabled UAC altogether, but believe me, leave it enabled for a while to try it. It doesn't appear that often, and it's just one more click

I encountered this problem as well. After reviewing this forum and others the only workable solution was to disable ALL such notifications, which seems too extreme and potentially dangerous in itself.

My solution: change the name of the program. Instead of RunPatches.exe my program is now named RunPatcches.exe. Note the extra "c".

I found that any program name that contains these words will trigger the notification:
Update
Patch
Setup
Install

So, WeatherUpdate.exe will get this warning.
So will, ResetUptownMeters.exe (contains the string "setup")

MakeChangesToThisComputer.exe does not give this warning

The heuristics used for detecting such dangerous programs are quite puzzling.

regedit.exe by Miocrosoft, gets this warning, albeit from a "known" publisher.
However, regedit.exe by me, does not get the warning.

Apparently, anyone can write a registry editor program, AND name it regedit.exe, and not get the warning.

hope this helps.

You're wrong in one aspect with that. While it's true that renaming doesn't triggers UAC prompts, it also means that the applications aren't elevated really, therefore you don't get admin rights. The first thing (update, setup, etc) is due a feature so-called "Detect installers" that precisely offers admin rights to .EXEs named that way as a workaround to legacy programs unaware of UAC, so those get admin rights too. The "regedit" thing is because the real regedit is manifested as requesting "highest available" privileges, while yours probably not. When using your regedit, you don't get a prompt, but also you don't get admin rights!!! Try changing something in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE with the prompt and without the prompt, you'll get an "access denied" in the second case.