UAC off, now what?

[bounce]

Coming from XP where I didn't have worm/virus type problems for years with just Nod32, malwarebytes, superantispyware installed + common sense I'm finding the UAC to be very clunky. I'm going to run these (superantispyware when it's win7 ready) again, what else would you suggest to keep system security smooth with UAC off? thanks

 

[pparks1]

I really wouldn't suggest turning UAC off honestly. It can be a bit noisy at first, but once you have things setup..you will hardly ever see it again. Also, you can customize the amount of annoyingness of it in Windows 7. So, maybe try taking it down to the next slider bar lower rather than totally disabling it.

I just recommend leaving it on because MS as an OS has had a rough security run for the past few years. However, things have improved, but simply disabling things like UAC somewhat defeats the intended purpose.

 

[ZeshanA]

I really wouldn't suggest turning UAC off honestly. It can be a bit noisy at first, but once you have things setup..you will hardly ever see it again. Also, you can customize the amount of annoyingness of it in Windows 7. So, maybe try taking it down to the next slider bar lower rather than totally disabling it.

I just recommend leaving it on because MS as an OS has had a rough security run for the past few years. However, things have improved, but simply disabling things like UAC somewhat defeats the intended purpose.

BEAT ME TO IT!!!! Yeah pparks is right just slide the slider bar down instead of turning it off completely as it'll still protect you that little bit more. Hey, even if you have it on Minimum it's still on and can stop potential viruses/worms/trojans etc. getting in to your PC and doing things you don't want them to.

 

[johngalt]

I posted in your original thread - obviously you've already turned it off, but I implore you to still read the above and what I wrote as well.

Direct link - http://www.sevenforums.com/system-s...rogram-make-changes-message-2.html#post264741

 

[Mercurial]

I turned off UAC, using Only Eset nod32 v4 and win firewall ;D

 

[tw33k]

I turned off UAC, using Only Eset nod32 v4 and win firewall ;D

me too. That's exactly what I've been using for a long time now and it's all I need.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I have my slider all the way down. but I run MSE and Malwarebytes (as my manual scanner) along with the built-in firewall. Add in common sense and that is enough to protect anyone.

 

[m3gaman]

uac is more secure than a antivirus or anti malware that is dependent on signatures
uac in windows 7 rtm isn't that annoying
In Vista it was horrible

 

[zigzag3143]

Coming from XP where I didn't have worm/virus type problems for years with just Nod32, malwarebytes, superantispyware installed + common sense I'm finding the UAC to be very clunky. I'm going to run these (superantispyware when it's win7 ready) again, what else would you suggest to keep system security smooth with UAC off? thanks

A good anti-virus, a good firewall, and something for malware. some of the front runners in av are microsoft security essentials, eset smart security(firewall and AV), avast, kaspersky.

firewall windows own, zone alarm (yuch) and eset smart security

malwarebytes

hope this helps

 

[TOF]

I have my slider all the way down as well. But Trend Micro Internet Security monitors any system changes and notifies me allowing me to accept or block the change. This is a lot less annoying than constantly clicking to dismiss UAC warnings.

 

[pparks1]

Having the slider all the way to the bottom is the same as having UAC off.

 

[Dinesh]

Along with an anti virus, i always recommend to have things like threatfire or iobit.

 

[TheSchaft]

Having the slider all the way to the bottom is the same as having UAC off.

A drawback is that with UAC off you lose the ability to turn on "In-Private Filtering" in IE8. (Brink has a nice short tutorial on how to keep it turned on.)

It was a PITA coming from XP and dealing with UAC at first, I agree, but if you set it to one up from the bottom you gain some protection that otherwise would be missing, and it isn't that intrusive.

 

[Lebon14]

As far as I remember, I have it off too in Win7. But it wasn't because of popup annoyance. It's because I had problems with writing files to this directory :

C:\Program Files\StepMania\Songs\My Creations\*song name folder*\*song name*.sm

which opens with Notepad. In my case I used Notepad++ but he wasn't able to save the file because he didn't have the rights. Turning off UAC wipe the problem away.

 

[TOF]

A drawback is that with UAC off you lose the ability to turn on "In-Private Filtering" in IE8.

Hmmm, I didn't know that. Firefox has the ability to use private browsing without UAC activation.

 

[m3gaman]

As far as I remember, I have it off too in Win7. But it wasn't because of popup annoyance. It's because I had problems with writing files to this directory :

C:\Program Files\StepMania\Songs\My Creations\*song name folder*\*song name*.sm

which opens with Notepad. In my case I used Notepad++ but he wasn't able to save the file because he didn't have the rights. Turning off UAC wipe the problem away.

if you have uac on you have to open notepad++ with admin rights in order to save in program files directory

 

[johngalt]

As far as I remember, I have it off too in Win7. But it wasn't because of popup annoyance. It's because I had problems with writing files to this directory :

C:\Program Files\StepMania\Songs\My Creations\*song name folder*\*song name*.sm

which opens with Notepad. In my case I used Notepad++ but he wasn't able to save the file because he didn't have the rights. Turning off UAC wipe the problem away.

Correct - and this is yet another example of poorly coded applications (fueled, in part, by Microsoft's release of XP all those years ago). Applications should not be writing to the Program Files directory at all - that is what the users tree (formerly Documents and Settings) is for. Program Files is a (necessarily) restricted area b/c with free access to the Program Files tree, you need to double and triple your protection -anything (malicious or not) that gets in at all will also have unbridled access to the programs in that Program Files directory, including, but not limited to, IE, Office, WL stuff, Java, etc.

Obviously, if it is not malicious, you're golden, but if it is? Unless your protection catches it faster than you can say SuperCalliFragiListicExpiAlliDocious (or whatever) it would wreak a large amount of havoc on your system - just like they could with XP, which is the main failure point of XP.

Seriously, if that app will not allow you to write to another folder, find another app - it is extremely poorly coded to be writing data to a subfolder of its own installation. Even *nix does this, and has been doing it for many more years than Windows has been....

As far as I remember, I have it off too in Win7. But it wasn't because of popup annoyance. It's because I had problems with writing files to this directory :

C:\Program Files\StepMania\Songs\My Creations\*song name folder*\*song name*.sm

which opens with Notepad. In my case I used Notepad++ but he wasn't able to save the file because he didn't have the rights. Turning off UAC wipe the problem away.

if you have uac on you have to open notepad++ with admin rights in order to save in program files directory

That is also a workaround - and an easy one (same with Notepad) to get it working - but, again, it should not be saving files to that location in the first place - I mean, is it called "Program and Data Files"? Nope - it is called "Program Files" - and that is for a reason.

Since this is an advanced OS, if nothing else, make a hardlink / junction from that location it wants to save to to a folder you have write access to without needing elevated privileges, and that should make both you and the program happy....

 

[whs]

Here is a good explanation about the odds and ends of UAC: Tech Oddity » User Account Control (UAC)

 

[johngalt]

Nice - although that is more geared toward Vista, most of it still applies.