User Account Control

[jcaswell]

I regularly get fed up with the User Account Control intrusiveness, but I do not want to do away with its good work. It does not appear for every application or .exe file I run, just some. So - is there a master list somewhere of 'acceptable' applications it will allow me to run with no question, and that I can edit?

Merely to use the slider to reduce the level of intereference is not what I want as I would still like to be asked with executables that I have not approved.

Is there a way to do this, or am I misunderstanding what it does?

 

[Brink]

Hello Jcaswell,

Sorry, but there's not a way to add an exception list for UAC. That would defeat the whole purpose of UAC asking for your permission to allow something to run elevated first. For example, if you added a program's exe file to an exception list and that exe file became infected by malware or a virus, then that malware would be able to run elevated without your knowledge since there was no UAC prompt to ask you first.

If you like, you could read more in depth details about UAC in the links in the blue NOTE box at the top of the tutorial below.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/299-user-account-control-uac-change-notification-settings.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[jcaswell]

Thank you for this. I have two applications that I regularly run that always prompt me for authority using the UAC - these are an access control program that runs as an autorun programe when I connect a portable USB device (Western Digital), and another that runs every time I boot up to allow me to automatically back up (Memeo).

My question is, what are these programmes trying to do to my system that means that means that it needs to ask for my permission.

Further, I am not going to know whether or not the application has been changed to do something nasty to the system between my saying OK once, and again the next time.

 

[seavixen32]

A UAC prompt is normally triggered when a program has been coded in such a way it does not run unless it has administrator privileges.

Sloppy coding in the first place can also cause a UAC prompt.

The UAC prompt is not automatic so if a program has been compiled to not trigger a warning when admin permission is required, it will more than likely tell you that access is denied.

You could disable UAC (not to be recommended) or you could give the programs in question admin privileges by right-clicking it's startup shortcut and choosing Run as Administrator.

Whenever I install a new program I always right-click the .exe file first and choose Run as Administrator, and then right-click the startup icon the first time I run the application and once again choose Run as Administrator.

You shouldn't get a UAC prompt afterwards as you'll have convinced Windows it's OK to run the program.

 

[Brink]

Jcaswell,

If a program requires elevation to run (run as administrator), it will always give you a UAC prompt before allowing it to run.

If you trust the program, you could use the tutorial below to create a shortcut that will allow the program to run elevated without giving you a UAC prompt and still have UAC turned on.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/193743-elevated-program-shortcut-create-standard-user.html

 

[jcaswell]

Brink - thanks - I will try that. However, the two cases that irritate me most involve an automatic execution of the application - one on boot-up (for some back-up software) and one as an autorun programme when loading a USB drive. Therefore it not possible to create a shortcut in quite the same way.

However, I may be able to do it by creating a batch file of some sort that takes the place of the two start-up files, and give that the appropriate permissions?

What do you think?

 

[Brink]

You could also try creating a shortcut using that tutorial for those startup items to replace them with the shortcut to see how that may work.