HowTo: Simpler way to bypass UAC for trusted app other than ACT (app compatibility toolkit)?
Summary:Is there a simple way to allow a trusted app to launch and bypass UACother than the ACT (application compatibiity toolkit)?More info:I use Win7600-Home Premium (notPro)for software development and Photoshop. With Photoshop, my experience is that the UAC prompt shows up when I start Adobe Photoshop, Bridge, DngConverter, and other components of the CS4 suite. My understanding is that this is because these non-privileged applications modify files and create files.I would like to have "finer granularity" to tell UAC to allow these apps to run. I have them set to "Run as Administrator", but I'm still seeing the UAC prompt. I'm reluctant to turn-off UAC entirely, or lower its default. If anything, I would like to make UAC more hostile to unfamiliar apps, but friendlier to trusted apps.In searching the web, I came across references to using the ACT to accomplish this. I've downloaded the files associated with ACT 5.5, but haven't yet installed them. I wanted to find out if there is a simpler way and thus avoid getting up to speed with ACT if I can avoid it. ACT 5.5 seems like using a chain-saw to slice bread.The websites I came across seemed oriented to Vista, but the Microsoft website regarding ACT 5.5 seemed to include Win-7.http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=24da89e9-b581-47b0-b45e-492dd6da2971&displaylang=enAlso, I use an older Explorer replacement, PowerDesk, which hasn't been updated for Win-7 (it is something of an orphan, and hasn't been updated much since it was originally developed back in the 90's, and now seems to be an afterthought by Avanquest). I have PowerDesk set with "Run as Administrator", and the UAC prompt shows up each time. I would like to be able to specify that UAC allow it to run without the prompt. I have Win-7-Home Premium rather than Win-7-Pro, so the WinXp virtual machine isn't an option.
November 21st, 2009 10:57pm

I have the same problem. I recently upgraded from XP Pro where I could do what I liked. Now with Win7HP I either get questioned or blocked! Every time I run Outlook (2003) UAC pops up. This seems completely ridiculous to me. Every simple firewall allows you to say whether some app is trusted. Why not UAC? I heard complaints about it almost making Vista unusable. I can't imagine how Win7 has been improved... Out of interest, did you upgrade from XP using the Windows Easy Transfer utility? Rob I've just noticed on an app that if I tick 'run as administrator' I get the UAC pop-up. But if I untick it the pop-up doesn't appear. Does that make sense?
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November 22nd, 2009 7:56pm

We can create a shortcut for this application with elevated privileges. 1. Click Start, right click on Computer and choose Manage.2. Click Task Scheduler on the left panel. 3. Click Create Task on the right panel.4. Type a name for the task.5. Check Run with highest privileges.6. Click Actions tab.7. Click New.8. Browse to the program in the Program/script box. Click OK. 9. On desktop, right click, choose New and click Shortcut.10. In the box type: schtasks.exe /run /tn TaskName where TaskName is the name of task you put in on the basics tab and click next.11. Type a name for the shortcut and click Finish. Now, you can double click the shortcut to run the program, and the UAC window will not prompt.
November 23rd, 2009 6:58am

Hi Robinson, Ouch! Is that the preferred method? Maybe you could answer two things for me: a) Can you explain how setting a program to "run as administrator" causes UAC to pop-up? I would have expected the opposite. b) I'm not so concerned about specific programs. More that my OS is set up wrong. I have had several problems that could be attributed to incorrect security settings (Outlook, WMDC). I'm fearing that WET has messed up something and these problems will just keep occurring. A colleague of mine who also upgraded from XP to Win7 (but didn't use WET) has not had any problems. Rob
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November 23rd, 2009 9:34pm

Out of interest, did you upgrade from XP using the Windows Easy Transfer utility? I re-installed everything from scratch ... I find it worthwhile to "scrap everything off to the bare metal" to have a cleaner system ... no crud from fouled up installs ... accumulated debris ... etc.Also, I hadn't heard of the WET (Windows Easy Transfer). I thought you could only go from Vista to Win-7. I'll investigate.
November 24th, 2009 12:32am

Thanks ... worked well. I'm glad I asked. <g>I've got a number of these programs, so I was hoping to simplify using a "template" to "clone" from. I triedto "Export" a task as MyFirstRunAsHighestPriorityTask.xml, modify the xml, and then Import MySecondRunAsHighestPriorityTask.xml ... However, this didn't work: I got an error about invalid xml format.I did find it was useful to change the icon for the new shortcut ... otherwise all had the same desktop icon.
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November 24th, 2009 12:36am

I did encounter a glitch .... the scheduledtask runs with "Below Normal"priority. I attempted to use TaskManager to increase the priority, but this wasn't allowed. (bit later ... Hmmmmm ... if I run TaskMgr as administrator, then I can change priority. It makes sense that UAC would be restrictive if TaskMgr was running at normal privilege. But that seems like a clumsy work-around.)I tried some parameters to schtasks from a Cmd window that was "Run as Administator", including /Change and /RL Highest, but that didn't help. I also tried to Edit the arguments for the created task (to include /RL HIGHEST), but that also didn't help.Is there a way to have SchTasks be Normal priority?
November 25th, 2009 6:47pm

Hi, Could you please offer more details on "I attempted to use TaskManager to increase the priority, but this wasn't allowed"?Thank you for your cooperation.
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November 26th, 2009 11:05am

Could you please offer more details on "I attempted to use TaskManager to increase the priority, but this wasn't allowed"? > If I run TaskMgr as administrator, then I can change priority. But that seems like a clumsy work-around.
November 26th, 2009 5:05pm

Hi, Thank you for your information. By default, Windows will set task from Task Scheduler as Below Normal. You can take the following steps to modify the setting: 1. Export the task to a XML file. 2. Modify the task priority(It should be 7 in your XML file): 2,3 are ABOVE_NORMAL;4,5,6 are NORMAL;7,8 are BELOW_NORMAL 3. Then, please import the XML file into Task Scheduler. For more information: Priority Element Hope it helps.
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November 27th, 2009 12:18pm

By default, Windows will set task from Task Scheduler as Below Normal. You can take the following steps to modify the setting: Thanks ... very helpful.I had some problems using the Textpad programmer's editor. When I used it to change the priority value, I was getting animport errorTask Scheduler:The format of the task is not valid. The following error was reported: (1,2)::(which wasn't very helpful).I used the Notepad editor to change the priority value, and it imported ok.Thanks again!
November 28th, 2009 2:16am

Glad to hear it helpful. Enjoy Windows 7!
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December 1st, 2009 6:45am

Enjoy Windows 7! Very much, so far. The Intel 160gb G2SSD arrived today, and I'm getting it setup.And another question .... when I start the created task, it seems to always start "behind" other windows on the desktop. My preference would be for it to start "in front" of all existing windows. Is there a way to do that? Some parameter?I looked through the many "Task Scheduler Schema Elements" at:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa383611(VS.85).aspxbut I didn't see anything that seemed to apply.
December 17th, 2009 6:17am

This also works on Vista. I'm using this way since Vista Beta2, to start applications like RMClock at startup. @Robinson Zhang thanks for the tip with the priority :) "A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/
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December 17th, 2009 3:34pm

I followed the steps you suggested, but it still won't work. I get an icon on the desktop, but when I click on it, a DOS screen comes up for just a milli-second and then nothing happens? I kept clicking on it really fast, trying to read it. Something like "Error invalid/argument, "outlook 4" (what I named the task) Please type sch run Something like that? And i am entering "schtasks.exe /run /tn Outlook 4" exactly?
January 7th, 2010 12:00am

Try this: schtasks.exe /run /tn "Outlook 4" If a name contains spaces you have to use the " ". André"A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/
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January 7th, 2010 12:10am

I get up to #10 just fine, then when I type in schtasks.exe/run/tn TaskName it tells me "The file cannot be ". By the way, I'm not actually typing in "TaskName", I type in my file name.
March 24th, 2012 11:33pm

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