question on UAC and hidden administrator account
I wanted to know the the difference in accountprivilegesfor being logged in under the "super" administrator account (that is hidden by default) and being logged in as a user with UAC off. I would think that once UAC is off I can do anything the Administrator account can do on the system but I also wonder if there are still somesecuritymeasures in effect on a user acct that has UAC off, such as IE still in protected mode, (not sure if that is turned off in the Administrator acct) for an example that would benefit still being in the user acct and not in the Administrator acct. thanks for your help!
November 25th, 2009 8:48pm

By default UAC is not active for the built-in administrator account is turned off, meaning there are no approval prompts when installing applications or chaning system settings, and leaving IE with protected mode off.
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November 25th, 2009 9:23pm

but does turning off UAC in a normal user turn off protected mode in IE as well?
November 25th, 2009 11:27pm

Yes, when UAC is turned off for a normal user Internet Explorer is run with protected mode "off" as well. This is not recommended and I strongly discourage disabling/turning offUAC.
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November 26th, 2009 1:10am

With UAC enabled, the lowest privilege is assigned to users. We need to elevate the privilege level when performing administrative functions. By doing this, unintentional operations can be prevented to protect the system. The Admin Approval Mode (AAM), by default, is not enabled for the Built-in Administrator Account, but it is enabled for other Administrator Accounts. For more information, please refer to the following links: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee623984(WS.10).aspx#BKMK_explained http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772207(WS.10).aspx Hope it helps!Arthur Li - MSFT
November 27th, 2009 6:11am

thank you very much for the information
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December 1st, 2009 1:57am

Unfortunately, UAC is broke and MS refuses to admit it. It's not the code writers who must constantly fight to get a program to run, its the users. I actually liked the concept when I first saw it. A way to keep malware from making changes to important programs without user intervention. Unfortunately, the implementation prevents several programs I use every day several times a day need an extra click on a pop up to be allowed to run. These are older programs that worked fine in XP, They are flagged as being by an unknown publisher. Yes, I trust the unknown publisher (as did MS before UAC) Yes, I understand they might be malware(even though I have run the same program at least a thousand times) And Yes I really and truly want to take the risk and run them. A white list maintained by the user is all we are asking for. The message can pop up once - and ask if you want to add it to your white list or not. If yes, it will stay on that list. If a new version is downloaded, it can ask again. But not ask each and every time the same program is run. It is not MS job to police what I do on MY computer. When you fix UAC, I will activate it again. Until then UAC is useless for it's intended purpose because I and many others have been forced to disable it to be able to run programs we need to use every day
July 27th, 2010 11:05pm

sorry, wrong, you simply have no idea what the UAC is. For people you you, I wrote this "For dummies"- style guide: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=135143 And I also posted how to create a whitelist: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=135472 So, next time, please learn how things are working, before you start to troll ;)"A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/
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July 28th, 2010 1:49am

Andre, Thank you for your reply. I considered my post a rant rather than trolling, More of begging MS to fix something that is a problem to many people - most of the users I know have shut off UAC because of these kind of problems. It will not allow them to do something they need to do without constant pop ups that must be dealt with before continuing. I have not recommended they do this as I do think UAC is a good thing in principle. And if the only programs you use are those that were written with UAC in mind (or just those that are MS approved) it works as it should. However, I (and many many others)just cannot work with it on. Evidently I am dumber than the dummies you wrote that for As I haven't been able to get it to work. And I do not consider this a "fix" but a work around. A fix is incorporated into the OS and will be usable by any user, not just power users who know where to look on the internet for the instructions. And can figure out what a snap in is. (I had to google it and found an explanation on another site) My request is for a change that allows any administrator to allow a program to run without the intrusive UAC pop up warning that the publisher is unknown. It doesn't really prevent the program from running if you or any non admin clicks the button anyway. It just puts an annoying pop up that must be dealt with before continuing EVERY TIME you start that program. My idea for a fix - Only an admin could do this. The first time, a pop up would show the warning, with a new box to allow auto approval in the future, and a second pop up with another warning and a OK , I understand the risk, but I really want to do this button. A place where an admin could look to check on, and remove only the programs that are user white listed would be nice also. Even if I do eventually get your work around to work, this is not something I can show to a non power user and expect them to be able to do it on their own the next time they see the problem. Again thanks and I will keep trying.
July 28th, 2010 6:33pm

The first time, a pop up would show the warning, with a new box to allow auto approval in the future, and a second pop up with another warning and a OK , I understand the risk, but I really want to do this button. My workaround works fine. You should use it. What you want is implemented with this 3rd party software: http://kay-bruns.de/wp/software/surun/ best regards André"A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/
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July 29th, 2010 1:08am

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