08. Turn Off User Account Control (UAC)
User Account Control is a new feature which help
prevent unauthorised changes being made to your
computer. Any time a change occurs on your computer
UAC kicks in and asks if you want to allow this
change. In other words you have to physically give
UAC permission to make the change. This can be in
the form of simply pressing an 'allow this' button
to a more sophisticated form of permission, such as
an administrator password. While this option can be
a slight irritation it is certainly worth the effort
for the casual user and, as such, although disabling
details are outlined below, it is not recommended
that you disable this option. If you are an 'expert'
user then by all means disable UAC, but if you
aren't then for safety's sake leave UAC enabled.
1/ Click the Start button.
2/ From the Start menu click
Control Panel.
3/ In Control Panel click the
User Account icon.
4/ In User Account window click
the 'turn user account control on or off'
option.
5/ Next click 'Continue' when
the User Account Control permission box
appears.
6/ In the next window remove the check mark from
the box next to the 'use user account
control (UAC) to help protect my computer'
and then press OK.
7/ A message will now saying 'You must
re-start your computer to apply these changes.'
8/ Now click the Re-start
button.
9/ After your computer has re-started the
UAC will be disabled.
10/ To enable UAC again simply
go to Control Panel and click on
the Security Centre Icon. In the
security centre window, in the section
marked 'other security settings' a
button marked 'Turn On Now.'
11/ Press the Turn On Now button
to re-enable User Account Control.
12/ Finally exit the Security
Centre window and then Control panel.
An alternative method is as follows:
1/ Click the Start Menu.
2/ Click All Programs>Accessories>Run.
3/ In the Run dialogue box type:
msconfig.
4/ In the MSCONFIG window click
the Tools tab.
5/ Scroll down the list of applications in the
Tools tab until you come to
'Disable UAC.'
6/ Highlight the Disable UAC
option and then press the Launch
button.
7/ The Command Prompt window
will now open with the message 'This
operation completed successfully.'
8/ Close the Command Prompt
Window and you are done!
9/ Incidentally after disabling UAC the Windows
Security Center will flag that UAC is no longer
functioning. The flag will keep popping up unless
you change the way the security center alerts you.