Turning UAC Off?

formingus · May 10, 2025

Let's assume that I am an advanced user; I use paid Internet, like ESET, one of the most highly rated ones. I know what I am running and what not to run on my PC. What is the other risk of turning off this annoying feature?

antspants · May 10, 2025

formingus said:
Let's assume that I am an advanced user;

You say that, but no offence, if you were, you wouldn’t need to ask about the importance of UAC. It’s not jusr what you can see and prevent, it’s also what you can’t see to prevent.

Turning off User Account Control (UAC) in Windows 11 significantly reduces system security, potentially exposing your computer to malware and unauthorized changes. It bypasses UAC's security measures, allowing malicious programs to make system-level changes without user permission. While disabling UAC might seem convenient, it's not recommended as it compromises the safety of your operating system.

Reduced Security:
UAC is designed to protect against unauthorized changes, and disabling it weakens that protection.
Malware Risk:
Malicious software could exploit the lack of UAC to install itself, make system changes, or even gain control of your computer.
Unauthorized Access:
Programs can bypass UAC's prompts, potentially altering critical system settings or gaining access to sensitive data.
System Instability:
Changes made without proper authorization can lead to unexpected behavior or even system crashes.
Lack of Control:
Without UAC, you won't be prompted to approve actions that could affect your system, making it harder to identify and prevent potentially harmful activities.

And from thereon, it can get really technical. Google is your friend.

TairikuOkami · May 10, 2025

There are really only two effectively distinct settings for the UAC slider - The Old New Thing

Off and on.

devblogs.microsoft.com

By default it is not fully enabled, so it does not really matter. It can not be fully disabled with the slider, only via registry, but that would break store apps which require limited permissions. Optionally, you can just create UAC bypass to run the most used apps.

Create Elevated Shortcut without UAC prompt in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to create a shortcut of an elevated task to run an app as administrator without getting a UAC prompt for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11. When you open an application file with Run as administrator, you will get a UAC prompt by default for approval...

www.elevenforum.com

abactuon · May 10, 2025

Why is this necessary?

FrancoDT · May 10, 2025

TairikuOkami said:
There are really only two effectively distinct settings for the UAC slider - The Old New Thing

Off and on.

devblogs.microsoft.com

By default it is not fully enabled, so it does not really matter. It can not be fully disabled with the slider, only via registry, but that would break store apps which require limited permissions. Optionally, you can just create UAC bypass to run the most used apps.

Create Elevated Shortcut without UAC prompt in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to create a shortcut of an elevated task to run an app as administrator without getting a UAC prompt for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11. When you open an application file with Run as administrator, you will get a UAC prompt by default for approval...

www.elevenforum.com

Good point on how fully disabling UAC breaks stuff. I tried that using Winareo Tweaker and figured out it breaks the lock screen functions like the lock screen widget cards will instantly disappear. I just leave the UAC settings slider on the lowest setting now.

garlin · May 10, 2025

Besides the obvious security risk of having zero visibility when an app wants to elevate itself, there's two more subtle issues.

Part of the Windows desktop presumes there's a separation of Admin rights, and outright disabling UAC breaks things like drag & drop to the taskbar. Other programs won't launch, because they expect to ask for UAC permissions, and having that automatically granted confuses their logic.

It's your PC, but don't complain later something weird/bad happens. Good security is about keeping good practices.

formingus · May 10, 2025

antspants said:
You say that, but no offence, if you were, you wouldn’t need to ask about the importance of UAC. It’s not jusr what you can see and prevent, it’s also what you can’t see to prevent.

Turning off User Account Control (UAC) in Windows 11 significantly reduces system security, potentially exposing your computer to malware and unauthorized changes. It bypasses UAC's security measures, allowing malicious programs to make system-level changes without user permission. While disabling UAC might seem convenient, it's not recommended as it compromises the safety of your operating system.

Reduced Security:
UAC is designed to protect against unauthorized changes, and disabling it weakens that protection.

Malware Risk:
Malicious software could exploit the lack of UAC to install itself, make system changes, or even gain control of your computer.

Unauthorized Access:
Programs can bypass UAC's prompts, potentially altering critical system settings or gaining access to sensitive data.

System Instability:
Changes made without proper authorization can lead to unexpected behavior or even system crashes.

Lack of Control:
Without UAC, you won't be prompted to approve actions that could affect your system, making it harder to identify and prevent potentially harmful activities.

And from thereon, it can get really technical. Google is your friend.

1st, Thanks for the answer.
2. I don't get offended, but you should understand 2 things
a: I said, let's assume
b: It's simply unable to be PRO at any field of PC.

If you see carefully what I write, you will understand me better:
For years, UAC was implemented, and if it will notify us via smart screen, then it's useless for US that we use Purchased Internet Security, one of the highest rates.

My concern and question were, do the UAC block something in the background without interrupting us, or is it just for notification? If it's just for notification, I can assure you that it's useless, and if it works in the background to prevent some codes in PowerShell, JavaScript, etc, then it's a different story.

Anyway, thanks for the reply, and no hurt feelings from my side at all. All the best

formingus · May 10, 2025

garlin said:
Besides the obvious security risk of having zero visibility when an app wants to elevate itself, there's two more subtle issues.

Part of the Windows desktop presumes there's a separation of Admin rights, and outright disabling UAC breaks things like drag & drop to the taskbar. Other programs won't launch, because they expect to ask for UAC permissions, and having that automatically granted confuses their logic.

It's your PC, but don't complain later something weird/bad happens. Good security is about keeping good practices.

Thanks.
For years, I didn't get any elevating notification that was out of my knowledge, that's why I thought to ask about a possible threat.
So, if UAC does not work like some kind of blocking codes to powershell, Java etc, then I can turn it off 2 Things that you mentioned were added to my memory, and thanks. In my case I am using image restore for any possible problem, so it's not a big deal to reinstall the whole PC at its previous state. My concern was: Does the UAC block something in the background without notifying US, or is it only for notification

formingus · May 10, 2025

TairikuOkami said:
There are really only two effectively distinct settings for the UAC slider - The Old New Thing

Off and on.

devblogs.microsoft.com

By default it is not fully enabled, so it does not really matter. It can not be fully disabled with the slider, only via registry, but that would break store apps which require limited permissions. Optionally, you can just create UAC bypass to run the most used apps.

Create Elevated Shortcut without UAC prompt in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to create a shortcut of an elevated task to run an app as administrator without getting a UAC prompt for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11. When you open an application file with Run as administrator, you will get a UAC prompt by default for approval...

www.elevenforum.com

There are some professional apps in my business that we are connecting to servers online to read schematics, whenever it detects some kind of injection,n it will deny our login, even I add a command to the shortcut, but most of the other software will work. Thanks

formingus · May 10, 2025

abactuon said:
Why is this necessary?

Anoying when you work with alot of software

garlin · May 10, 2025

A program or script cannot grant itself Admin rights after it's launched, it can only try re-launching itself (or another process) and request Admin rights at the same time.

If UAC is enforced, then you have to approve that request. So you're getting (implicit) notification since it's explicitly asking for approval. There are settings for example, that automatically grant rights if you're a member of the Administrators group. But doing so hides any attempt, no matter how lame, to sneak a script trying to elevate itself.

It's like the standard warning, do not use the built-in Administrator account as your personal account. Why? As Administrator, there are no UAC approvals by default since you're already the Administrator. Which means any script you run has Admin rights. You may think you're careful, but are you 100% careful? It's like the seat belt reminder in your car.

Security is about vigilance, and getting complacent will lead to an eventual security error.

formingus · May 10, 2025

garlin said:
A program or script cannot grant itself Admin rights after it's launched, it can only try re-launching itself (or another process) and request Admin rights at the same time.

If UAC is enforced, then you have to approve that request. So you're getting (implicit) notification since it's explicitly asking for approval. There are settings for example, that automatically grant rights if you're a member of the Administrators group. But doing so hides any attempt, no matter how lame, to sneak a script trying to elevate itself.

It's like the standard warning, do not use the built-in Administrator account as your personal account. Why? As Administrator, there are no UAC approvals by default since you're already the Administrator. Which means any script you run has Admin rights. You may think you're careful, but are you 100% careful? It's like the seat belt reminder in your car.

Security is about vigilance, and getting complacent will lead to an eventual security error.

Thanks, very good explanation. Regards

gunrunnerjohn · May 10, 2025

garlin said:
It's like the standard warning, do not use the built-in Administrator account as your personal account. Why? As Administrator, there are no UAC approvals by default since you're already the Administrator. Which means any script you run has Admin rights. You may think you're careful, but are you 100% careful? It's like the seat belt reminder in your car.

If you have administrator rights on your account, UAC still throws up it's warning if it's enabled.

garlin · May 10, 2025

If you're always needing to run programs with Admin rights: open a console window as Admin, and launch apps over there.

BruceR · May 10, 2025

gunrunnerjohn said:
If you have administrator rights on your account, UAC still throws up it's warning if it's enabled.

They said built-in Administrator, which never gets UAC prompts.

garlin · May 10, 2025

BruceR said:
They said built-in Administrator, which never gets UAC prompts.

Technically you can enable Admin Approval Mode for the built-in Administrator.

antspants · May 10, 2025

formingus said:
If you see carefully what I write, you will understand me better:

I did, which is why I replied as I did. You said:

formingus said:
Let's assume that I am an advanced user

Why? It’s not a hypothetical issue. You either are or you are not advanced with the issue you are enquiring about.
I am not sure what you’re on about here?

BruceR said:
They said built-in Administrator, which never gets UAC prompts.

Where did they say that?

pseymour · May 10, 2025

@antspants For that last part, BruceR is responding to gunrunnerjohn, who was responding to "Darlin's" note about the built-in Administrator account.

antspants · May 10, 2025

pseymour said:
@antspants For that last part, BruceR is responding to gunrunnerjohn, who was responding to "Darlin's" note about the built-in Administrator account.

Right, gottcha, sorry.
I was dropped on my head as an adult. I miss stuff.

Marcus Vinicus · May 10, 2025

For anyone who is interested in learning more about UAC @Brink has posted some very useful tutorials here at Elevenforum.

This one is a good starting point. At the end of the top post there are numerous links to other UAC related tutorials.

Change User Account Control (UAC) Settings in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to change User Account Control (UAC) settings in Windows 11. User Account Control (UAC) helps prevent malware from damaging a PC and helps organizations deploy a better-managed desktop. With UAC, apps and tasks always run in the security context of a...

www.elevenforum.com

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