Vista: Screen goes black right before UAC prompt

I have a Vaio Z series laptop (hybrid graphics). The entire screen goes entirely dark right before getting UAC pop-up. I am guessing this is related to the hybrid graphics, but not sure, as I only have Vista on this computer. Anybody else have this problem? Know of a way to fix it?

Thanks in advance!

 

That is just how UAC is. It's not a graphic issues, thats how it was intended.

 

It has nothing to do with your hybrid graphics... UAC just does that when switching to the "secure desktop" to display the prompt. The point of the secure desktop is to prevent programs from trying to coax the user into clicking the "Continue" button, or drawing something over the prompt, or sending fake keystrokes or mouse clicks to the UAC prompt window.

Still, I don't see why Microsoft couldn't have made the transition to the secure desktop a bit smoother.

You can turn off the secure desktop if it bothers you, and I think that will probably stop the screen from blanking. This is theoretically a little less secure, because now a malicious program could theoretically muck around with the prompting process... but I've never heard of it actually being exploited. And it's unlikely to be exploited, IMO, because having secure desktop off is not the default, and having UAC on but secure desktop off isn't a very common configuration.

 

i agree with the others thats jus t how vista does mine did it to till i turned it off n my admin tools or in the secure desktop like swarmer suggested

 

When I turned UAC of Vista got much better, infact it was the one thing that kept it from being a good OS to me.

As may programs have issues if you forget to run them as an admin.

 

i have no such program. and no issue with uac.

disabling it is stupid. if you have a lot of popups, you can fix that. but not by disabling uac.

 

disabling it does fix the popups

I had it on for the longest and I was one of the people that the popup's did not bother, the main thing for me was that many programs dont work unless run as administrator.

there is absolutely no negative effect on having it off except you can run a program on accident, but I have never done that. Plus I will tell you what happens you get so used to that box coming up that you start to click it as if it was second nature, the one day you accidentally do click on something you should not have, you click on ok without even thinking about it.

 

Except that bugs and security holes can do it, too, without you ever noticing.

To fix those programs: change the permissions on the specific program folder, if needed. (but first show me which programs really have problems. normally vista programs folder virtualisation fixes it. or a simple run once as admin, and never again).


edit: it does not fix the popup problem, it does hide it. it's better to fix your problems.

 

Just use Norton's UAC tool to remember the prompts; http://www.nortonlabs.com/inthelab/uac.php

or use Tweak UAC to place UAC in "quiet" mode; http://www.tweak-uac.com/home/

 

or just fix the problems.. then uac's don't pop up often at all (once a week more or less, here)... it's not hard, now, is it?

 

if you know your stuff imo uac is a waste of time. but for every day users i feel it should be left turned on i run my systems without it though since i know what i allowed and didnt allow

 

no, it's not a waste of time if you know your stuff. it's more of a tiny help proving you're right while you work on something that harms the system.

it's still a huge security gain to leave it enabled. it's not like you know what you're doing all the time. too much people believed in that since years. all now sitting in nice botnets

uac is the one-fits-all-solution for the system to make sure it gets not messed up arbitarily, but only when the user says "yes, i'm sure, i don't kill ya". and it should be left at that. no amount of antivirus, spyware, etc scanners can help as much as that simple tool.

 

Once I got the last application program updated to a Vista (and UAC compatible level) I turned UAC on and left it on.