account settings

Hi, I just got my clean Vista x64 installed and Im currently running under admin rights with UAC turned on. It is naturally really annoying so I would like to ask what is the standard procedure here. Should I just turn it to "quiet mode" with UACtweak tool, or should I have two accounts to have one admin, where I can do whatever with UAC completely turned off, but for normal use to have a regular nonadmin account? Im just wondering, how to be using Vista securelly AND comforably.....thank you!!

 

Standard procedure is to turn it off. It doesnt really protect you from anything. It just annoys you and wastes your time, i still havent found any benefits from having it on

If you wanna be secure use a anti-virus program, anti-spyware and a firewall

 

isnt it dangerous to be running OS under admin account? pretty much any sw and executed code gets straight to everything in the system.....

 

Your right! (although UAC helps out somewhat as it prompts you to allow or cancel those actions) I would definitely create a separate "standard" account for regular use. UAC makes this easier than XP by allowing you to elevate privileges on the fly, instead either having to switch users to make system changes, or use the RunAs... feature which didn't always work. To the OP: I think UAC can only be on or off for all accounts. I would just create a new "administrator" account and set the current account as "standard"

 

I turn UAC off
It's really not that useful

 

Administrator and standard user profiles is used to stop idiot users from destroying their own system (for multipler users). Standard is mainly used for friends or guests so they cant touch the sensitive stuff

I wouldnt exactly let my siblings use my notebook on an administrator account. I can guarantee it will never boot up to windows again lol

 

Don't take this the wrong way, but how can you say that? Do you have any idea what UAC does (other than the pop up)?

With that said UAC is a useful feature, especially for novice users (and that is about 90%). Using a computer with reduced privileges is a good practice.

If you know what you are doing, are very comfortable with the internal workings of Vista, and are willing to accept the risks then turn it off. If you don't feel like you agree with all three above conditions leave it on. You will see fewer prompts as you use the computer.

 

http://www.cnet.com/8301-13880_1-9933188-68.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

 

Your reply still doesn't address my question. Do you know what UAC actually does? If so, how can you say "it doesnt really protect you from anything"?

But to address your quotes: If the software were written properly it wouldn't trigger a UAC prompt. Is that Microsoft's fault?

 

umm really i dont know what UAC is. Enlighten me. What else does it do other than pop up prompts when a command doesnt fall under authorised in MS's list?

XP never even had this feature and its internal security is still good

I bet you dont even read what your clicking "yes" to on the UAC prompt since its become a force of habit on those nag screens

 

UAC activation causes Vista to enter a type of virtualization mode, which prevents unauthorized programs, spyware, malware, etc from affecting your computer directly unless you authorize it by accepting the prompt.

It's more complicated than that, but you can read more about it if you wish.
http://blogs.msdn.com/uac/archive/2006/05/03/589561.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/aa906021.aspx
http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/01/25/accessible-uac-prompts.aspx

 

Those looks like a long read. i think ill pass but i will quote this

what ive trying to say is UAC is to protect average users that are naive or stupid enough to inflict self-damage to the system

Lets face it, if your here on NBR chances are you are not an average user and you know what you are doing

plus there are other security measures in place other than UAC

 

I agree. UAC is a pain in the rear. While from an architectural stand point it makes sense, from a psychological standpoint it is ineffective. People are just going to keep hitting allow, disregarding the reason the dialog was implemented in the first place.

So yes, the idea behind UAC is good. UAC though is an ineffective implementation of the idea though. They should just FORCE developers to change their habits, like when they moved display drivers to user mode. While this broke all display drivers and made it a pain in the rear for 8 months as developers learned to rewrite their drivers in user mode (which is very very hard) it did improve the stability of the operating system.


My advice would be, turn off UAC at your own risk. If you already run a solid anti-virus and firewall, chances are UAC won't noticably improve your security.