Let me start by saying that I think this is a bad idea for home users. Windows Vista comes with a new feature called User Account Control (UAC) which automatically intercepts potential activity that could breach your security security setting. If you are logged on to a machine as a local administrator (or any other user who is part of the local administrators group), Windows Vista will force that user to run as if they are a standard, non-administrative user.

Many people working with IT are confident of their superior knowledge of all things computer related and therefore see UAC as a hindrance. Windows Vista is a new operating system with a whole raft of new functionality which most administrators are not aware of, UAC allows you to work as an administrator safely, exposing the areas where administrative rights are required. This applies to both new and existing features, I recently had a conversation with a friend who was bemoaning the fact that UAC kept popping up every time he tried to do anything, even changing the system time. "That's because you need admin rights" I said, his reply was "Oh!".

Another problem when users are logged in as Administrators happens when a virus or some spyware attempts to change the system, the elevated user rights make this very easy. With UAC turned on, you will be notified of any system changes, good or bad, requiring elevated privelages.

So, let UAC work for you and you might learn something and your ego won't get so bruised. On the other hand there are times when you might have a genuine reason to disable this functionality, so here are a few ways to do it.

Using Control Panel To Disable UAC

1. Launch Control Panel.
2. Navigate to User "Account and Family Settings" on the "Add or Remove User Account".
3. Select and the account you wish to modify. From the user account click on "Go To The Main User Account Page".
4. Under "Make Changes To Your User Account" click on "Change Security Settings".
5. Select the checkbox to "Use User Account Control (UAC) To Help Protect Your Computer" and click on OK to finish.
6. You will now be prompted to reboot your computer.
   

Using The Registry To Disable UAC

1. Launch the Registry editor (REGEDT32.EXE).
2. Navigate to the following key;

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

3. Locate the DWORD value EnableLUA and change the value to 0.

Using MSCONFIG To Disable UAC

1. Launch the MSCONFIG utility (MSCONFIG.EXE)
2. Select the Tools tab.
3. Scroll down until you find "Disable UAC" and select.
4. Press the Launch.
5. The command window will open, run a command and close when finished.
6. Close MSCONFIG and reboot the computer.

In addition to these methods you can also disable UAC via Group policy but I will cover that in a later article.