My Vista is stable and nippy

There is no equivalent though is there (the ABS statement for example).

I guess what you're saying I mean it's like having an AV and disabling the resident shield but just leaving the on demand scanner enabled - but are you saying you don't need an AV installed with UAC turned on ? (going by nathan's last sentence).

If those of us who have it off have never had a problem and regularly scan our systems with OneCare and a quick run with the AV we install be it Nod32 or AVAST etc then what is all the fuss about by singling out people who turn it off? You don't see those of us who turn it off complaining to people who leave it on, instead we've stated why "we" turn it off and our reasons are all very valid for our computer usage.
 
Turning UAC off is never valid for any type of computer usage. Simply set it to silent mode using TweakUAC and be done with it. It will probably never pester you ever again. And yet it still keeps working for you, behind the scenes, providing sandboxing and protection of system, program and user folders.

Having no AV installed is debatable (and indeed for true Windows power users UAC should be enough IMHO)

My question about the percentage was more referring to the contradiction where a user feels they don't need UAC but where they still think they need AV. It is a serious contradiction IMO and could do with discussion.

Personally I don't see the point in disabling a pro-active protection like UAC and then seemingly "replacing it" with a re-active protection such as what AV provides. (yes yes AV vendors nowadays have all the heuristic scanners and file system hooks but it is still essentially a re-active technology, just *waiting* for something to happen) It's like disabling ABS in your car and instead fitting bigger bumpers - all the while believing that what you had just done is good and brazen.
 
mrk said:
There is no equivalent though is there (the ABS statement for example).
Click to expand...

Yes, there is. The analogy is like those who go on about how they turn all the safety systems off because they don't need them because they are a good driver, totally missing the point of why they are there in the first place. I'm a very good driver (and have tests and training to prove it), and if my ABS or ESP cuts in it's because I've made a mistake, but they still provide valid and useful protection for even the best driver for day to day driving. The few times you don't want them to interfere is when you press the override button, not the moment you get into the car.

UAC is the same, it should never crop up in normal usage unless you've missed something, but just because you've managed without before (or use badly written software) is not a good reason to disable it entirely.

The fact that so many people don't understand what UAC does and why, and yet claim to be 'power users' actually scares me.
 
Last edited:
I know what UAC does and why but I still disabled it, I researched Vista long before buying Ultimate and knew from the start I'd be wanting UAC disabled and below I'll give an example of just why...for my uses.

Ok to use me as an example I enabled UAC, put it into "quiet mode" and still Speedfan which I use to monitor HDD SMART/Temps etc failed to see both my SATAII disks, in fact any app failed to see them and thus monitoring my disks was not possible.

UAC on:
UAC_on.png



Then turn it off...
UAC_off.png


Back to normal.

So yeah like I said, for people like me UAC is more of a nuisance than a safeguard, the freeware security apps we use already are safeguards enough, they've done the jobe fine tot his day so why change this routine ?
 
MrLOL said:
that explains why the HP photosmart software that came with my printer does it all the time then :D
Click to expand...

As the unfortunate owner of a HP laptop with the HP updater software that has been patched twice by them but still has a secruity hole wider than the Mersey tunnel, I concur
 
mrk said:
Ok to use me as an example I enabled UAC, put it into "quiet mode" and still Speedfan which I use to monitor HDD SMART/Temps etc failed to see both my SATAII disks, in fact any app failed to see them and thus monitoring my disks was not possible.
Click to expand...

you've no idea how long i stared at those images till i realized you'd posted the same image twice :D
 
mrk said:
So yeah like I said, for people like me UAC is more of a nuisance than a safeguard, the freeware security apps we use already are safeguards enough, they've done the jobe fine tot his day so why change this routine ?
Click to expand...

Because the issue of people running habitually as Admin is probably the single biggest windows insecurity of the XP era, it pretty much negated most of the good things MS had done to try and secure their operating system and much of the benefit of moving to the NT core from the old dos based one from that point of view.

The biggest problem seems to be that you have got so used to working round XP's flaws that you want to carry on doing so, using software that works with those flaws and so on.

There's no reason Speedfan can't access that information with UAC turned on, other than the programmer has written the software assuming full access (which is a failure on his or her part), that's not UAC's fault, it's the software writer's for not doing things properly again.
 
Well such software is freeware and very useful to the community they are aimed at, they are not pieces of spyware and users of them know this.

Like I said, if no problems have arisen in the past then why fuss over it now when a safeguard is available in Vista ?

It sounds more like scaremongering than anything else. have yet to hear of a single case of someone who has had UAC off having their system compromised as well. Why would this be? well it's because safety and security is catered for already in the form of alternative applications that do not cause a bit of a nuisance.
 
Last edited:
mrk said:
Well such software is freeware and very useful to the community they are aimed at, they are not pieces of spyware and users of them know this.
Click to expand...

While that is a very nice thoery, what if the server you download it from has been hacked and version you get has a virus / spyware inserted. Not an unrealistic situation as 90% of people won't check the MD5 hash or the SFV verification files.

If it was coded correctly then it wouldn't set off UAC but a virus or spyware trying to get OS hooks would so this would set alarm bells ring with you that something is wrong.

Thus UAC has saved the day.
 
uac ....at first i left it on and it was ok till i started to run into a few programs that monitor the pc and everytime my pc started up or i tried to ru nthe program it ask to run as admin.
but what topped it off for me was taking files from my laptop and putting to my desktop and then trying to rename and move then around it kept telling me " need permission" my thoughts were "bugger off" im only person and admin on pc!!!
after turning off uac all my problems went away !!!
 
i don't disable uac. i do something far worse...... i use the built in proper administrator account. :eek: hey it's my pc, i'll do what i like thanks. :)
 
Last edited:
adbp1 said:
uac ....at first i left it on and it was ok till i started to run into a few programs that monitor the pc and everytime my pc started up or i tried to ru nthe program it ask to run as admin.
but what topped it off for me was taking files from my laptop and putting to my desktop and then trying to rename and move then around it kept telling me " need permission" my thoughts were "bugger off" im only person and admin on pc!!!
after turning off uac all my problems went away !!!
Click to expand...

Use TweakUAC, the prompts go and the security stays.
 
mrk said:
I know what UAC does and why but I still disabled it, I researched Vista long before buying Ultimate and knew from the start I'd be wanting UAC disabled and below I'll give an example of just why...for my uses.

Ok to use me as an example I enabled UAC, put it into "quiet mode" and still Speedfan which I use to monitor HDD SMART/Temps etc failed to see both my SATAII disks, in fact any app failed to see them and thus monitoring my disks was not possible.

UAC on:
http://robbiekhan.co.uk/root/temp/UAC_on.png[img]


Then turn it off...
[img]http://robbiekhan.co.uk/root/temp/UAC_off.png[img]

Back to normal.

So yeah like I said, for people like me UAC is more of a nuisance than a safeguard, the freeware security apps we use already are safeguards enough, they've done the jobe fine tot his day so why change this routine ?[/QUOTE]

You didn't do much reading up then did you? Because any Windows power user ;) would know that all he has to do is right-click the EXE for that program and then goto the "Compatibility" tab and then tick the "Run this program as administrator" box.
Click to expand...
 
marc2003 said:
i don't disable uac. i do something far worse...... i use the built in proper administrator account. :eek: hey it's my pc, i'll do what i like thanks. :)
Click to expand...

But no account on Vista is a "proper" admistrator account. It is still a standard user account albeit with a very easy way provided by UAC to elevate your privileges with a single mouse click on the "Continue" button.
 
It's like that browser thread all over again... :)

Surely this personal preference?

I disabled UAC and I also don't run any anti-virus. I rarely browse the net from my Vista box and never download files I'm not sure about. I do run some malware scanners every so often and have yet to find anything other than a few tracking cookies in the year that I have been running Vista. Incidentally I never picked up a virus in XP either.

And just out of interest, I did disable ABS in a car once. I was driving down a road one night that I didn't know and I suddenly found myself approaching a junction a bit quickly and had to brake hard. I then proceeded to go straight out of the junction across the road and down a farm track on the other side. Luckily nothing was coming down that road. Obviously the ABS throught the wheels were going to lock up and did something about it. However I firmly believe I would have been able to easily stop the car before I got to the junction (although no doubt someone here will tell me different) had it not been for the damn abs. It got disconnected, I'll drive the car myself thanks...

Going back to UAC. I would never suggest anyone disable it. I would tell them to go look at what it does and decide from themselves, if they new what they were doing. I would never tell a novice it was a good idea to consider disabling UAC either.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom