Should I be running Vista in Standard Mode?

Goose · 31 Jul 2009 at 13:05

I was just reading another thread and someone mentioned that running your PC in Admin mode is an unnecessary risk. I've been running Vista Home Basic 64bit for a few months now and not had any problems and i'm just wondering if i should still really be in Standard mode?

If i create another account will I not have to somehow transfers all my files and install applications to the new account?

Thanks.

dl763 · 31 Jul 2009 at 13:07

Could create another account then restrict your current one...

Ross1234 · 31 Jul 2009 at 13:08

No no, your fine as administrator.

Ratbag · 31 Jul 2009 at 13:21

I've always run as admin on all my XP and Vista installations without a problem. But if you have a ruck of 'novice' users on your PC maybe consider going down the standard user route.

Prediction: this thread will run and run.....

Wossi · 31 Jul 2009 at 13:41

I always run as administrator on my pc's. Nobody else but me ever uses them so it's never caused a problem.

gillywibble · 31 Jul 2009 at 13:43

No problems here either.

ivrytwr3 · 31 Jul 2009 at 13:52

nor here.

Burnsy2023 · 31 Jul 2009 at 14:08

Ross1234 said:
No no, your fine as administrator.

Oh dear....

*Waits for Fire Wizard*

In summary, yes you should be running in standard user mode, I'm sure FW will educate you to the very many reasons why.

Also read this thread: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18091064

Goose · 31 Jul 2009 at 14:40

Ok so if I create a second login am i going to have to reinstall all my applications and games and whatnot?

Ev0 · 31 Jul 2009 at 14:48

Goose said:
Ok so if I create a second login am i going to have to reinstall all my applications and games and whatnot?

no, you create a second login with admin rights, login with it and set your account as the limited one.

dl763 · 31 Jul 2009 at 14:51

As I said in post 2

Ev0 · 31 Jul 2009 at 14:51

dl763 said:
As I said in post 2

some people need to be told twice

dl763 · 31 Jul 2009 at 15:12

I'll let this one go as it is Friday afternoon

theheyes · 31 Jul 2009 at 16:05

Burnsy2023 said:
Oh dear....

*Waits for Fire Wizard*

Hah!

With Vista it is a bit of a grey area. You run as a standard user anyway and when you need to escalate to admin level you get a UAC prompt - this is the whole point. If you are the one and only user of that machine you won't see much benefit from having to put your password in each time you get a UAC prompt.

Running as a standard user is completely normal for pretty much every other operating system out there. It's only because pre-Vista Windows dumps you in an administrator account by default and nobody bothers/knows any better that we have this culture of thinking running and browsing the web as administrator is normal.

Goose · 31 Jul 2009 at 16:21

dl763 said:
As I said in post 2

Sorry, i've never messed about with seperate logins and such and as simple as your post was it somehow didn't compute at all

NickM · 31 Jul 2009 at 18:22

I've never bothered running as a standard account and never had any problems because of it but I'm sure Fire Wizard will come along and tell me how wrong this is...

Dolph · 31 Jul 2009 at 19:00

You should run either as a standard user, or as 'admin' with UAC enabled. Full admin access is roughly equivilent to an old victorian mill with no handrails and uncovered trap doors, relying solely on the user to never make a mistake or have an accident (such as being effected by a zero day exploit).

marc2003 · 31 Jul 2009 at 19:03

i'll keep on using whatever account windows sets up for me when i install it. microsoft knows best.

Goose · 1 Aug 2009 at 15:03

Since i switched to standard mode i cant seem to do ANYTHING in C:\Program Files (x86).

Which is a bit annoying really as I move and edit and save files a lot in there.

theheyes · 1 Aug 2009 at 15:25

Not sure why you're doing lots of edits in there, but anyhow, I would switch back to protected administrator if this is the case.