How to get rid of Vista/Windows 7 Security Notifications (UAC)

For the first how-to guide here at revHardware I am going to cover one of the most common things I hear from people. That they are absolutely sick of having their PC come up and say “Windows needs your permission to continue” for the smallest little changes on their Windows Vista/7 based systems.
Now a lot of us enthusiasts will already know about this, but I can tell you, if you are just switching to Vista or 7 this is the first question you are going to ask! So here is a very simple guide on how to get rid of it.. or tone it down a little.

If you go to your Start Menu and open up Control Panel, you will find a handy search box. Type in “UAC”, under Vista you will see a link for “Turn User Account Control (UAC) on or off” click this. For Windows 7 users as you will see below, click “Change User Account Control settings”.

The Windows 7 UAC Control Panel Section

Now for Vista you only have one option, un-check the “Use User Account Control (UAC)” box and click OK. You’re done.

For people with Windows 7 it’s a bit more interesting (and intuitive!), see below…

Windows 7 UAC Options Screen

Wow! So many options, but which should you choose? Now that is really up to you. Personally as I am a computer technician, I am constantly tweaking the system and just find it annoying, as I do know what I am doing! (at least most of the time! haha.). I would advise most users to at least have some form of UAC on, unless you are CERTAIN you will not need it, as it is there for security reasons, it is very useful in stopping viruses from doing things on your machine for example.

The options you can choose from are as follows (from highest to lowest)…

• Always notify me when: Programs try to install software or make changes to my computer or I make changes to Windows Settings.
• Default: Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer.
• Notify me only when: Programs try to make changes to my computer (do not dim my desktop).
• Never notify me when: Programs try to install software or make changes to my computer or I make changes to Windows Settings.

I hope this guide is helpful, if you have any suggestions or ideas feel free to contact us or discuss in our forums!

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