Windows 10: Change UAC prompt Behavior for Administrators in Windows

How to: Change UAC prompt Behavior for Administrators in Windows

How to Change User Account Control (UAC) prompt Behavior for Administrators in Windows


When administrator account before starting a program or task that requires a full administrator access token. This prompt ensures that no malicious software can be silently installed or run.

With the Always notify or Default secure desktop when you get an elevation request by the User Account Control (UAC) prompt.

A user that is a member of the Administrators group can log on, browse the Web, and read e-mail while using a standard user access token. When the administrator needs to perform a task that requires the administrator access token, Windows 10 automatically prompts the user for Y/N approval. This prompt is called an elevation prompt for UAC consent prompt.

The user experience for standard users is different from that of administrators in Admin Approval Mode. The recommended and more secure method of running Windows 10 is to make your primary user account a standard user account. Running as a standard user helps to maximize security for a managed environment. With the built-in UAC elevation component, standard users can easily perform an administrative task by entering valid credentials for a local administrator account. The default, built-in UAC elevation component for standard users is the UAC credential prompt.

See also: How User Account Control works (Windows 10) | Microsoft Docs

The administrators.

The options are:

[table][tr][td]Policy[/td] [td]Description[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Elevate without prompting[/td] [td]Allows privileged accounts to perform an operation that requires elevation without requiring consent or credentials. *note Use this option only in the most constrained environments.[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Prompt for credentials on the secure desktop[/td] [td]When an operation requires elevation of privilege, the user is prompted on the secure desktop to enter a privileged (ex: administrator) user name and password. If the user enters valid credentials, the operation continues with the user's highest available privilege.[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Prompt for consent on the secure desktop[/td] [td]When an operation requires elevation of privilege, the user is prompted on the secure desktop to select either Yes or No. If the user selects Yes, the operation continues with the user's highest available privilege.[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Prompt for credentials[/td] [td]When an operation requires elevation of privilege, the user is prompted to enter an administrator user name and password. If the user enters valid credentials, the operation continues with the applicable privilege.[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Prompt for consent[/td] [td]When an operation requires elevation of privilege, the user is prompted to select either Yes or No. If the user selects Yes, the operation continues with the user's highest available privilege.[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Prompt for consent for non-Windows binaries (Default)[/td] [td]When an operation for a non-Microsoft application requires elevation of privilege, the user is prompted on the secure desktop to select either Yes or No. If the user selects Yes, the operation continues with the user's highest available privilege.[/td] [/tr] [/table]

This tutorial will show you how to change the User Account Control (UAC) prompt behavior only for administrators in Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10.

*Warning You must be signed in as an administrator to change the UAC prompt behavior for administrators.

*note This will not affect the standard users.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: Change UAC prompt Behavior for Administrators in Local Security Policy
• Option Two: Change UAC prompt Behavior for Administrators using a REG file

EXAMPLE: User Account Control (UAC) consent prompt









OPTION ONE [/i] Change UAC prompt Behavior for Administrators in Local Security Policy

*note The Local Security Policy is only available in the Windows 7/8/10 Pro, Windows 7/8/10 Enterprise, and Windows 10 Education editions.

All editions can use Option Two below.
1. Open the Local Security Policy (secpol.msc).

2. Expand open Local Policies and Security Options in the left pane of Local Security Policy, and double click/tap on the User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode policy to edit it. (see screenshot below)



3. Select the UAC behavior you want in the drop menu, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)



4. When finished, close the Local Security Policy window if you like.





OPTION TWO [/i] Change UAC prompt Behavior for Administrators using a REG file

*note The downloadable .reg files below will modify the DWORD value in the registry key below.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin DWORD

0 = Elevate without prompting
1 = Prompt for credentials on the secure desktop
2 = Prompt for consent on the secure desktop
3 = Prompt for credentials
4 = Prompt for consent
5 = Prompt for consent for non-Windows binaries (default)


1. Do step 2 (Elevate without prompting), step 3 (Prompt for credentials on secure desktop), step 4 (Prompt for consent on secure desktop), step 5 (Prompt for credentials), step 6 (Prompt for consent), or step 7 (DEFAULT - Prompt for consent for non-Windows binaries) below for what you would like to do.


2. Set UAC Behavior for Administrators to "Elevate without prompting"
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 8 below.

Administrators_UAC_Elevate_without_prompting.reg

Download

3. Set UAC Behavior for Administrators to "Prompt for credentials on the secure desktop"
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 8 below.

Administrators_UAC_Prompt_for_credentials_on_secure_desktop.reg

Download

4. Set UAC Behavior for Administrators to "Prompt for consent on the secure desktop"
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 8 below.

Administrators_UAC_Prompt_for_consent_on_secure_desktop.reg

Download

5. Set UAC Behavior for Administrators to "Prompt for credentials"
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 8 below.

Administrators_UAC_Prompt_for_credentials.reg

Download

6. Set UAC Behavior for Administrators to "Prompt for consent"
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 8 below.

Administrators_UAC_Prompt_for_consent.reg

Download

7. Set UAC Behavior for Administrators to "Prompt for consent for non-Windows binaries"
*note This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 8 below.

Administrators_UAC_Prompt_for_consent_for_non-Windows_binaries.reg

Download
8. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

9. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

10. When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

11. You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Enable or Disable User Account Control (UAC) in Windows
• How to Enable or Disable User Account Control (UAC) prompt for Built-in Administrator in Windows
• How to Change User Account Control (UAC) Settings in Windows 10
• How to Change User Account Control (UAC) prompt Behavior for Standard Users in Windows
• How to Hide or Show Administrators in UAC prompt for Standard Users in Windows
• How to Enable or Disable Dimmed Secure Desktop for UAC prompt in Windows
• How to Enable or Disable Ctrl+Alt+Delete Secure Desktop for UAC prompt in Windows

:)

 

Any way to enable an admin password for UAC in windows 10?

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft community.

I suggest you to follow the steps below and check if this helps:

• Open User Account Control Settings by clicking the Start button.
• Then type uac, and then click Change User Account Control settings.
  
• 
  Do one of the following:
  

• To turn off UAC, move the slider to the Never notify position, and then click
  OK. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. You will need to restart your computer for UAC to be turned off.
• To turn on UAC, move the slider to choose when you want to be notified, and then click
  OK. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Hope this information was helpful and do let us know if you need further assistance. We will be glad to assist.

 

How do I change the default administrator account for the UAC elevation password prompt?

I have set the "User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode" security policy in secpol.msc to "Prompt for credentials" for security purposes so that even when a user is logged in as an administrator
they must type their password instead of simply consenting to the UAC prompt. The only problem is that when the built-in Administrator account is enabled the UAC elevation prompt ALWAYS defaults to that account instead of the currently logged in local administrator
account, requiring the user to click "More choices" then their name before being able to use their own password to elevate. When performing repetitive administrative tasks this quickly becomes very annoying. It was my understanding the UAC prompt should remember
the last user account used, however that does not seem to be the case. How can I make the UAC elevation prompt default to the currently logged in administrator instead of the built-in administrator account?

 

UAC not allowing software activation

Hello Lourenco,

Thank you for keeping us posted on the status of the issue.

We appreciate the time and effort you have put in to resolve the issue. I would like to assist you further from here.

As an initial recommendation, I would suggest you to check if the User Account you are logged in is the Administrator account or not. Follow the below steps.

• Press the Windows key and R from the keyboard to open the Run Command Dialog Box.
• Enter netplwiz to open the
  Advanced User Accounts Control Panel which lists all the users accounts created on a computer.

However, if you are the administrator, I would suggest you to disable the User Account Control. Follow the below steps and check with the results.

• Type in UAC in the Search Bar and select Change User Account Control Settings.
• Under User Account Control settings, drag the slider down to Don't notify me when I make changes to the Windows settings.
• Reboot your computer before the changes take effect.

UAC Turn Off Disclaimer:

User Account Control (UAC) can help you prevent unauthorized changes to your computer. It works by prompting you for permission when a task requires administrative rights, such as installing software or changing settings that affect other users. We
don't recommend turning User Account Control off. If you do turn it off, you should turn it back on as soon as possible.

Additionally, I would also suggest you to enable the
built in administrator account and check if it helps you through the process of the
Power DVD product activation.

You need to run the command from an elevated command prompt. To do that you need to do the following:

• Press the Windows key t+ R from the keyboard to open the Run Command Dialog Box
• Enter cmd and right-click on the Command Prompt result that should appear.
  
• This opens a list of options at the bottom. Select Run as administrator there.
  
• Accept the UAC prompt
• Enter the following command to enable the hidden administrator account:
  net user administrator /active:yes

Hope the above information is helpful. If you need further information feel free to write to us and we woud be happy to help you.

Thank You.

 

UAC not allowing software activation

Once again the so called support engineer did not even read the entire thread before posting yet another solution that did not do any good.

However, I was able to solve my situation without your help after all. My original question was how do I turn off UAC. the method suggested in this thread only turns the notifications for UAC off not the UAC itself. In order to turn off UAC completely,
I went into the registry and turned it off there. After doing this, everything installed perfectly.

Here is a link to read about turning off UAC:

How to turn off and disable UAC in Windows 10

DISCLAMER: Making edits to the registry is EXTREMELY dangerous and could cause damage to your computer. Consult a trained professional with any questions.

 

Changing the UAC Setting Prompt for Built-In Admin account?

Thanks! Appreciate the support and detailed explanation.

However, slightly off topic here, but what about setup programs that a user can just change to their User Profile instead of a System folder like the Program Files folder? If a Standard User installs an app like Utorrent for example without changing the installation destination (C:\Program Files), then of course, the UAC will prompt for the Admin credentials. But when the user changes the installation path to their User Folder or wherever a directory does not need Admin rights to install, then its bad news...

So I guess there is a slight flaw in this UAC prompt thing when it comes to applications like these.

Best UAC setting if one likes to be more secure, then UAC setting for Standard Users should be: Automatically deny elevation requests.

Change UAC prompt Behavior for Standard Users in Windows

Utorrent is one example, see the image.