Windows 10: UAC Retired, Day 1 - Risks and Threats

First impressions on the much discussed and even more fearsome retirement of UAC:


As of today the UAC has been sent to retirement; also turned off the ''smartscreen'' for Edge which I do not use anyway Big Bro drew an exclamation mark on the Security page, which I ignored and it seems that the system has another ''smartscreen'' of its own anyway. To take care of the possible risks and threats some of them are real I will run my second line antivirus three times a day, to check for malicious stuff, and also run a specialized adware killer, although it is hard to imagine that I could get malware from the page of my company or internet bank - their IT staff is not dumb either.


Impressions after Day 1 -


- installations are faster because I do not need to react to notifications although I still see the installer menu; this may not be recommended to absolute beginners because they may accidentally do something they did not want to, but if I have decided to install something there is no need to ask again;

- the Big Bro still polices the system, although he is a little bit less annoying, but just a little bit, like Nikita Khruschev in comparison to Joseph Stalin, one was a lesser jerk then the other but both were jerks;

- all the problems I have described earlier are still there, so the victory over Big Bro has not been won yet - but the process has at least started.

- one suspected program turned out not to be a virus, Big Bro was against downloading it but neither Windows Defender nor my second line antivirus found anything wrong with it.


It seems that the system architects as far as I understand their way of thinking 1. are obsessed with total control, 2. think all users are kids who do not know anything my apologies to the young generation - you actually know more about IT than I do and 3. there is a total, epic fail of communication between the system builders and the users, like this:

- Big Bro is needed because there are threats! Not recommended!

- Which ones?

- I said threats! Not recommended!

- Can I learn to protect myself from them?

- I said threats! Not recommended!

No wonder that some people find this approach annoying and reject the system call it a reflex if you want to.


By the way, 3rd party apps are also ''not recommended''. Although they do require a little bit of caution, so that you do not get a trojan or ransomware instead of what you were looking for, they are easier to use, do not bug you with updates or ads, are not linked to compulsory accounts and some of them are free.


Conclusions after Day 1: A little bit more streamlined system, more easy going for users with some experience, but nothing much has changed.


To be done:

- Finding out AND IMPLEMENTING, SUCCESSFULLY the procedure for disabling Edge I found it but failed to carry out because of the Big Bro a. k. a. the Great Access Denier

- Next weekend, a small junkware test mock infection - finding a not so bad piece of junkware online and seeing how my older machine - without important data - in this configuration reacts to it. Expected results: the same or close.

- Finding a specialized security forum - I know a couple - and asking some technical things there.

:)

 

Grant a specific application permanent UAC permission

Hello jaksps,

In line with your concern, User Account Control doesn't have a "allowed-or-blocked" list and disabling the User Account Control involves security risks. Though, there is a workaround to run a program without UAC prompt using Task Scheduler. I'd recommend
performing the steps suggested by SpiritX MS MVP in this
thread.

Looking forward to your response.

Regards.

 

Problem with UAC in win 10

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community. Appreciate your interest in using Windows 10.

To disable UAC prompts, I suggest you to follow the steps provided below:

• In the search bar, type Control Panel and press Enter.
• Click on User Accounts and again click on User Accounts.
• Click on Change User account control settings.
• Provide password for the UAC prompt.
• Drag the box from Always Notify to Never Notify and click on OK.
• Provide password for the UAC prompt (if asked again).

Important: Turning off UAC reduces the security of your computer and may expose you to increased risk from malicious software. We do not recommend leaving UAC disabled.

Hope the information is helpful. Feel free to write to us for any other assistance with Windows, we’ll be glad to assist you.

 

Windows 10 UAC problems

Hi,

Thank you for posting on Microsoft Communities.

I suggest you to disable the UAC-(Select the bar as shown in the below screen shot) and check with the issue. To open User account control settings, follow the steps:

• Click on the search bar on the taskbar.
• Type User account control settings.

Hope it helps.