- Apr 25, 2013
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What Is UAC?
UAC or User Account Control was first introduced with the release of Microsoft Windows Vista and is now carried forward to Windows 8/Windows 8.1 as well. User Account Control adds an additional layer of security to the operating system by issuing a standard access token with limited privileges to a standard (non-administrator) user account, and two access tokens with the restricted and unrestricted privileges to the administrator accounts on the computer.
When any user account that belongs to the Administrators group tries to perform any standard task which does not require any elevated privileges, such as initializing MS Word application, playing a movie file, etc., the standard access token with limited privileges is used. On the other hand, when the same user tries to perform any administrative task, such as installing or uninstalling any application, adding or removing any user, etc., the operating system requests for the access token with unrestricted privileges by displaying a confirmation box, technically known as Prompt for Consent, and the user must click the ‘Yes’ button on the confirmation box to allow the OS to continue with the process.
Even though any account that is member of the Administrators group is displayed with the Prompt for Consent when the account holder tries to perform any administrative task, the built-in Administrator account that is automatically created during the installation process of Windows 8/Windows 8.1 is never displayed with any such prompt. This happens because of the default configurations of the operating system in which the built-in Administrator account has unrestricted and complete control over the computer, and because of this reason the built-in account is kept disabled by default.
You, as a Windows 8/8.1 administrator can disable/enable the User Account Control (UAC) feature for any manually created administrator account by following the steps given below:
10. Once this is done, click OK, and on the displayed User Account Control confirmation box (Prompt for Consent), click Yes to provide your consent to disable the UAC.
11. To revert the settings back to normal, follow the above process, and move the slider back to its original position while you are on the step 9.
UAC or User Account Control was first introduced with the release of Microsoft Windows Vista and is now carried forward to Windows 8/Windows 8.1 as well. User Account Control adds an additional layer of security to the operating system by issuing a standard access token with limited privileges to a standard (non-administrator) user account, and two access tokens with the restricted and unrestricted privileges to the administrator accounts on the computer.
When any user account that belongs to the Administrators group tries to perform any standard task which does not require any elevated privileges, such as initializing MS Word application, playing a movie file, etc., the standard access token with limited privileges is used. On the other hand, when the same user tries to perform any administrative task, such as installing or uninstalling any application, adding or removing any user, etc., the operating system requests for the access token with unrestricted privileges by displaying a confirmation box, technically known as Prompt for Consent, and the user must click the ‘Yes’ button on the confirmation box to allow the OS to continue with the process.
Even though any account that is member of the Administrators group is displayed with the Prompt for Consent when the account holder tries to perform any administrative task, the built-in Administrator account that is automatically created during the installation process of Windows 8/Windows 8.1 is never displayed with any such prompt. This happens because of the default configurations of the operating system in which the built-in Administrator account has unrestricted and complete control over the computer, and because of this reason the built-in account is kept disabled by default.
You, as a Windows 8/8.1 administrator can disable/enable the User Account Control (UAC) feature for any manually created administrator account by following the steps given below:
- ■Log on to Windows 8/Windows 8.1 computer with the administrator account.
■On the Start screen, click the Desktop tile.
■Once on the desktop window, hover the mouse to the bottom right corner of the screen.
■From the displayed Charms bar, click Settings.
■From the Settings pane displayed in the right, click Control Panel.
■On the Control Panel window that opens up, click the User Accounts and Family Safety category.
■On the next window that appears, click the User Accounts category.
■On the User Accounts window, click the Change User Account Control settings option.
■On the User Account Settings window, move the vertical slider down to the bottom (move down to the Never notify level).
10. Once this is done, click OK, and on the displayed User Account Control confirmation box (Prompt for Consent), click Yes to provide your consent to disable the UAC.
11. To revert the settings back to normal, follow the above process, and move the slider back to its original position while you are on the step 9.
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