Kill Windows Vista UAC from the Command Prompt

The User Account Control is a security mitigation introduced in Windows Vista, designed to train both end user and software developer behaviors to be tailor fitted on standard privileges. A major design flaw in Windows XP, that ultimately led to weakening the security of the operating system, is the fact that Microsoft delivered excessively restrictive standard user accounts. This is why the tendency is now to run as administrator, and the software developers merely adapted to the trend and built products addressing installation and usage scenarios involving full administrative privileges.

With Windows Vista, Microsoft got a second try at setting up the boundaries of standard and administrator accounts, and since the first was not a huge success, the company brought the mountain to Mohammed, and restricted the privileges of administrative accounts. The truth of the matter is that the UAC is not the apex of nuisance that it was advertised to be since the early stages of Windows Vista. But still, in case users have to deal with large volumes of actions requiring administrative privileges, UAC will manage to simply get in the way and considerably affect the workflow.

There are a few ways to turn off User Account Control in Vista, and perhaps one of the simplest involves using the command prompt. Simply type "cmd" in the search Box under the Start menu, and right-click the highlighted result and choose Run as administrator from the contextual menu. Now enter the following: reg.exe ADD HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion
PoliciesSystem /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f in a single command line in order to disable UAC prompts. In case that you change your mind then just enter: reg.exe ADD HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesSystem /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f.

Additionally, you can launch Control Panel, enter UAC in the instant search box of the window, and turn off UAC completely. Another variant is to use the Local Security Policy. In this manner, users will be able to extensively control UAC through a range of options. Type Local Security Policy in the Search Box under the Start Menu and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter in order to launch the service with elevated privileges. In the left hand side pane, navigate to Local Policies and then Security Options. Scroll all the way down to the last items in the policy list and you will find no less than nine options related to the UAC. Go wild!