Windows 7 UAC replacer

[Singh400]

At the moment, I am running CPU-Z constantly as I am testing an overclock. Ditto realtemp.

Then the solution is simple. Disable UAC while you are OCing your rig. Pointless to have UAC on if all you doing is: change bios setting --> boot up --> benchmark using whatever --> monitor temps/load.

Rinse and repeat x times.

Just turn it off for the duration of however long it takes you to reach you final and stable OC and then just turn it back on once you have finished.

[TheAnimus]

I find UAC most annoying when opening large exe files. I hate when you download, for example, a demo for a game and it comes as a 2gb exe file. It takes about 20 minutes for it to actually open because the UAC is checking it over or something. Very frustrating, especially when you can't tell if there's something up with it or if it's just the UAC.

Totally agree with this.

I was disapointed that in win7 they don't throw up some kind of 'waiting....' box, mabye with a progress bar.

[this_is_gav]

It's not UAC that though, is it? It's the 'are you sure you want to open this file' type box thing that started in XP. It only affects files downloaded in IE as I remember, and can be disabled with a registry edit anyway.

I certainly don't get any hesitation now anyway.

Agreed that there should be some indication of activity though.

[TheAnimus]

No, part of UAC is inspecting each proccess before you actually create it.

it has some simple huristics to see if it should be run as administrator. Running those takes a little time.

then there is windows defender which has to scan all 2gb of the file.

I think that is where the wait comes from, but am not certain.

The XP style prompt is the cross zone warning, which is a damn good idea and should certainly not be disabled with a registry edit. It requires user intervention when running code which originated outside of the trusted zones. Its a total must. One of the exploited flaws in Safari wouldn't of happened if apple knew how to program, and hadn't circumvented this measure.

[rushholme]

Comodo Firewall/HIPS on paranoid mode is a better solution. At least it remembers my choices.

I think I'll disable UAC and the cross zone warning as Win7 will not remember anything.

[TheAnimus]

Comodo Firewall/HIPS on paranoid mode is a better solution. At least it remembers my choices.

I think I'll disable UAC and the cross zone warning as Win7 will not remember anything.

What part of that requires UAC and virtualization to be turned off?

[dangel]

Remembering stuff isn't that good an idea for UAC anyway - it's sort of "yeah, remember my choice and open this security hole in my system forever" for system changes - it's quite different from having a firewall only prompt if the binary has changed (a far easier gate to impose in such a way). Remember this for n minutes might make sense in certain circumstances but at the end of the day you can't have security without some obstruction - it's a tradeoff.

[pipTheGeek]

No, part of UAC is inspecting each proccess before you actually create it.

it has some simple huristics to see if it should be run as administrator. Running those takes a little time.

then there is windows defender which has to scan all 2gb of the file.

I think that is where the wait comes from, but am not certain.

The XP style prompt is the cross zone warning, which is a damn good idea and should certainly not be disabled with a registry edit. It requires user intervention when running code which originated outside of the trusted zones. Its a total must. One of the exploited flaws in Safari wouldn't of happened if apple knew how to program, and hadn't circumvented this measure.

I have no idea if this is actually true, I had never heard of it before though, I don't belive UAC is that intelligent and this delay exists on XP as well.
It is becuase the OS is loading the file to validate its signature. Normally your on-access virus scanner is also scanning the file while the OS is loading it. This all takes time. Although I agree, some sort of indication of activity would be really nice.

I do think it would be nice if you could not only set a shortcut to always run as Admin, but also not to prompt when running it. For instance, at work I have Visual Studio 2005 and various mmc consoles, all of which must run as admin, it would be nice to make the prompts go away. It's not enough of an annoyance to make me want to turn UAC off though.

[Dragonclaw]

Just turn UAC off. I have. No regrets.

[TheAnimus]

Just turn UAC off. I have. No regrets.

Said the man who built his house on the sand.

Seriously this rock keeps away tigers, I don't see any tigers, wanna buy my rock?

Don't comment on things based on constrained observation, it makes you look very stupid.

I have no idea if this is actually true, I had never heard of it before though, I don't belive UAC is that intelligent and this delay exists on XP as well.

Well it is, and its easy to observe, whilst for security via obsecurity sakes UAC dosen't detail these heuristics, they exist. Open notepad, it won't prompt for UAC, open installer.exe it will prompt before it tries to do anything if its worked.

It is becuase the OS is loading the file to validate its signature. Normally your on-access virus scanner is also scanning the file while the OS is loading it. This all takes time. Although I agree, some sort of indication of activity would be really nice.

Signature, what signature. These aren't .Net.

My home on access virus scanner this week is Kapersky and it shows you a dialogue box.

I do think it would be nice if you could not only set a shortcut to always run as Admin, but also not to prompt when running it. For instance, at work I have Visual Studio 2005 and various mmc consoles, all of which must run as admin, it would be nice to make the prompts go away. It's not enough of an annoyance to make me want to turn UAC off though.

But if you've set the shortcut to always be admin, isn't it a tiny bit of a flaw in security?

There is nothing stopping you making one shortcut which launches them all!

[Dragonclaw]

constrained observation! lol

UAC is a pain in the butt unless you haven't a clue how to use a PC. Then it should probably be left active.

No need for me to activate it. Never did in Vista. Never had any issues. Maybe that isn't normal for you Ani but i even don't have an AV running. Been years since i installed one. Again, never had any issues. Even when i have run the odd scan, always comes up clean. Lucky? Not really. Just careful what i do with PC. Plus i only use it for a limited amount of surfing and work related stuff.

[Funkstar]

UAC is a pain in the butt unless you haven't a clue how to use a PC. Then it should probably be left active.

No need for me to activate it. Never did in Vista. Never had any issues. Maybe that isn't normal for you Ani but i even don't have an AV running. Been years since i installed one. Again, never had any issues. Even when i have run the odd scan, always comes up clean. Lucky? Not really. Just careful what i do with PC. Plus i only use it for a limited amount of surfing and work related stuff.

That may be, I still wouldn't recommend doing the same to others.

you may be careful, but is the OP or anyone else you recommend the above to? Do they also "only use it for a limited amount of surfing and work"?

[Dragonclaw]

If i help a family member (Not an arm or leg!!) with a pc i usually tell them to leave it on. Makes sense for them if they haven't a clue.

[rushholme]

That may be, I still wouldn't recommend doing the same to others.

you may be careful, but is the OP or anyone else you recommend the above to? Do they also "only use it for a limited amount of surfing and work"?

The OP has hardened his PC, runs antivir with a2 and comodo firewall/HIPS but uses the PC for a wide variety of uses.

He has a good understanding of XP's security but no clue about UAC.

[blackbirds]

constrained observation! lol

UAC is a pain in the butt unless you haven't a clue how to use a PC. Then it should probably be left active.

No need for me to activate it. Never did in Vista. Never had any issues. Maybe that isn't normal for you Ani but i even don't have an AV running. Been years since i installed one. Again, never had any issues. Even when i have run the odd scan, always comes up clean. Lucky? Not really. Just careful what i do with PC. Plus i only use it for a limited amount of surfing and work related stuff.

Same story here. No UAC for me, no anti-virus, and when I have run a scanner (which I've usually only done to prove the point that AV is useless), my system's always come out clean. I did suffer the Blaster worm, although that was due to a security hole in Windows, and wasn't something I recall any of the AV apps of the time doing much to stop. And that's the thing with AV, isn't it? It's got about a 90% chance of catching existing and known problems, and is generally rather useless at catching the new stuff. So if you're sensible enough to be careful, there's just no point in AV.

Besides, it seems to me that all AV does is promote viruses. How many times do you come across a PC with AV software that's crawling with them? People just seem to think that being "protected" means they can be negligent. Not quite how it works out for them, though.

[this_is_gav]

I did suffer the Blaster worm, although that was due to a security hole in Windows

UAC would have stopped that though.