UAC is consistently turning itself off.

After researching the forums this morning I have decided to post my issue;

I am consistently resetting the UAC (image below) and rebooting to allow Edge and Calculator to function as normal.



What must be done to keep this setting in its place permanently? Never had this issue with Windows 7 and never had to put the setting in this position either, it just worked. I'm sure I need some education on this for Windows 10.

I have tried to modify (through the registry)

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

Both ways (bit off/on) and nothing works. Maybe I'm not in the right area for this?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

I would leave it off as it's useless. Run Windows Defender and Malwarebytes Premium and you won't need this UAC...

azasadny said:

I would leave it off as it's useless. Run Windows Defender and Malwarebytes Premium and you won't need this UAC...

It's not useless at all. In fact, you appear to have completely missed his reasons for doing this.

I am consistently resetting the UAC (image below) and rebooting to allow Edge and Calculator to function as normal.

I have it shut down, I have never used it, even in Win 7. It is useless.

I also am having the same issue. I am on a domain and have been looking at the possibility of it being controlled by GPO .. Are you on a domain as well?

TairikuOkami said:

You could use a script to turn off/restart a computer, which will apply the setting, so it should be retained, but it is just a workaround, not a solution. The only thing, which could modify it, would be a software running with admin rights or a service, like some optimizer or antivirus and such. Try to temporarily disable all startup apps and restart several times to see, if the issue remains.

Piriform - Managing auto-starting programs

Another possibility is to check for a malware infection: Emsisoft Free Emergency Kit

And the last, but not least, perform SFC scan: SFC Command - Run in Windows 10

I am impressed by the quality of this reply; especially the recognition of the difference between a solution and a workaround. Well done.

I've had UAC turn off two or three times in the few months I've been running Win10. No clue why this is (or was) happening, but I know I do not have a malware issue.

My own workaround--which it seems was not working well all this time--was to create a scheduled task that runs upon system startup, and then every hour thereafter, to set the aforementioned registry value. I have the task set to run as "SYSTEM" with "Run with highest privileges" enabled. The "Program/script" I use is:

Code:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe

The "Add arguments (optional)" string I use is:

Code:

/c %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Thanks to this thread, I just found out this was not cutting it. You also need to set the "ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin" and "PromptOnSecureDesktop" values.

In my case, I want maxed UAC settings, so I need to set those to 2 and 1, respectively. In order to effect the UAC settings shown in the first post (i.e. the second-highest setting; "Notify me only when apps try to make changes to my computer (default) ... Don't notify me when I make changes to Windows settings", it's necessary to set those values to 5 and 1, respectively.

This is easily done by adding two more actions to the aforementioned scheduled task to set each of those values. The same "Program/script" as above, with the following "Add arguments (optional)" strings:

Code:

/c %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD  HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin /t REG_DWORD /d 5 /f

Code:

/c %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD  HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v PromptOnSecureDesktop /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

I just tested this, and it works fine. So UAC may become disabled, but it won't stay that way for long.

I hate resorting to kludges like this, but despite what some people claim, UAC is an important core security function, and I think I'll keep this task in place permanently, even if I find out what was going on to disable it. Better safe than sorry.

Thanks!

Could you perhaps just set the value in the registry and remove the permissions for it from everything?

You'd have to effectively deny write permissions on "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" to System. Not something I'm comfortable with doing. Maybe Windows won't throw a fit or BSOD, maybe it would.