Change User Account Control (UAC) Settings in Windows 10

Brink · 22 Apr 2016

UPDATE:

When you are prompted to enter your credentials or elevate a program starting with Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14328, you will notice the dialog now has a fresh and modern UI to align with the design language in use across Windows 10. And now when prompted to enter credentials, you can choose to sign-in with Windows Hello, a PIN, certificates or a simple password.

Change User Account Control (UAC) Settings in Windows 10-new_cred-ui-901x1024.png

Change User Account Control (UAC) Settings in Windows 10-new-uac.png

Brink · 11 May 2016

Starting with Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14342, the UAC dialog now supports dark mode! As part of this work, Microsoft has also updated the header color from yellow to blue.

Cliff S · 01 Oct 2016

A screenshot of a graphic from one of the videos from Ignite 2016: Halt hackers: do those tricks still work with Windows 10?
Starting at 14:45 it will show how easy it is to circumvent.

Change User Account Control (UAC) Settings in Windows 10-image-002.png

Steve C · 16 Dec 2016

Please see my weird problem at https://www.tenforums.com/general-su...pt-appear.html

What process causes the screen to dim when the UAC prompt is invoked since this seems to be the source of my problem?

Cliff S · 16 Dec 2016

Steve C said:

Please see my weird problem at https://www.tenforums.com/general-su...pt-appear.html

What process causes the screen to dim when the UAC prompt is invoked since this seems to be the source of my problem?

Maybe it has to do with the anti malware scan portion of the request?

In Windows 10, User Account Control has added some improvements.
Integration with the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI). The AMSI scans all UAC elevation requests for malware. If malware is detected, the admin privilege is blocked.

The Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI) is a generic interface standard that allows applications and services to integrate with any antimalware product present on a machine. It provides enhanced malware protection for users and their data, applications, and workloads.
AMSI is antimalware vendor agnostic, designed to allow for the most common malware scanning and protection techniques provided by today's antimalware products that can be integrated into applications. It supports a calling structure allowing for file and memory or stream scanning, content source URL/IP reputation checks, and other techniques.

What's new in Windows 10, versions 1507 and 1511 (Windows 10)

Steve C · 16 Dec 2016

It could be an antivirus compatibility issue. Turning the UAC control down one notch only seems to prevent the screen dimming - is that right? If so, I'll leave it on that setting to workaround the issue since I know what I'm doing (hopefully).

Cliff S · 16 Dec 2016

The gray out is secure desktop mode, a good(but older) explanation: User Account Control Prompts on the Secure Desktop UACBlog

Hellopaul · 22 Aug 2018

Hello,
I recently had to downgrade my Windows 7 Pro system to Windows 10 Pro. Apart from everything running a bit slower than before, mostly it's fine. Except the annoying UAC issues.

From my research, am I right in thinking the only way to get rid of the annoying "this app wants to make changes to your computer" pop-up every time I open certain apps, is to set that UAC slider to 'Never notify', thereby (seemingly) allowing any app to do anything? On Windows 7, I'd only get the UAC warning once, when I opened a new app, then I'd tell Windows "yeah, it's fine", and it'd remember it. Is there not some way to do this on Windows 10? Or some kind of hack I can do to add my existing, safe apps to a "whitelist" of some kind? It seems like a big step backwards.

I'm concerned that setting the UAC slider to 'Never notify' would be a security risk - effectively allowing any app to do anything to my system. Or are my worries unfounded?

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions or help!

~ Paul

Brink · 22 Aug 2018

Hello Paul, and welcome to Ten Forums.

I'm afraid UAC doesn't have an exception list since that would defeat the purpose of UAC to notify you for approval whenever anything wants to run with elevated rights. Anything running with elevated rights will have full access to everything on the PC, so it helps improve security by being able to approve this first.

If an app you had in an exception list should get infected or spoofed by malware or a virus, it would be able to easily run elevated without you ever knowing.

Setting	Description	Security impact

Always notify me (recommended)	You'll be notified before apps make changes to your PC or to Windows settings that require administrator permissions. When you're notified, your screen will be dimmed, and you must either approve or deny the request in the UAC dialog box before you can do anything else on your PC.	This is the most secure setting. When you're notified, you should carefully read the contents of each dialog box before allowing changes to be made to your PC. Standard users will be prompted to enter an administrator's password to approve.

Notify me only when apps try to make changes to my computer (default)	You'll be notified before apps make changes to your PC that require administrator permissions. You'll be notified if an app tries to make changes to a Windows setting. You won't be notified if you try to make changes to Windows settings that require administrator permissions.	It's usually safe to allow changes to be made to Windows settings without you being notified. However, certain apps that come with Windows can have commands or data passed to them, and malicious software can take advantage of this by using these apps to install files or change settings on your PC. You should always be careful about which apps you allow to run on your PC. Standard users will be prompted to enter an administrator's password to approve.

Notify me only when apps try to make changes to my computer (don't dim my desktop)	You'll be notified before apps make changes to your PC that require administrator permissions. You'll be notified if an app tries to make changes to a Windows setting. You won't be notified if you try to make changes to Windows settings that require administrator permissions.	This setting is the same as "Notify me only when apps try to make changes to my computer," but your desktop won't get dimmed. If you choose this option, other apps might be able to interfere with the visual appearance of the UAC dialog box. This is a security risk, especially if there's malware on your PC. Standard users will be prompted to enter an administrator's password to approve.

Never notify me (turn off UAC)	You won't be notified before any changes are made to your PC. If you're signed in as an administrator, apps can make changes to your PC without your knowledge. If you're signed in as a standard user, any changes that require administrator permissions will automatically be denied, or still be prompted by UAC.	This is the least secure setting. When you set UAC to never notify, you open up your PC to potential security risks. If you set UAC to never notify, you should be careful about which apps you run, because they'll have the same access to the PC as you do. This includes reading and making changes to protected system areas, your personal data, saved files, and anything else stored on the PC. Apps will also be able to communicate and transfer info to and from anything your PC connects with, including the Internet.

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Another UAC question: Can I set it on a per-app basis?