Windows Vista Annoyance #1: User Account Control
March 23, 2007
I’ve been pretty quiet the past two days. Why? Because I was otherwise occupied updating my laptop after installing Windows Vista Home Premium on it. Folks, if you’re a novice-to-medium computer user, and if you’re reasonably happy with your current Vista-less PC computer, don’t upgrade to Vista. It’s a lot of work, and I ended up erasing everything on my laptop (including my personal files). Luckily I had everything already copied to a back-up hard drive. And the new features of Vista aren’t really worth the laborious upgrade. Of course, if you buy or bought a new laptop that comes with Vista already built-in, you’ll be fine.
I quickly found one feature of Windows Vista to be annoying: its “User Account Control.” If you make any changes to Vista’s settings, or add a new program, the screen dims and a small window pops up asking you if you’re sure you want to make the change or addition. The first time it happened to me, I was like, “Whoa, what is this, this is scary. But thanks anyhow.” The second, third, fourth time this window appeared (once for each change I make), I was like, “Ok, I know what you are, thanks, but I’m fine.” But after the seventh, eleventh, nay, twentieth time this window appeared, I was becoming hot and bothered with this feature.
Took me a while to find out how to turn the User Account Control feature off, but here’s how:
1) Click on the Windows logo on the lower left corner (which used to be the “Start” menu);
2) Click on “Controls Panel,” and then select “User Accounts.”
3) At the bottom of the “User Accounts” box, click on “Turn User Account Control on or off”
4) Uncheck the box next to “Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer”
5) Click on “OK”
6) Do this for each user account (if you have more than one in your computer)
6) Restart your computer for the changes to take effect
And hey presto, Vista Annoyance #1 taken care of. I’m sure I’ll have more “Annoyances” blog posts coming up …
March 23, 2007 at 12:14 pm
As I always say, Macs are much more user-friendly than PCs. They don’t have these annoying details or nuances that Windows-based systems have. *wink*
March 23, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Fellow Mac user here: I have to type in my administrator password every time I want to install a new application. This is it. I understand true geeks like having the ability to take apart computers and thus like problem-riddled PCs. Right? ;)
I, however, do like the 3-D layout of windows in Vista. Very Mac-like, that one.
March 23, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Linux user, here. Problem is, you kind of do want that notification running (after you’ve done twiddling things, of course) because it is a security feature, and would prevent malware from installing something without your notice.
I would not even bother with changing to Vista as you say. XP is fine. Just get Vista when you get a new computer (and be sure that computer has a lot of muscle). Or do the sensible thing: migrate to linux or mac :-DBE
March 26, 2007 at 4:18 am
Yeah, I am going wait till Vista get mature…
Meantime, try out Ubuntu! You can install Ubuntu and keep Vista/XP as 2nd and 3rd Operating System.
I’ve been using XP and Ubuntu back and forth. It’s been rewarding experience for me.
gwlj
April 16, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Cool Vista tips! Have you figured out what causes the inability to launch an .exe file from a network drive? Since installing Vista I have to copy the file to my c: drive before executing it.
April 16, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Good question, Todd! I’ll look into this.
July 7, 2007 at 8:46 pm
I am having trouble accessing my Vista Home Premium laptop from my Mac. It is populating the workgroup and my user name but it’s asking for a password that I never had to begin with and don’t remember needing. I did have to have the laptop sent in and the mother board changed and have been trying to get things back to normal ever since. I have done the regedit change from 3 to 0 thing, but nothing is working! Please help!
July 8, 2007 at 7:42 am
Saint — try pressing ENTER or RETURN instead of giving a password. Sometimes that works. Otherwise, I’m afraid I can’t help you there — I’m not too familiar with how the Mac networks with a Windows computer …
July 31, 2007 at 9:20 am
[...] 20th, 2007 (See also my other Vista Annoyance posts - turning off User Account Control, turning on Flip and Flip / Window Switcher, viewing and sharing files between XP and Vista [...]
November 30, 2007 at 8:05 am
[...] all my Vista Annoyance posts - turning off User Account Control, turning on Flip and Flip / Window Switcher, viewing and sharing files between XP and Vista [...]
July 16, 2008 at 1:30 am
There are more details info about UAC from there Hacking Windows Vista’s User Account Control