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Anyone Figured Out How To Circumvent Microsoft's UAC Check in Apps


NoelC

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I simply can't stand UAC

 

It's a poor implementation of a questionable idea, and certainly doesn't protect *me* from anything.  All it manages is to protect my work from getting done.

 

Up to now - from Vista through Win 8.1 - I've been running with EnableLUA set to 0, which causes a system to run the way a computer expert would want it to run.  No prompts to distract, no file system or registry virtualization to magically grab things and send them somewhere else.  In short, the system just works. 

 

The hindrances other people have quietly gotten used to I have chosen not to.  Every time I use a UAC-enabled system it's plain they are not insignificant.

 

With Win 8 and newer, Microsoft has added an arbitrary requirement to block the running of Metro/Modern Apps if UAC is disabled as I mentioned above.  So far I really have not needed (nor actually wanted) any of the useless Metro/Modern toy apps.  Life's been good - Windows 8.1 is a dandy system for doing serious computing tasks when set up for serious work this way.

 

However, with the Win 10 trial, I've wanted to keep UAC enabled, (EnableLUA set to 1) to allow the use of the Windows Feedback App.  And so I'm trying - as I have done with every version since Vista - to see how unobtrusive UAC can be made.  This has involved:

 

  • Dragging the "UAC prompt level" slider to the bottom.
  • Setting the things I run (when possible) to Run As Administrator via attribute.

 

Even with the above, on a PITA scale of 1 to 10, it still clocks in at about a 3, while having EnableLUA set to 0 defines the low end of the scale.  There are still "oops, can't get there from here" situations that crop up, and the file system and registry virtualizations still bite at one's anatomy occasionally.  If I end up adopting Windows 10, I will quite likely set EnableLUA to 0, based on what I know now.

 

By the way, I know there are some workarounds - for example, one obvious way is to run a virtual machine with UAC still enabled for doing the occasional Metro/Modern thing while having the main system set properly.  Now with Win 10 putting them in Windows, things like VMware Unity might even make it possible for them to show right on the UAC-disabled desktop.   But workarounds have their own difficulties, and a system that just works in an integrated way is a good goal.

 

So...

 

Who's found a way to set EnableLUA to 0 and still use Metro/Modern Apps? 

 

Surely with all the smart people out in the world figuring out Windows' internals, someone must dislike UAC as much as I do.

 

-Noel

Edited by NoelC
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You can just work with the Built-in Administrator account, then create a new administrator account to run Metro Apps.

In this case you have the two features (run all progs as admin automatically + run Metro Apps), without even sign out, just switch user.

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Thanks, but the intent is to be able to do multiple things simultaneously and see them all at once.  I don't ever just run one thing at a time, and I have a lot of monitors.  A powerful feature of Windows is in being able to set up a lot of tools then use them creatively in combination.  Switching to another user / desktop / full-screen app is simply not my way of working.

 

Ideally, with WIn 10 I'd love to be able to open any and all types of apps or applications side by side as needed in windows on the same desktop.

 

-Noel

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I forgot to say:

The Built-in Administrator account (BIAA) must be activated from the early setup of Windows 8,

because if you install Windows 8 ordinarily, then later wanted to activate this account , you will find it useless, because all your programs and settings are in the other Limited User Account (LUA). THIS WHAT MICROSOFT WANT US TO SETTLE WITH.

 

Again my own solution to this annoyance is to start the setup by activating BIAA, setup all your programs, make all your settings. This will reverse the hard road Microsoft want us to follow.

 

This can be done via the command:

net user administrator /active:yes

 

or from here, but don't listen to the threats of doing so, they just follow a hard road.

Edited by moataz
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Thanks, but that's unfortunately not an acceptable approach for me for another reason - I have multiple systems networked, and expect my own username to be privileged.

 

Yes, I know I could change everything over to use Administrator, but it doesn't buy me the ability to run Metro/Modern apps seamlessly anyway directly with the one login, so it's a moot point.

 

I'm a bit surprised no one has taken it upon themselves to figure out the hack required to circumvent Microsoft's "Is UAC On" check for running Metro/Modern apps.  Maybe no one serious enough about computing to know how things are put together has wanted to run such apps badly enough to figure it out.  :ph34r:

 

-Noel

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I'm a bit surprised no one has taken it upon themselves to figure out the hack required to circumvent Microsoft's "Is UAC On" check for running Metro/Modern apps.  Maybe no one serious enough about computing to know how things are put together has wanted to run such apps badly enough to figure it out.  :ph34r:

Most of the people serious enough about computing are keeping away from 8+, and waiting for MS to come back to its senses... :P

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waiting for MS to come back to its senses

 

skeleton-at-keyboard.jpg

 

:)

 

I guess I'm guilty as an incurable "early adopter', but no one's invented an essential Metro/Modern App yet (and it may never happen) so it's kind of academic anyway.

 

-Noel

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Thanks, but that's unfortunately not an acceptable approach for me for another reason - I have multiple systems networked, and expect my own username to be privileged.

So you need just another command:

wmic UserAccount where Name="Administrator" call Rename Name="NoelC"
besides that one.

GL

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