As Savyg said I also recommend leaving UAC on. I have to admit I have skipped Windows Vista, but Windows 7 UAC looks like it is doing a great job and it is not very annoying.

I only use Windows for gaming and the multimedia capabilities, for the rest I use a Linux distribution (Ubuntu at home, Fedora at work). In Linux you have to enter a password (yours our the root account) to install a program or do any stuff related to system configuration.

So from my point of view UAC is very permissive, you only have to press yes and search for some solutions on the internet when you hit some problems (usually at the software company that created the software).

I always Leave UAC on, Its not too intrusive and Win7s is a huge improvement over Vistas.

The thing to remember with UAC is that it protects against anytype of autorunning Virus (USB viruses, Smitfrauds, etc), These are the same Viruses I see week after week in my repair shop. They are rather rare on vista+ machines as UAC tends to stop most of them (however you can't patch stupid, so you still see em sometimes).

I do not recommend turning UAC completely off: There are benefits beyond that dialog box that you may not notice, but may prevent you from getting stung.

There is a workaround in Vista, and I'm sure it applies to 7 as well:

Use the the task scheduler.

Interestingly enough, the task scheduler starts as an elevated process and has the ability to create new elevated processes without prompts. Just add a task in there to load your programs with admin privileges at startup.

A Ph.D. security professional (who works at a nuclear power plant) lists a series of security maxims you should know about, here are a few:

All due respect Cobra and although the setttings may ring true in some cases, Win 7 is hardly a nuclear power plant.

 

Honestly.. when I finally start skinning 7, I'm turning it off just like i did in vista. I prefer not to have to hold Bill Gates' hand.

 

Most people can use simple common sense to protect themselves from anything that UAC would ever help them with, (so easy a caveman can do it) 

 

It's most certainly far more of an annoyance than it is a help imo.

You're right, the systems he maintains are likely to be vastly more secure than any desktop OS in existence. He still warns vehemently about being arrogant and downgrading your security.

For example, most people know how to write security tokens and use them daily whenever a piece of software requests resources from the OS. Most people have written their own browser using protected mode. And oh, yeah, most people already know how to stop automated clicks by malware.

If you believe that UAC is just that prompt you see, you do not know what UAC is.

 

Obviously there are some things that UAC does that the average user would never do, I guess my point is.. I personally don't care what it does that I can't do for myself.. Ive had it turned off since day 1 on vista, havent had any issues whatsoever with security following the normal security precautions and using common browsing and computing sense.

 

If one is that frantic about automated malware clicks.. then by all means... leave that annoying , beeping, screen opening, extra clicking POS turned on.

 

I.. just don't need it.

 

Until, of course, something happens. Which hasn't happened yet for you, but for many people it has.

I don't care how long you haven't had problems. I haven't had problems in a long time, either. But I still don't recommend scaling back on security.

Just because incidents are rare does not mean they don't happen. You personally may not be hacked, but somebody else taking your advice might be. And there's nothing saying you won't have an incident in the future, either. If you do have an incident and UAC could've prevented it, you'd be pretty embarrased.

You haven't had an incident? Great! But don't think that the bad guys simply go away, and don't think that current security practices will always be enough in the future. Stuff changes.

agreed.

Maybe from a different point of view may help:

I like knowing when something wants to access my system files. That's how most stuff gets in, by overwriting the system files.

If I disable UAC, how will I know if that new program I've downloaded is trying to access files it shouldn't?

BTW - with most new installers on legit software, they offer the choice between being accesible to all users or being accessible to just the current user.

If you choose to install for just the current user, many installers won't bother you with UAC.

As an added bonus, the installed software gives you a UAC prompt if malware hooks onto it, and then you can know if something is wrong.

If you're on a single user system, it's a good idea to install most stuff for just the current user. Less UAC prompts.

UAC isn't bad, especially on Windows 7, and especially with newer installers.

Perhaps if MS hadn't made it so damned annoying as it prompts it wouldn't be so bad.. their clueless when it comes to the whole user experience imo... sorta like.. big govt, out of my face please 

It prevents crap from installing, and it does it well. The ONLY thing crap about it is that software are allowed to request privileges, bringing up that annoying prompt. IMHO, UAC should always deny any elevation requests unless explicitly instructed otherwise by the user.

try installing AC97 drivers for realtek audio device.

45mins later you've pressed allow 25 times or so, even with UAC set to off.

Well, that's likely more a flaw with the driver rather than windows 7.

well perhaps (and seeing as it took 3hrs of looking for the correct driver from several similarly named ones, most likely), but it's certainly a flaw with win 7 that i can't just say 'allow everything this app does'