# User Account Control on Vista? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 5, 2009, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/user-account-control-on-vista/488459 "2009-03-05T23:57:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/user-account-control-on-vista/488459/1 "2009-03-05T23:57:37Z")
In order to run the orginal Sims, I had to turn off User Account Control. With it on, it won’t even all me to unzip Zip files. Will McAfee, Spybot and Ad-Watch be good enough protection? Because apart from that, everthing else is completely kosher. ---
**Author:** ![Iggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Iggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggins)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/user-account-control-on-vista/488459/2 "2009-03-06T00:06:17Z")
As long as you are responsible enough to understand what files to execute, and know what trustworthy files are, you will be just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/user-account-control-on-vista/488459/3 "2009-03-06T00:10:15Z")
You mean, don’t download and/or run any suspicious files? I’m only doing the Sims, and it’s only objects and skins, so that shouldn’t be a problem. (I had one program that I had before, that checked for bad files, and one from the official site, that was it.) And I’d turn it back on when I’m NOT using either. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/user-account-control-on-vista/488459/4 "2009-03-06T04:20:05Z")
Frankly I don’t know anyone running Vista who keeps this “feature” on. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/user-account-control-on-vista/488459/5 "2009-03-06T04:36:36Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > Frankly I don’t know anyone running Vista who keeps this “feature” on. I just hate seeing that little red shield down there-it makes me feel like when there was a security problem on XP. (I suppose it’ll take some getting used to.) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/user-account-control-on-vista/488459/6 "2009-03-06T14:53:15Z")
We have buildings full of Vista with UAC on. Works fine. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/user-account-control-on-vista/488459/7 "2009-03-06T15:23:14Z")
I don’t see how UAC could possibly prevent you form unzipping files, mostly, because it can’t. Regardless, you can get rid of the red shield if you want to by clicking on it or going to the security center. On the left hand side you will find a link titled “Change the way security center informs me…” Hit that and change the setting so that the icon won’t be displayed. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/user-account-control-on-vista/488459/8 "2009-03-06T17:29:05Z")
Well, it’s not so much that it prevents me, but every time it says, “are you sure you want to do this?” “Are you sure you want to do that?” Argh. ---
**Author:** ![BorgHunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@BorgHunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BorgHunter)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/user-account-control-on-vista/488459/9 "2009-03-06T18:42:35Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > Frankly I don’t know anyone running Vista who keeps this “feature” on. Frankly, turning this feature off is the same as running as root in Linux—it’s an incredibly bad security practice. I don’t boot into Vista very often, but UAC is certainly turned on over there.