# Windows users-do you have User Account Control enabled?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-users-do-you-have-user-account-control-enabled/625229>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 15, 2012, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-users-do-you-have-user-account-control-enabled/625229 "2012-06-15T13:28:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-users-do-you-have-user-account-control-enabled/625229/1 "2012-06-15T13:28:52Z")

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I simply find it hugely intrusive, timewasting, and redundant, as if I am so feebleminded that I am unable to decide whether to install this or run that.

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**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-users-do-you-have-user-account-control-enabled/625229/2 "2012-06-15T14:42:52Z")

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I’m not sure. I use Vista at home and it pops up “cancel or allow?” dialogue boxes when I install things – is that UAC? If so, it doesn’t really bother me because I don’t install software very frequently.

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**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-users-do-you-have-user-account-control-enabled/625229/3 "2012-06-15T15:22:29Z")

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> [@John\_DiFool](#):
>
> I simply find it hugely intrusive, timewasting, and redundant, as if I am so feebleminded that I am unable to decide whether to install this or run that.

It’s not you that’s feebleminded – it’s whatever malware might run in your account’s security context without your realizing it.

Do you religiously keep your Adobe Reader and JRE environments up to date? If I can get you to navigate to a page with a Java-enabled browser, I can potentially downlaod and install malware to your computer. Which, of course, is possible in part because you’re an administrator.

At home I have always (since the days of NT 4) maintained two accounts: an ordinary user account for day-to-day work and a separate “AU” account with admin privileges that I use only to install and uninstall and whenever else I need admin privileges.

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**Author:** ![Arabella\_Flynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@Arabella\_Flynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arabella_Flynn)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-users-do-you-have-user-account-control-enabled/625229/4 "2012-06-15T15:38:13Z")

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No. I don’t want to have to have to click “yes” seventeen times, or log out and log back in again, in order to break my own computer.

I do have the security settings on the browser turned almost all the way up, though, and an AV program that catches most nasties.