How to disable/turn off Windows Vista User Account Control (UAC)

Windows Vista User Account Control (UAC) is a security feature of Vista.

Windows (2000/XP/Vista) has different permission levels that a user can run under. By default the first user created has been an administrator account, giving full control over all systems and letting you install/modify anything. In Windows Vista, the first user created runs as a standard user, but prompts when higher permissions are required. The basic thought is that many viruses, spyware etc are able to more easily infect a machine where the user is running as an administrator.

If you understand the risks but still want to turn your standard user account into an administrator account, the easiest way is to go to Start and type in "User Account" (not "User Accounts") and then click on User Accounts (if you type in User Accounts and click User Accounts, it seems to be different and doesn't work...).

Clicking on the correct User Accounts opens up the User Accounts window (can also be found in Control Panel).


Next click on "Turn User Account Control on or off.

Unchecking the box on the following window will disable UAC for that account.