Question about Vista.

[juno jones]

We just bought a new computer for the kid and it's loaded with Vista. I've noticed as I've helped him set it up that Vista is possibly the most annoying worrywart OS ever invented. We would really like to find some way to shut all of the 'do you really want to open this?' popups off. It gets annoying when it is doing that all the time to perfectly safe programs. They had to make the control panel do less with more 'chioces' so I can't figure out if I can even do it from there.

Help! Any insight appreciated. (I'd love to put him on XP with the rest of the family, but I don't think I can do that until after his warranty runs out. )

[PennDem]

1. Disabling User Access Control

is the place to start:

To turn off UAC
Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

In Control Panel, click User Accounts.

In the User Accounts window, click User Accounts.

In the User Accounts tasks window, click Turn User Account Control on or off.

If UAC is currently configured in Admin Approval Mode, the User Account Control message appears. Click Continue.

Clear the Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer check box, and then click OK.

Click Restart Now to apply the change right away, or click Restart Later and close the User Accounts tasks window.


You can also select "Classic View" when in Control Panel to make it more look more like the control panel in XP.

[juno jones]

2. Sounds about right.

I noticed the popups were headed with 'user account' titles.

Thanks.

[Gore1FL]

3. It can be annoying, but it actully is something you want to keep.

The point of UAC is to keep crap from affecting the O/S.

It only pops up when you are doing system-level stuff.

It may seem obnoxious, but it is worth having.

[Deja Q]

4. UAC can be annoying, but it can be useful.

Excessive clicking is annoying, but the reason WHY is security. With those permissions in place, the end user still has to give confirmation. If you are using the computer and then such a prompt appears for no reason (you're not installing or copying a file; you're playing a game or browsing websites) then you'll not want to grant access.

It's been more or less in Linux for years too.

Also, blame the app makers for not making safe apps. Microsoft takes responsibility for most of theirs; 3rd party developers have to fix their own too.

I will say this; Microsoft has, for Vista, hidden or removed items rather than fixing them for SP1. I for one miss the search icon in the start menu. It was removed for 'security' reasons but I honestly don't believe that. There are a couple other questionable bits as well, but from actual experience, Vista is still more stable than XP. 32- or particularly 64-bit version.

[PennDem]

5. I have the search field

on my Vista Ultimate SP1 installs immediately above the start button when using the Vista style start menu. Did you double check the taskbar properties to make sure it is enabled in the start menu customization area? You can also use shortcut keys to open the search menu using "WinKey + f".