How to Problems, behavior and solutions when disabling Windows UAC

Overview

　The UAC setting is a security-conscious feature that allows the OS to ask the user for confirmation before executing a highly privileged process that requires Windows administrator privileges. However, if this confirmation occurs frequently, the use of Windows can be stressful. Therefore, it may be necessary to change the UAC setting. Here are some of the problems and troubles that can occur when the security level is lowered or disabled.

Reference: The Surprising Role of User Account Control (UAC)（Microsoft Japanese blog）

Known issue

By “issue” here, we mean that the application cannot operate normally.

The following issues have been experienced.

On the User Account Control settings screen, UAC settings are disabled, but in the registry, some of them are enabled. This is a case where UAC is partially enabled at times such as Windows Update, even though it should have been disabled using commands, etc. In such cases, the User Account Control settings screen will display that it is disabled. In this case, the following problems occur. In this case, it is a symptom where checking the screen with the user is meaningless during a problem, and it is necessary to check the registry.

In my case, I noticed that the default startup of the command prompt was no longer using administrator privileges.

• Even if I started the application, the UAC confirmation dialog did not appear and the application could not be started, but the application also did not display an error. It looked like the application was not starting for an unknown reason. As for the behavior of the application, it was only in a state of being suspended because it was supposed to display the UAC confirmation screen. (For example, Nahimic,SAMSUNG Magician, etc.)
• The app is running, but it is not possible to save files created by the app. This is probably because the app is running with weak permissions, and it does not have access permissions for some folders, so even if you try to save a file, it will not be created. (This happens with Microsoft's new photo app, for example. It does not happen with Photo Legacy.)
• The default startup of command prompts, etc., is not in administrator mode, but in user mode. If you do not select to execute bat files in administrator mode, some of them will be rejected due to insufficient permissions.
• It is not possible to execute commands such as changing the volume name of a disk or folders that require administrator permissions.

Known behavior

This is a separate issue from the previous problem, and can occur even when UAC is correctly configured.

• When UAC is disabled, and you are using a Windows passcode, such as Google Password Manager, the input window that asks for the passcode will be hidden in the background. To avoid this, enable UAC and the passcode input window will appear in the foreground. As long as it is enabled, the lowest setting is fine.

How to check UAC settings

　Checking the registry for UAC settings using the command is discussed on a separate page below. If you are having trouble with an application not working as expected, or if you have asked around but have not found a solution, or if you do not want to initialize Windows, checking the registry may solve the problem.

How to Check and set Windows UAC settings with commands

I will add any new symptom findings.