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        Disabling Windows Vista UAC with Group Policy

Section(s): Admin
Published on Jul 31, 2008.
Last Modified on Jul 03, 2008.
Last Modified by Chris Sanders.
Rated 3 out of 5 based on 2 votes.

User Account Control is one of the premier security features for Windows Vista client systems. There may be some cases where you need it disabled. You can do this with group policy as outlined here.

User Account Control (UAC) in Windows Vista is one of the most prominent security features in the operating system. It is recommended by Microsoft that this be left on for your users but in some cases this might not be appropriate for some users. For instance, this will often be turned off on workstations belonging to IT staff (or administrator who are fed up with the constant warnings). If you do need to disable this for a particular group of computers you can do this with Group Policy.

The UAC setting can be found under Computer Configuration\Policies\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options. If you set this to disabled and apply it to an OU containing the computers you do not want to use UAC for then this will effectively accomplish your goal.

About Chris Sanders

Chris Sanders is a network consultant for KeeFORCE, one of the most popular network consulting firms in western Kentucky. Chris is the author of the book Practical Packet Analysis as well as several technical articles. His personal website at www.chrissanders.org contains a great deal of information, articles, and guides related to network administration, network security, packet analysis, and general information technology.