Everyday Nerd

Vista’s UAC can be annoying, and although I’ve shared with you how to make it less annoying, Norton (Symantec) has come up with a replacement UAC that is makes it much better!

With one BIG feature - “Don’t ask me again”  I think I’m in love!  There are several programs I run during the course of the day that the UAC prompts me.  I run them every day I don’t need to be prompted to open the command prompt, or and administrative mmc window!  Also, it’s fast!  Much faster than the default Windows UAC.

Thanks to Norton UAC Replacement, I’m running UAC-less on the daily apps that I use, but still have the protection from of UAC for everything else!  Although it is in Beta, Norton UAC Replacement is solid, and I have had no issues so far - I’ve been running it for about two weeks now.

Link: http://www.nortonlabs.com/inthelab/uac.php

Do you have Windows Vista Home Basic, or Business?  Wish you had the Vista Media Center?  Well, now you can have the next best thing!  Microsoft Origami although designed for the UMPC platform, has come to Vista, showing a very nice interface for your media!  While it doesn’t measure up to Media Center, Origami still has a easy to navigate, and very functional media "center."

Download Origami Experience 2.0 here

UAC is a great security enhancement to Windows Vista (over XP) but you know, it can be rather annoying too!  As an administrator, I use certain programs that require me to “Run as Administrator” - such as command prompt, computer management, and others.  Thanks to the HowToGeek, here are 4 ways to make your vista experience better…

**Note:  Disabling and/or modifying UAC may put your system at risk.  To be the most secure, leave UAC at default settings.

 1:  Disable UAC completely via Command line:

Disable UAC:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Enable UAC:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

2:  Disable for Administrators Only

To configure this setting on Windows Vista Business and Ultimate, you can use the Local Security Policy configuration. Just type in secpol.msc into the Start menu search box and hit enter.

Now browse down to Local Policies \ Security Options

Find the following in the list: “User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode” and double-click on it.

 Change the setting to “Elevate without prompting”. You should be all done.

<< Download Registry Tweak >>

3:  Disable Screen Dimming

UAC itself is a good thing - but on some video cards, it seems to take forever for the screen dimming to pop, and prompt you.  So, this is my personal favorite - keep the security, but get rid of the dimming:

<< Download Registry Tweak >>

4:  Create Specific shortcuts that don’t prompt for UAC

This is quite a nice little trick.  You want UAC, you want Desktop Dimming, but you just have one program that  you run all the time that you don’t want to prompt you for UAC.  This is for you…

Read the rest of this entry »

Source [LifeHacker]

Windows only: Freeware application Elevator disables the User Account Control prompt for specific applications through your right-click menu, getting rid of the UAC annoyance for apps that require administrator privileges every time they run.  Elevator is freeware, Windows Vista only; installation requires a little finesse, so be sure to read the instructions.

Link:  Elevator

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) is an update to Windows Vista that addresses feedback from our customers. In addition to previously released updates, SP1 will contain changes focused on addressing specific reliability, performance, and compatibility issues; supporting new types of hardware; and adding support for several emerging standards. SP1 also will continue to make it easier for IT administrators to deploy and manage Windows Vista. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Five Language Standalone version can be installed on systems with any of the following language versions: English (US), French, German, Japanese, or Spanish (Traditional).

Get the x86 standalone package @ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b0c7136d-5ebb-413b-89c9-cb3d06d12674&amp;DisplayLang=en.

Get the x64 standalone package @ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=874a414b-32b2-41cc-bd8b-d71eda5ec07c&amp;DisplayLang=en.

Enjoy!!!