Is it possible to disable UAC on Windows 8

and still be able to use apps? Disabling it through the control panel doesn't actually work, and disabling it through the registry disables every app.

If it's not possible to disable it completely is it possible to make it stop asking me "are you sure?!" Whenever I do anything at all, from opening programs to extracting rar files. I can't even extract multiple rars at the same time without disabling UAC through the registry. It just gives me an error.

Also it seems like I'm not always being recognized as the admin even though I'm on the admin account.

Yes, of course.

Search -> UAC

Select "Never Notify"

It takes about 4 seconds to do start to finish. Assuming you are a local or domain admin of course. If you aren't recognized than you aren't on a admin account or your permissions are jacked. Fix it or get an admin to do it for you.

It's on never notify. But it still always notifies me. The only way I've been able to get it to stop is by disabling it in the registry. But doing so causes all apps to tell me "Enable UAC"

Every app? Or just all the metro apps?

From http://www.alltechtalk.net/forum/thread-bypass-windows-8-uac-while-keeping-metro

(It seems to blow up some computers and work fine on others. I would create a wim to restore from or make sure you can roll back. Caveat emptor.)

If you're reading this, chances are that you've tried disabling UAC via the EnableLUA registry hack. Although this method works, Microsoft has placed a kill switch on Metro apps. In other words, you won't be able to use Metro apps if you disable UAC with the registry hack or with Account Policy clp. Microsoft gives you 2 options; deal with UAC and enjoy the Metro UI or disable UAC and lose Windows 8's signature feature.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to semi-disable UAC while maintaining access to Metro apps. This hack should prevent ~90% of all UAC pop-ups and grant you access to your entire C drive.

Lets get started:

1. Open an explorer window and type in the following path: Control Panel\User Accounts and Family Safety\User Accounts

2. Click on "Change User Account Control settings"

3. Set it to "Never Notify"

4. Press OK (don't restart if prompted to do so)

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5. Press the Windows + R key at the same time

6. Type: regedit

7. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

8. Change "EnableLUA" from 1 to 0 (this step will temporarily disable metro apps)

9. Restart your computer

10. Download these registry files

11. Run the InstallTakeOwnership.reg file

12. Go to My computer

13. Navigate to C:\

14. Select all folders> right click> take ownership

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15. When the aforementioned has been completed, right click on the "Windows" folder and select "properties"

16. Security> Advance> Enable Inheritance

17. Find where it says Owner (second line, below the "Name" section)> Change> Advanced> Find Now> Select your account> Press OK> Press OK again (in the "Share User or Group" Windows).

18. On the "Advance Security Setting for Windows" pane, click Add> Select a Principal> Advanced> Find> Select your Username> OK> OK> Full control> Show Advance Permission> Applies to: This Folder, subfolders and files> OK> Apply> Yes> and Continue (select continue all the times it pops up)

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19. Press the Windows + R key at the same time

20. Type: regedit

21. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

22. Change "EnableLUA" from 0 to 1 (this step will enable metro apps)

23. Restart your computer

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24. Again navigate to C:\

25. Again select all folders> right click> take ownership

26. Finally, run RemoveTakeOwnership.reg file (you may skip this step if you wish)

You are done, enjoy!

Meh, you could also try the recovery refresh option and try and change the UAC normally again.

Sounds like you have other issues with your OS. UAC has never been a burden for me in Windows 8. It seems to work exactly the same as Windows 7 did.

I can get it to work the same way as 7, but doing so makes me unable to use metro at all, and I use it for a couple of things on a daily basis. Doing the same thing to disable UAC on my Windows 7 PC does nothing on my Windows 8 PC.(Setting it to never notify.) Example of what I mean.

I'm admin, and have it set to never notify but still constantly get those messages of "Access Denied - You'll need to provide permission"

@krullban: That's not UAC. That is based on permissions of your file system. It's because you aren't launching applications as an administrator.

Turning UAC off just allows apps to automatically get permission when they request elevated permissions. If the app didn't ask for any then it will work as a standard account unless you run it with elevated permissions (right-click and run as admin).

I would double check your folder permissions. Usually that only pops up when the folder has extra security flags. I'd try to help you out with now, however, my Windows 8 laptop is at work.

But if I turn off UAC through the registry I don't get that anymore. On my Windows 7 PC it did it too, but setting UAC to never notify fixed it.

@krullban said:

@tycobb said:

Sounds like you have other issues with your OS. UAC has never been a burden for me in Windows 8. It seems to work exactly the same as Windows 7 did.

I can get it to work the same way as 7, but doing so makes me unable to use metro at all, and I use it for a couple of things on a daily basis. Doing the same thing to disable UAC on my Windows 7 PC does nothing on my Windows 8 PC.(Setting it to never notify.) Example of what I mean.

I'm admin, and have it set to never notify but still constantly get those messages of "Access Denied - You'll need to provide permission"

...you don't know what a UAC prompt looks like do you? You have permission issues.

@shadowskill11 said:

@krullban said:

@tycobb said:

Sounds like you have other issues with your OS. UAC has never been a burden for me in Windows 8. It seems to work exactly the same as Windows 7 did.

I can get it to work the same way as 7, but doing so makes me unable to use metro at all, and I use it for a couple of things on a daily basis. Doing the same thing to disable UAC on my Windows 7 PC does nothing on my Windows 8 PC.(Setting it to never notify.) Example of what I mean.

I'm admin, and have it set to never notify but still constantly get those messages of "Access Denied - You'll need to provide permission"

...you don't know what a UAC prompt looks like do you? You have permission issues.

Those go away when I disable UAC in the registry. Also I cannot extract multiple rar files at the same time without disabling UAC in the registry.

You have other problems.I suspect from altering the registry without sufficient knowledge of what you are doing. Do a refresh and be done with it, do a system restore to before you had issues, or restore from one of your recent backups.

I think all that needs to be done is adding the user to the permissions list by going to the Security - Advanced - Permissions tab under the folder's properties. In some situations, I think you have to take ownership (there's a tab for that as well). I'm not sure of a global full control permissions edit, but that probably wouldn't be a good idea anyway when considering stuff like system files.

I always had issues. That's why I did the registry thing to disable UAC in the first place, and doing so works and fixes my issue, just it makes me unable to open anything in Metro. Turning it back on through the registry just made it go back to the problem I was always having.

Well good luck! Looking at your responses I don't know what you are looking for you dismissed everyone's advice and seem dead set on staying with a jacked OS setup.