He told us to stop laughing, but it was difficult.

[Loose rivets]

From the W7 Forum. A thread by one "lakeharry"



As another old guy, I know just how he feels.


Old Guy with Access permissions after Win7 Upgrade
I have ONE lil computer. No Guests, Administrators. Administrator, users or Everyone. I don't know about owners, special permissions, child stuff,inherited permissions, Who is System Anyway? I don't have 3 hard drives or 4 operating systems. I have ONE lil gimlet Puter that tells me I need to ask someone for permission to look at stuff and change it. I need to explain to my computer that I am the TOP DOG .. A/K/A The man in charge.

This YOU DON"T HAVE PERMISSION STUFF is making me ITCH. I want to run my computer and have it do what I want it to do. When I'm am denied permissions and I'm the ONLY one running this thing .... WHO, pray tell, do I look to for permission to access all files and folders on my 'puter??

Please explain to this computer that I can & will pitch it in the lake!!!

I'm an Albatross to anyone offering help.

Where is the "I'm The BOSS" button???

Stop laughing... this is a real problem to me.

[ericlday]

Yes, I can understand fully how he fells....its my computer let me do what I want to !!!!

[W2k]

Hit Windows key, type "uac", hit enter, pull the slider all the way down, click OK, reboot, bliss :ok:

[green granite]

Hit Windows key, type "uac", hit enter, pull the slider all the way down, click OK, reboot, bliss

Until you get hit by a virus. :(

[W2k]

UAC is not an anti-virus but I can see what you mean. You should have some form of anti-virus in operation regardless of whether you have enabled UAC. Disabling UAC will not interfere with the proper operation of installed anti-virus software.

However, disabling UAC will increase your vulnerability to security holes in applications running as administrator as well as "trojan horse" type programs. Be careful with what you download and keep your applications current with security updates and you should be fine.

It's the old security vs. convenience tradeoff. You can never have both, even if Apple would have their users believe otherwise. The wakeup from that one will be harsh I fear :=

[green granite]

W2k the UAC is the final safeguard to prevent a virus from installing itself ie you have to ok it's installation, remove that and they will just install themselves. Having AV and malware software, although essential is not a guarantee that you wont get hit, although it helps, running an account without Admin privileges so that nothing can be installed is the safest, running an Admin account without the UAC enabled is the most dangerous.

[W2k]

Green, the final safeguard against a virus is always the user. If properly maintained and protected, a Windows PC can be kept virus-free rather indefinitely.

Those who mainly get hit by viruses unfortunately tend to be the "go away, stupid error message" crowd who, when faced with an UAC warning, are likely to just click whatever button they think will make it go away the fastest. That's usually "Allow".

Furthermore, a great deal of viruses are distributed as "trojan horses"; the malware is embedded in a program which the user really wants to run, such as a game (extremely likely if your favourite on-line game retailer has a pirate ship for a logo). The (legitimate) installer will trigger UAC, which the user will allow, passing control over to the malware within. Anti-virus can sometimes protect against this; UAC cannot.

Running as a true limited user account is unfortunately still not an option for many users. The only place where you'll really see it is in locked-down office environments where all PC maintenance is handled by the IT dept.