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I am using Windows 8 Enterprise on my development machine. Most of the time, I need full administrator for debugging, changing system files, etc.

In Windows 7, setting UAC to "never notify" would disable any administrator prompts. In Windows 8 this is no longer the case. Even with UAC disabled I get prompted to grant programs elevated privileges.

Is there a way disable this behaviour?

Note: I am fully aware of the repercussions. I have antivirus, firewall, etc and am generally quite careful about what I download or install on my machine.

Chenmunka
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Arnold Zokas
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3 Answers3

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If you go to Administrative Tools → Local Security Policy, navigate to to Local Policies → Security Options, in the left side of the window, and scroll down to the button.

You should be able to disable User Account Control completely.

Vivian River
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Hornbech
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  • Thanks for the tip. Got it working by setting "User Account Control: Turn on Admin Approval Mode" to Disabled. – Arnold Zokas Aug 22 '12 at 11:28
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    Sadly this also disables the ability to launch any "Metro" App at all. – Zyumar Aug 23 '12 at 19:26
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    Its not sad, Its a Windows feature, makes my day to disable the app model. – Moab Aug 26 '12 at 14:04
  • Anyone know/confirm if this will work on the "Home" version of Windows 8? – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Aug 26 '12 at 17:29
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    @Arnold where did you find that setting? I could not locate that. – Charles Prakash Dasari Dec 05 '12 at 21:10
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    Setting "User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin approval mode." to disabled and rebooting did the trick for me. I no longer get applications complaining I should have started in admin mode or approval requests when copying files. – natli Feb 25 '13 at 16:22
  • Where did you find this? I have scoured through the control panel, yet couldn't find any link to 'Local security policy' or 'Administrative tools'. – paddotk Feb 18 '14 at 19:57
  • You should be able to find it here: Control Panel --> System and Security --> Administrative Tools --> Local Secutiry Policy. – Hornbech Mar 03 '14 at 13:36
  • @poepje You need Windows 8 Pro to find it. – Rudey Mar 04 '14 at 10:47
  • @RuudLenders That must be it then, thanks. Too bad though :p – paddotk Mar 05 '14 at 14:11
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    For those that don't have Windows 8 Pro, the same config is in the registry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System and then EnableLUA. Set the value to 0. – gustavohenke Nov 19 '14 at 15:16
  • Doesn't seem to work under 8.1 Pro. The policy is disabled (by default), but the prompts are still present. – Pyromonk Oct 17 '20 at 22:16
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Open a Command Prompt and enter "shutdown /r /o" this will take a moment or two but eventually it will open up a menu. Choose Troubleshooting -> Advanced Options -> Startup Settings.

The OS will then begin restarting. Once it's started it will list another set of options. Choose "Safe Mode" and continue.

Once the OS has fully restarted and your at the login screen, login to the account labeled "Administrator"

From here, open command prompt once again, running it as Administrator (right click -> Run as Admin) and enter this command "net user Administrator /active:yes"

Reboot the operating system once more and let it boot up normally. Now when you login, login and use the Administrator account and you should never be prompted for UAC.

davidcondrey
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For windows 10, you will need to set the policy "User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode" to security setting "Elevate without prompting".

To set this property : Go to Administrative Tools → Local Security Policy, navigate to to Local Policies → Security Options;

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Volatile_volvo
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