UAC; good or redundant?

[Arclight]

Since I moved to Win7 beta, I've been annoyed by UAC. i.e. it keeps prompting for permission for programs that I've allowed to execute in the past. Which leeds me to the first question:

1. Is it possible to configure UAC to not nag about specific programs? i.e. create a "safe" list of sorts.

On XP, I used Comodo for my firewall and pro-active defense. It functiones similar to UAC in that it asks permission to execute programs, actually it asks to do just about anything. The difference is that with Comodo I could tell it what kind of policy to apply to an action. For example, when executing a program for the first time, you can tell it that that application is "trusted" and it won't bother you again;

2. Does UAC offer anything extra when it comes to security, compared to something like Comodo?



Starting to think it would be better to disable UAC entirely and install Comodo.

[AVGWarhawk]

Many people hate it and others praise the UAC. Personally it does not bother me. It is an extra piece of security and will flash up when attempting to install something...this you already know. However, it will also catch things that you did not ask the computer to install and this is were the purpose of the UAC comes into play. For most, I think it is just an annoyance because most computer users are not in the know and just click OK on anything that pops up...like my dad Others in the know see it pop up for something wanting to install and say WTH I did not ask for that...possible compromise caught by the UAC. I can say it did it for me once and it was a 'come on' anti-virus program...you know the one that does a fake scan in about 2 seconds and says your hard drive is loaded with this and that plus porn. It flashes and goes crazy....here load this up for help....blah blah blah....knowing it was complete BS the UAC popped up and stopped the download, asked if I prompted to do this. Of course not and I cancelled out all of that crap. So, yes it does serve it's purpose. I'm sure my dad would have clicked yes to all But honestly, most times I mess with my computer I might have to click the prompt for the UAC perhaps 2 times. Those two times are for say cleaning up internet clutter or defrag. You see, I do not load up programs all day so it does not become headache.

I do not believe there is a safe list and I know you can turn it off in Vista. I'm thinking 7 has a way to turn it off also.

[Arclight]

It's thanks to people like your dad that I have something to do.

UAC is just anoying as hell to me; it doesn't pop up for everything but it does for Rivatuner; I use that for controlling the fan on my videocard (custom-profile), so it starts with windows. Every time the system starts I have to click "accept" 2x. Since I'm messing quite a bit with the beta in order to test it, put it through it's paces, I do quite a few reboots. It's really getting on my nerves...

From what I gather from your explanation, Comodo offers the same protection, but better and customizable.

Think I'll switch it off for now and give Comodo a whirl, but please, if anyone has anything to add about UAC I'd be happy to hear it.

[AVGWarhawk]

Well yeah, in your situation that would be annoying but as it would have it, you do not need to be baby sitted by UAC. In short, you know what you are doing. UAC was created for those that do not know what they are doing and there are more of those than folks like you. So, we take one for the team as they say. Turn it off.

[longam]

There is alternatives to shutting it off.

http://www.longam.net/downbelow/uac_nonag.htm