Windows 2008 user account control group policy

If you feel a little guilty when you disable the UAC — join the club. Both were unpopular at first, but eventually, the majority see the advantages of safety over ease-of-use. Thirdly, as an unexpected bonus the delay, or pause, that UAC introduces makes me think more about the action I am about take. Our first task is simply to launch the Local Security Policy snap-in. You have the choice of two methods:. Note: you must include the.

See more on Secpol. Firstly, right-click the Taskbar, select Properties. Stage 2 Configure the Security Options. Unlike the Elevate without prompting technique, this method turns off UAC and compromises security. My advice is leave this setting as Enabled, and focus on the above setting: User Account Control: Behaviour elevation prompt for administrator.

When you launch this tool it analyzes a users effective NTFS permissions for a specific file or folder, takes into account network share access, then displays the results in a nifty desktop dashboard! Think of all the frustration that this free utility saves when you are troubleshooting authorization problems for users access to a resource.

As you can see in the above screenshot, there are more server policies for the UAC. However, they are less important and control specialist situations, for example, installing applications. User Account Control: Detect application installations and prompt for elevation.

For home users, the default is Enabled, meaning home users get a UAC dialog box. However, for domain users this UAC is disabled so that installation can proceed silently. The permissions are set on these directories to ensure that the executable is not user-modifiable which would otherwise allow elevation of privilege.

Group Policy settings ultimately work by changing the registry settings. It follows that you could edit the registry directly rather than configure through the Local Policy GUI. When you are learning and if there is a GUI, that is always the best place to start. However, there may be occasions when you need to go to the registry, for example to create a.

Reg file. Windows Server and Windows 7's UAC features are good, but I don't feel they are necessary on server platforms for a general-purpose system. Read my TechRepublic tip on how to configure a GPO to be applied only to members of a security group. A good practice would be to apply the GPOs to a security group that contains server computer accounts, and possibly one for select workstation accounts.

This value requires a reboot to take effect via Group Policy. I know some server admins are fans or UAC, while others prefer to disable the feature. Do you disable UAC?

Share your perspective on this feature. Rick has years of IT experience and focuses on virtualization, Windows-based server administration, and system hardware. Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support. Feedback will be sent to Microsoft: By pressing the submit button, your feedback will be used to improve Microsoft products and services. Privacy policy. The table lists the default for each of the policy settings, and the following sections explain the different UAC policy settings and provide recommendations.

For more information about each of the Group Policy settings, see the Group Policy description. For information about the registry key settings, see Registry key settings. The User Account Control: Allow UIAccess applications to prompt for elevation without using the secure desktop policy setting controls whether User Interface Accessibility UIAccess or UIA programs can automatically disable the secure desktop for elevation prompts used by a standard user.

UIA programs are designed to interact with Windows and application programs on behalf of a user. This policy setting allows UIA programs to bypass the secure desktop to increase usability in certain cases; however, allowing elevation requests to appear on the interactive desktop instead of the secure desktop can increase your security risk. UIA programs must be digitally signed because they must be able to respond to prompts regarding security issues, such as the UAC elevation prompt.

By default, UIA programs are run only from the following protected paths:. The User Account Control: Only elevate UIAccess applications that are installed in secure locations policy setting disables the requirement to be run from a protected path.

While this policy setting applies to any UIA program, it is primarily used in certain remote assistance scenarios, including the Windows Remote Assistance program in Windows 7. If a user requests remote assistance from an administrator and the remote assistance session is established, any elevation prompts appear on the interactive user's secure desktop and the administrator's remote session is paused.

To avoid pausing the remote administrator's session during elevation requests, the user may select the Allow IT Expert to respond to User Account Control prompts check box when setting up the remote assistance session. However, selecting this check box requires that the interactive user respond to an elevation prompt on the secure desktop.

If the interactive user is a standard user, the user does not have the required credentials to allow elevation. If you enable this policy setting, requests for elevation are automatically sent to the interactive desktop not the secure desktop and also appear on the remote administrator's view of the desktop during a remote assistance session.

This allows the remote administrator to provide the appropriate credentials for elevation. If you plan to enable this policy setting, you should also review the effect of the User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for standard users policy setting. If it is configured as Automatically deny elevation requests , elevation requests are not presented to the user. The User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode policy setting controls the behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators.