Thanks to .John. and Catweazle for the original links/info!
Additional forum links worth reading on the pro's and con's of disabling UAC:
http://thevistaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=9111
http://thevistaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=9958
Installing programs
Pop the program CD or DVD in the drive, and when the installation window appears I'd like you to close it down. We are going to install the program ourselves, rather than have Autoplay run it for us.
On the Start menu choose 'Computer' and then locate the drive where the program install is. Right-click on it and choose Explore. Have a look through the files on the CD or DVD to see if you can find the file which runs the program installation. It will usually be called Setup.exe, or it might alternatively be called Setup.msi
If you don't see a file with that name it won't be difficult to find which file actually runs the installation. On the disk there will be a file called autoplay.inf, and that's the one which contains the Autplay instruction for launching the program install. Right-click on autoplay.inf if you need to, and choose Open with... Notepad. You'll see the filename you need in the contents. If the autoplay.inf file contains an entry similar to:
[AutoRun]
OPEN=setup.exe
then the installation file will be easily found in the same directory on the disk. If the autoplay.inf file contains an entry similar to:
[AutoRun]
OPEN=\installer\setup.exe
then you'll know to look for the file you need in the 'Installer' folder on the disk.
Got that? It isn't very difficult, and won't take you very long to do. when you've identified the file you need and the folder it is stored on, navigate there and right-click on the file. Choose 'Run as Administrator'.
Doing so will begin the program installation, but there's one more thing at this stage I want you to be very careful of. If you see a screen with an entry related to running the program after the installation copletes DO NOT ENABLE IT! Remove the tick or check from the box, rather than simply agreeing to it. It is important that you don't immediately run the program!
Follow the prompts to complete the program installation.
Giving the Program its first run
Now that you've successfully installed the program by acting as 'Administrator' it's time to let the system know that the user account needs to run the thing with privileges.
Best practice, if you feel confident with the procedure, is to locate the program launch file in the program installation folder. You can easily find out what and where it is by right-clicking on the program shortcut from the Start menu, choosing Properties and then looking at what is recorded for 'Target'.
If that sounds like too much of a challenge, though, this next trick will also work if you use the program launch shortcut created when you installed the program. That could be a desktop icon, a QuickLaunch icon or the program's entry on the Start Menu. It has to be one created during the install, though, not one you've created yourself.
Whichever way you choose, right-click on the file or icon and again choose 'Run as Administrator'.
That's it! All done! From now on that program should run without presenting you with UAC prompts to deal with!
No guarantees here, though. Some programs will prove too badly behaved to play fair even when you use this technique. But most programs will behave, and you'll have avoided the bulk of the annoyance you've been hearing other people complain about!
Why does this stop UAC prompts?
As mentioned, this technique won't work for all programs. Should you find yourself with a handful of programs which simply refuse to play fair no matter what you do it is perhaps a good time to consider if you really need them or not. You might like to find some alternatives which are a bit better behaved.
But the bulk of your programs should play fair, and the reason why this technique works is rather straightforward.
When you installed the program as administrator the necessary registry entries were created to give that program adminstrator access. When you launched the program for the first time using Run as Administrator the necessary registry entries were created to give you user account the necessary privileges to run it as such.
Easy, isn't it? Enjoy, because now you've learn't some stuff which is apparently too difficult for many of those self-styled 'power users'. Be proud of yourself!
The one thing that I do recommend to disable, is the secure desktop. It makes the prompts a lot faster, and more seamless. You can do that in your Local Security Policy.
Start > gpedit > Elevate
This will bring up the Registry Editor, and move to this path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
It's pretty self explanatory, but for what I was talking about in regards to the Secure Desktop change:
PromptOnSecureDesktop = 0
Source: http://www.petri.co.il/disable_uac_in_windows_vista.htm
Open Control Panel.
Under User Account and Family settings click on the "Add or remove user account".
Click on one of the user accounts, for example you can use the Guest account.
Under the user account click on the "Go to the main User Account page" link.
Under "Make changes to your user account" click on the "Change security settings" link.
In the "Turn on User Account Control (UAC) to make your computer more secure" click to unselect the "Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer". Click on the Ok button.
You will be prompted to reboot your computer. Do so when ready.
In order to re-enable UAC just select the above checkbox and reboot.
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