Vista Tweak 7: Disabling the secured (dimmed) desktop during UAC consent prompt
Normally when Vista’s User Account Control (UAC) asks the user for a consent when launching an application that is deemed insecure, the desktop will fade dark while the consent window is shown. While I recommend to always leave UAC turned on, this desktop dimming can get annoying very quickly.
Fortunately this behavior can be disabled so that the consent window is still shown without dimming the whole desktop. To turn this off follow these steps …
- Go to Start Menu/Control Panel and there double click the Administrative Tools icon.
- Several new icons will appear. Double click the Local Security Policy icon and a new window with the same name opens.
- In the left side of the window is an entry named Local Policies, double click it and it will unfold. Some new items will appear under it, click the item named Security Options.
- In the right side of the window is now a long list of Policy options, scroll down until you find the one named User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation. Double click this item and a properties window will open.
- In the properties window on the Local Security Setting tab are two options, Enabled and Disabled, click the Disabled option, then click Ok and you are done.
3 Responses to “Vista Tweak 7: Disabling the secured (dimmed) desktop during UAC consent prompt”
By Kevin Borg
on Jul 12, 2007 | Reply
hi,
im running vista home premium and when i d click the adminstrative tools icon in the control panel
i get no options that are called “LOCAL SECURITY POLICY” which vista version has this options
Even when i do a search for the LSP nothing shows up n the whole computer
can u help me
cheers kevin
By vtweaker
on Jul 12, 2007 | Reply
Hi Kevin, this was all tested on Vista Ultimate. Does anything come up if you type Local in the startmenu? I do remember that this could also be done with a change in the Registry but I can’t find the site where it was explained.
By Usambara
on Jul 28, 2007 | Reply
For home etc, LSP registry setting are here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
For this change PromptOnSecureDesktop to 0.
And ta for tweak