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Thirteenth Step
Mar 3, 2004

Thermopyle posted:

Prepare for a shitstorm from your fellow SHSC'ers to the effect that you shouldn't turn off UAC.

(I will agree with these shitstormers)

I always turn UAC off, why does everone frown upon this here? What are the reasons people are for UAC?

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big mean giraffe
Dec 13, 2003

Eat Shit and Die

Lipstick Apathy

Death of Rats posted:

Going back to XP (or worse, Vista)
Vista's pretty great and a lot like 7 and you are a dumbshit.

Thirteenth Step posted:

I always turn UAC off, why does everone frown upon this here? What are the reasons people are for UAC?

If you don't know why you should leave it on, you're the kind of person who needs to leave it on.

HalloKitty
Sep 30, 2005

Adjust the bass and let the Alpine blast

big mean giraffe posted:

If you don't know why you should leave it on, you're the kind of person who needs to leave it on.

I wholeheartedly agree with this

Variable 5
Apr 17, 2007
We do these things not because they are easy, but because we thought they would be easy.
Grimey Drawer
The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware / Software Crap > Windows Vista/7: Everything You "Know" is Wrong

Leave it on. Occasionally, Microsoft does have valid reasons behind what they implement.

See also: Why did 7 use up all my rams?

AlexDeGruven
Jun 29, 2007

Watch me pull my dongle out of this tiny box


Mido posted:

Pretty stupid question here that I should know since I was running the old thread but never had pop into my head till now.

Will 7 64bit let you install 32bit drivers through some sort of amazing happenstance? I have some great hardware that only works in 32bit.

edit: nope it's still dumb and so am I for not skimming the OP very well before posting.

It's really not a good idea to try to run a 32-bit driver (even if it would let you) on a 64-bit OS. 32-bit software can only see memory addresses up to 4GB, and anything above that level will crash it. Since driver code runs in kernel space, and not user space, you can't use WOW64 to run the 32-bit driver, either.

My Precious Violin Case
Aug 1, 2004

Is it gay that I want to see it?

big mean giraffe posted:

If you don't know why you should leave it on, you're the kind of person who needs to leave it on.

This is the only reason I leave it on, but I don't think I've ever said "No" to one of the prompts. Does it do something behind the scenes which is beneficial? Or is it the kind of thing that you put up with for months just so that it saves your rear end that one time?

m2pt5
May 18, 2005

THAT GOD DAMN MOSQUITO JUST KEEPS COMING BACK

My Precious Violin Case posted:

Or is it the kind of thing that you put up with for months just so that it saves your rear end that one time?

I see it as this, but I could be wrong. I have UAC on minimal, so I get the prompts but it doesn't lock down the whole system while waiting for me to answer.

Unexpected EOF
Dec 8, 2008

I'm a Bro-ny!

My Precious Violin Case posted:

This is the only reason I leave it on, but I don't think I've ever said "No" to one of the prompts. Does it do something behind the scenes which is beneficial? Or is it the kind of thing that you put up with for months just so that it saves your rear end that one time?

UAC contains a huge amount of security that runs in the background, protecting against things like malware and, yes, the whole conficker debacle without asking you a thing. Not only that but it provides a virtualized filesystem and registry so programs won't take fresh, fragrant shits all over them at the drop of a hat.

Really, turning it off is the most stupid thing you can do if you aren't doing it for compatibility reasons.

brc64
Mar 21, 2008

I wear my sunglasses at night.

My Precious Violin Case posted:

This is the only reason I leave it on, but I don't think I've ever said "No" to one of the prompts. Does it do something behind the scenes which is beneficial? Or is it the kind of thing that you put up with for months just so that it saves your rear end that one time?
I don't know if it's any different with 7, but with Vista UAC enabled gives you protected mode in Internet Explorer as well as file and registry virtualization for everything else. Disabling UAC disables these features.

There was also some big security exploit a while back that was completely stopped dead by UAC (I think it didn't even cause a prompt), but left those with it disabled vulnerable.

And really, after the first couple of weeks of setting up your poo poo, you should rarely ever see another UAC prompt (unless you use software written by lovely developers).

Stanley Pain
Jun 16, 2001

by Fluffdaddy
Not only do I leave UAC on in Win 7, but I crank it to 11 :smug:

xamphear
Apr 9, 2002

SILK FOR CALDÉ!

Factor Mystic posted:

It is and forever will be a mystery to me why people naturally reach that conclusion for Windows 7, but on Windows Vista, concluded it made their computer slower. Truly a puzzle for the ages.
I know it's cool to poo poo on people who poo poo on Vista because it's the opposite of what used to be cool so that must be cool now, right guys?

...but Microsoft has actually done a lot of performance improving between Vista and 7 that could explain why a lot of people get much improved performance with 7.

If you're interested in it not being a mystery to you forever and ever you might want to read this blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/default.aspx with particular emphasis on this post: http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/04/25/engineering-windows-7-for-graphics-performance.aspx

Xenomorph
Jun 13, 2001
Anyone who hates UAC prompts should use a Mac for a while. Not only do you get the same type of prompts for many of the same reasons, you can't just click "Continue", you have to enter your password each and every time, over and over.

On Windows, leave it enabled. Really. It's there for so many reasons.

"Never having to worry about some random program destroying my installation of Windows without warning" and "never having to worry about some random malware installing itself without warning" are some of the bigger reasons I love UAC.

Kameleon
Jan 11, 2006

gay for johnny deLOL BAT COUNTRY

I could put up with UAC a lot better if it would always steal focus. Sometimes I'm wondering why something isn't installing, then I check the taskbar and there's a UAC prompt behind the scenes. Is this standard behaviour? I've never really used Vista before so UAC is new to me but I'm sure I'll be glad for it when I see it's blocked something nasty.

hobb
Sep 20, 2001
I was on the fence about UAC's usefulness compared to my brash confidence of 'i don't get viruses :smug:', Then virut raped my XP install like a thai hooker, and I have to say I welcome my new install of win 7's barrage of UAC prompts..

Factor Mystic
Mar 20, 2006

Baby's First Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

xamphear posted:

I know it's cool to poo poo on people who poo poo on Vista because it's the opposite of what used to be cool so that must be cool now, right guys?

...but Microsoft has actually done a lot of performance improving between Vista and 7 that could explain why a lot of people get much improved performance with 7.

If you're interested in it not being a mystery to you forever and ever you might want to read this blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/default.aspx with particular emphasis on this post: http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/04/25/engineering-windows-7-for-graphics-performance.aspx

Yeah I know there have been performance changes, but the truth remains that the answer to my mystery puzzle is people hated Vista irrationally and now love Windows 7 for the same reasons. I'm just bitter.

redeyes
Sep 14, 2002

by Fluffdaddy

Kameleon posted:

I could put up with UAC a lot better if it would always steal focus. Sometimes I'm wondering why something isn't installing, then I check the taskbar and there's a UAC prompt behind the scenes. Is this standard behaviour? I've never really used Vista before so UAC is new to me but I'm sure I'll be glad for it when I see it's blocked something nasty.

Yeah this poo poo sucks. Also, I keep finding programs that don't install completely correctly with UAC on. The other problem is accessing HDs from other computers. UAC simply wont allow you to do anything many times. I have to reboot with UAC off to get into something like x:\users\username\documents.. or I can reset the ownership permissions on the entire disk which isn't really that good of a choice.

Either way, my life is easier with it turned off.

redeyes
Sep 14, 2002

by Fluffdaddy

Factor Mystic posted:

Yeah I know there have been performance changes, but the truth remains that the answer to my mystery puzzle is people hated Vista irrationally and now love Windows 7 for the same reasons. I'm just bitter.

The times I have seen people hating on Vista, I checked their computer and they had Gooogle Desktop, Norton 360, Spybot, PC Cillin, UAC, Windows Defender, and probably some other poo poo I am forgetting. That combined with Vista trying to index everything right out of the box means waiting 10-15 minutes for a computer with that poo poo to boot up. I can totally understand why they blame vista.

c0burn
Sep 2, 2003

The KKKing

redeyes posted:

Yeah this poo poo sucks. Also, I keep finding programs that don't install completely correctly with UAC on. The other problem is accessing HDs from other computers. UAC simply wont allow you to do anything many times. I have to reboot with UAC off to get into something like x:\users\username\documents.. or I can reset the ownership permissions on the entire disk which isn't really that good of a choice.

Either way, my life is easier with it turned off.

I fail to see what UAC has to do with NTFS permissions. Also you should be running as Admin or compatability mode instead of turning the whole thing off. This post is just "I don't understand Windows".

evobatman
Jul 30, 2006

it means nothing, but says everything!
Pillbug
More W7 awesomeness: I installed W7 7100 on a HP business notebook (NC8230) at work, moved the harddrive over to a Dell Precision M70, and then to a HP TC4200 tablet. Each time, W7 booted right up, installed new drivers, rebooted, Windows Update to get the missing drivers, and you're good to go! The only system I have had difficulties with is an ancient tablet with some esoteric 1GHz processor and 256MB RAM, which bluescreens at boot.

Also, drag and drop video to your MP3 player, and W7 automatically converts it to the right format for the player.

It seems like MS have hired a group of guys to just sit all day and think "What would be loving AWESOME to have in an operating system?", and then another group of guys just program it in.

redeyes
Sep 14, 2002

by Fluffdaddy

c0burn posted:

I fail to see what UAC has to do with NTFS permissions. Also you should be running as Admin or compatability mode instead of turning the whole thing off. This post is just "I don't understand Windows".

Yeah sure buddy. My points stand.

Stanley Pain
Jun 16, 2001

by Fluffdaddy

redeyes posted:

Yeah sure buddy. My points stand.

No, not really. I've only run into maybe 2 or 3 programs that haven't installed properly, and run-as admin/compat mode pretty much fixed them up. How often are you installing programs after an initial re-install?

What do you mean by accessing HDs from other computers? Are you mounting drives from other systems that often. You might benefit from actually setting up the Administrator account on Vista/7.

I still fail to see how an occasional annoyance is a good reason to forego security.

redeyes
Sep 14, 2002

by Fluffdaddy

Stanley Pain posted:

No, not really. I've only run into maybe 2 or 3 programs that haven't installed properly, and run-as admin/compat mode pretty much fixed them up. How often are you installing programs after an initial re-install?

What do you mean by accessing HDs from other computers? Are you mounting drives from other systems that often. You might benefit from actually setting up the Administrator account on Vista/7.

I still fail to see how an occasional annoyance is a good reason to forego security.

Yes mounting drives from other systems. Turning off UAC sets your account as Admin from what I can tell. That works fine for me. I don't need any security as I do this for a living. Also I install programs every day, mostly for trial, sometimes to figure something out for someone, or just my own curiosity.

Stanley Pain
Jun 16, 2001

by Fluffdaddy

redeyes posted:

Yes mounting drives from other systems. Turning off UAC sets your account as Admin from what I can tell. That works fine for me. I don't need any security as I do this for a living. Also I install programs every day, mostly for trial, sometimes to figure something out for someone, or just my own curiosity.


I can understand disabling on a machine that you're doing work on, specifically stuff like that. But on a surf everyday box, I'd never disable it :\

redeyes
Sep 14, 2002

by Fluffdaddy

Stanley Pain posted:

I can understand disabling on a machine that you're doing work on, specifically stuff like that. But on a surf everyday box, I'd never disable it :\

Of course not but people in this thread forget who they are talking to. Most people on SHSC do computers for a living, but for the rest of course, leave UAC on.

brc64
Mar 21, 2008

I wear my sunglasses at night.

redeyes posted:

I don't need any security as I do this for a living. Also I install programs every day, mostly for trial, sometimes to figure something out for someone, or just my own curiosity.
Yeah, I hear you on this. I have sex for a living and I don't need to use condoms because I know what I'm doing. Other people are just jealous of guys like us.

Exioce
Sep 7, 2003

by VideoGames
My old old wireless USB adapter (Win XP and 2K drivers only) naturally doesn't work with Windows 7. I messed about with Compatibility mode too, but no joy. I just need to ensure a new one works with Vista and i should be good, right? Additionally, any recommendations on adapters? I don't mind paying a little more for something known to be a quality product.

Dogen
May 5, 2002

Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

redeyes posted:

Yes mounting drives from other systems. Turning off UAC sets your account as Admin from what I can tell. That works fine for me. I don't need any security as I do this for a living. Also I install programs every day, mostly for trial, sometimes to figure something out for someone, or just my own curiosity.

I haven't had any trouble mounting a SMB share, is this what you're talking about? I don't get a UAC prompt or anything.

redeyes
Sep 14, 2002

by Fluffdaddy

Dogen posted:

I haven't had any trouble mounting a SMB share, is this what you're talking about? I don't get a UAC prompt or anything.

Nah I mean hot plugging SATA drives from other systems.

EVGA Longoria
Dec 25, 2005

Let's go exploring!

xamphear posted:

I know it's cool to poo poo on people who poo poo on Vista because it's the opposite of what used to be cool so that must be cool now, right guys?

...but Microsoft has actually done a lot of performance improving between Vista and 7 that could explain why a lot of people get much improved performance with 7.

If you're interested in it not being a mystery to you forever and ever you might want to read this blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/default.aspx with particular emphasis on this post: http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/04/25/engineering-windows-7-for-graphics-performance.aspx

Just to clarify, I believe the original post was about Aero. The entire internet flipped their poo poo about how much Aero slowed down their systems and you should disable it to improve performance and get back your megahurtz. Unless you're running on a card that reported as hardware accelerated but was really software accelerated, this really would not be the case at all. Yet people are using 7 and going "AERO IS SO FAST!"

Microsoft made a ton of improvements to Windows 7 over Vista, and a large portion of them were performance improvements. But people have an irrational prejudice against Vista and will disregard facts just to feel better.

Mensur
Aug 1, 2007

EnGAYge!
.

Mensur fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Jun 14, 2013

Tripred
Nov 25, 2004

Deals in quack, not opinion.
Had my first and only issue with 7 RC last night, my wife was complaining that the Media Center wasn't recording anything and we found that the guide was empty, no matter how many times we told it to update the guide. Since it had no idea what was on any of the channels it wouldn't record anything.

After over an hour of loving with media center settings, finally tried running mcupdate.exe manually and it updated the guide no problem. Apparently MC has lost the ability to launch it automatically.

It could be an inherent bug in MC, but most likely it's due to either the PlayOn or Netflix Vista MC plugins I had installed. (they were uninstalled long before learning that the guide was not updating though..)

Anyone else having problems updating their guide through the MC gui?

Unexpected EOF
Dec 8, 2008

I'm a Bro-ny!

Mensur posted:

Until I can see processes from all users in task manager with an annoying UAC prompt it's staying off. All that malware protection is great and everything if you're the kind of person who gets malware but I never do. I use FF with adblock plus and a host file. I don't use UAC and I don't even run virus scan at home. A few times a year I'll boot off my thumb drive and scan with avast and malwarebytes just in case but no infected files are ever found. If I need to scan something I'm unsure about I just virustotal.com

The long and the short of it is that my PCs have been infection free since I started using vista since SP1 came out and I've never used UAC.

Jesus gently caress I can't even tell if this is a troll. Malware and viruses don't always manifest as poo poo like giant pop-up windows, sometimes they simply mine for data and mess around in protected areas.

Mensur
Aug 1, 2007

EnGAYge!
.

Mensur fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Jun 14, 2013

EVGA Longoria
Dec 25, 2005

Let's go exploring!

Mensur posted:

Like I said, I occasionally do offline scans and haven't found a virus or malware in years. I'm not some idiot whose prone to clicking links that say get free smilies in your email or going to https://www.omgwarezandcrackslinks.ru.

Fun fact: The actual serious viruses don't require you to do a damned thing.

Mensur
Aug 1, 2007

EnGAYge!
.

Mensur fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Jun 14, 2013

ElProducto
Oct 9, 2001
if you want to live low, live low
We get it, you're way too smart to get malware. Enough already.

EVGA Longoria
Dec 25, 2005

Let's go exploring!

Mensur posted:

It still has to originate from somewhere. One just doesn't turn their computer on and poof, they're infected. One still has to go to a malicious website, open an email or be on the same network as an infected machine.

You see, there's this network of networks, shall we call it an "internet", where machines can speak to each other.

But you're right, people are morons, there are no remote exploits, everyone's just clicking those shady links or opening that sketchy email. No one ever gets infected except by their own stupidity, so why run something that stops a few exploits in their tracks and deals with badly programmed apps?

kapinga
Oct 12, 2005

I am not a number

Mensur posted:

Until I can see processes from all users in task manager with an annoying UAC prompt it's staying off.

Since this is the Windows 7 Megathread and not the Hurr Vista $ux thread you should know that Windows 7 default UAC settings do not do this.

Josh Lyman
May 24, 2009


The SourceForge PDFCreator seems to be breaking my x64 Win7. Does anyone have a suggestion for a free PDF printer?

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Volte
Oct 4, 2004

woosh woosh
I have disabled UAC at my own peril, but I would re-enable it if it were possible to promote an already running application (or temporarily disable it system wide with a tray icon or something). I get annoyed trying to, for example, unpack a RAR file directly into a Program Files directory after opening it from Firefox, getting the "Access Denied" message, then having to restart WinRAR as admin (or unpacking to a temp directory and copying). Also forgetting to open configuration files in admin mode, editing them, and then not being able to same them is frustrating as well (I constantly do this in Linux too).

NOD32 and common sense seem to keep me virus free though.

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