Make User Account Control (UAC) Stop Blacking Out the Screen in Windows Vista

Sunday, March 11th, 2007
by William

So, after the “Howto: A more secure OS X before Leopard”, I set out to find something more Windows like and here it is. It’s not really securing your Windows. Rather, what it’s doing is getting the dark screen off. Just read it.

PS: If you have a Mac, I suggest you going to my last post on how to secure your Mac.

Quote – http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/make-user-account-control-uac-stop-blacking-out-the-screen-in-windows-vista/:

In Windows Vista, the screen goes dark when the User Account Control window comes up, which is extremely annoying. They call it the “Secure Desktop”, but I think it’s obnoxious.

Update: Windows Vista Home users should use the registry patch at the bottom of the article instead.

To get to the configuration screen for this, type in security to the start menu search box. You should see the Local Security Policy as the top search item.

In the Local Security Policy window, browse down to Local Policies \ Security Options

Over in the right hand part of the window, scroll down near the bottom and find the item titled “User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation”

Double-click on the item, and change it to disabled and then click OK.

Note: This does make your system slightly less secure, so be warned.

For Windows Home users, you will need to open up regedit via the start menu search box. Browse down to this registry key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]

You should see a key called PromptOnSecureDesktop. Double-click this and change the value to 0