How to Change User Account Control Settings?

Microsoft’s User Account Control—the box that pops up and asks “Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer?” incessantly—has noble roots, as it’s intended to let you know when software is making administrator-level tweaks to your operating system. That makes it handy for thwarting malware, but the pop-ups are annoying—especially if you stick to safe corners of the Web and run third-party security software. If you feel confident enough to disable User Account Control, doing so is pretty easy.

First, open the Control Panel by navigating to Start > Control Panel in any version of Windows that includes a Start button, or by heading to Windows 8’s tiled Start screen, typing Control Panel, and clicking it. This slider lets you fine-tune UAC notifications.

Next, head to User Accounts and Family Safety > User Accounts > Change User Account Control settings. A new window pops up with a slider that allows you to fine-tune just how often the UAC dialog box will appear.

Don’t like the way the screen dims when UAC activates? You can ditch that behavior—or you can just turn UAC off completely.