Make the screen not black out with Vista
In Windows Vista, the screen goes dark when the User Account Control window comes up, which is extremely annoying. It is supposed to get your attention, which it does,
but it takes more time. They call it the “Secure Desktop”, but I think it’s obnoxious.
Here is how you can change that:
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
I think a better solution for security would be to have it prompt you for a password, like Mac OS and most modern Linux, but that might get annoying with Windows where everything is used to having administrative rights, so the prompting will be more frequent, like in this Mac commercial..
Related How-Tos at HowTO geek.com:
* Disable User Account Control (UAC) the Easy Way on Windows Vista
* Run a Command as Administrator from the Windows Vista Run box
* Enable or Disable UAC From the Windows Vista Command Line
* Disable User Account Control(UAC) For Administrators Only
* Stop an Application from Running at Startup in Windows Vista