Last week I spent a lot of time with my Give Vista a Chance rant. I'm not necessarily going to continue that rant through this week (though you never know), but what I aim to do now is provide you with assistance in making it more palitable. Today's assistive note is particularly handy because this one'll get you when you jump to Server 2008.

I've gone on record as an admitted disabler of User Account Control. Without rehashing the pro/con argument, even considering its security benefits I personally recommend that it be disabled for the time being and until a better way to manage it is invented. If you're in the same boat, stop complaining about it and disable it already!

Here are the instructions to do just that on a global scale using Group Policy:

1. Click Start | Run. Type gpedit.msc and click OK. This will open the Group Policy Object Editor.
2. Navigate to Computer Configuration | Windows Settings | Security Settings | Local Policies | Security Options.
3. In the right pane, locate the User Access Control policies.
4. Right click each of the following policies and change the value as indicated below:
   • User Account Control: Detect application installations and prompt for elevation (Disabled)
   • User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for standard users (No prompt)
   • User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode (Disabled)