is disabling UAC necessary anymore?

[captain420 3,099]

I just built my new rig and about to install Prepar3D v5. Is disabling UAC necessary anymore?

[SimonC 116]

Not only that is not necessary, but you shouldn't deactivate UAC in Windows at all.

[captain420 3,099]

Then how come it was recommended to disable UAC before? Or have I missed something?

Everytime I launch chaseplane it asks me for permission, this wasn't the case before.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,921]

I've had it disabled for years. And my new Chillblast PC professionally built also arrived with it disabled.

It depends on how comfortable you are allowing executables to run without a check first. I am the only person who uses my computers and I consider myself sufficiently knowledgable not to click on links in emails etc.

Ensure all shortcuts have "run as administrator" privileges. That may fix the ChasePlane problem.

[RobF2 150]

You might have disabled in the past to install Tileproxy or something like it?

No real reason now for P3D or normal add ons.

 

Edited July 17, 2020 by RobF2

[SimonC 116]

That is just the reason, allowing executables to run without any kind of notice. On security standpoint, disabling UAC is irresponsible. If something doesn't work with UAC enabled, it is the developer that should look at their code, more than user having to disable UAC.

[FrankSalo 272]

1 hour ago, SimonC said:

That is just the reason, allowing executables to run without any kind of notice. On security standpoint, disabling UAC is irresponsible. If something doesn't work with UAC enabled, it is the developer that should look at their code, more than user having to disable UAC.

I whole heatedly agree, UAC was introduced back in 2007 with Vista, if after 13 years a developer hasn't adapted to a standard then I don't know what to say.

[virtuali 4,419]

3 hours ago, captain420 said:

Then how come it was recommended to disable UAC before? Or have I missed something?

It was only recommended in order not to have issues with very old add-ons that, not only installed "inside" the simulator own folder, but even try to *write* something there, like settings or databases that change, which is a very bad choice.

Installing inside the sim wouldn't be so bad per-se ( although it can be messy and confusing ), but the real issue is when add-ons try to save something in their own folder which, if it happens to be inside the sim, and the sim happens to be installed in C:\Program Files ( which is specially protected by Windows ), UAC wouldn't allow it so, to prevent those add-ons from failing, it was usually suggested to turn off UAC. Or, alternatively, install the sim in a different place, one you should always have full permissions, something like C:\P3D, for example.

Since 2006, when Vista came out, every Windows program should *never* try to write in its own installation folder, but rather use %APPDATA%\Myprogram or %LOCALAPPDATA%\Myprogram, for smaller settings and preference files, and %PROGRAMDATA%\MyProgram for larger data files that are global to the machine and not different from user to user.

A program that complies with these specs will be unaffected by UAC settings, and it won't run any different regardless of the setting. But a program that doesn't, will probably require turning UAC off, or enable Adimistrator permissions explicitly for its link.

Edited July 17, 2020 by virtuali