One of the most significant changes in Windows Vista is the introduction of User Account Control (UAC). UAC is the mechanism Vista uses to limit the default privileges users run with on Vista. Limiting these privileges is intended to make it less likely that a user’s actions affect the configuration of the system or other users’ state and settings.
Standard users (members of the Users group) have restricted privileges. They cannot install most applications, change system settings, or perform most other administrative tasks.
Administrators have elevated privileges. When a user who is a member of the Administrators group (or another group with elevated privileges) logs on to a Vista computer, the interactive login process creates a restricted token in addition to the token that describes the administrator’s elevated privileges. The restricted token has the privileges of a standard user and is used to create the interactive desktop and Windows Explorer session.
The elevated privileges for the user are still available when needed. If the user attempts to perform an operation that requires administrative privileges, the user is prompted to authorize the operation.
When the user double-clicks an icon or selects it from the Start menu, the process inherits the restricted token. If the application is marked as requiring elevated privileges in a manifest file, UAC prompts the user for authorization to run with those privileges. For more about manifest files, see “Manifest files”.
You can start an application with administrative privileges by right-clicking it in the Start menu or Explorer and selecting Run As Administrator from its pop-up menu.
