Disable User Account Control (UAC) for certain Windows applications

There are applications that need administrative permission in order to work properly. Some applications might need access to special system resources, some may have been designed only for older versions of Windows and do not work that well on your current Windows version, whether it is Windows Vista, 7, 8 or Windows 10. Some programs may have different bugs and problems. Running them as an administrator will help these applications run without problems. However, each time you start such an application you will see an UAC (User Account Control) prompt asking for your permission to launch it.

This is the reason why many people choose to disable UAC. However, by eliminating the annoying UAC prompts they also lower the security of their system. Fortunately, there is a way to keep UAC turned on and, at the same time, eliminate the prompts for certain applications. In this guide we will show you how to do the following: set an application to always run as an administrator (if needed), create a UAC fix for it that turns off the prompts for that application and install/uninstall the fix.

How to run an application as an administrator

To run an application as an administrator you can right click on it’s shortcut or main executable and select Run as administrator from the right click menu. However, doing this can be quite annoying if you use this application very often. The second and better option is to edit it’s properties and set it to always run as an administrator.

To do this, select it’s shortcut or main executable, right click on it and select Properties.

Properties

In the Properties window, go to the Compatibility tab. Check the option that says Run this program as an administrator and click on OK.

Properties

Every time you will launch this application an UAC prompt will show up asking for your approval.

How to create the UAC fix

First, download and install the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit.

Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit

Then, search for the Compatibility Administrator shortcut, right click on it and select Run as administrator. The shortcut ca be found in the Start Menu under Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit.

Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit

When you are in the Compatibility Administrator window, go to Custom Databases -> New Database. Right click on the new database and select Create New -> Application Fix.

Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit

The Create new Application Fix wizard will now start. Type the application name, the vendor (optional) and browse to the location of the main application executable. When done, click on Next.

Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit

When you are in the Compatibility Modes window, scroll down the list of available modes until you find RunAsInvoker. Check this mode and click on Next.

Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit

Now click on Next without changing anything.

Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit

When you are in the Matching Information window click on Finish.

Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit

Now you will return to the Compatibility Administrator window. Here, go to the File menu and click on Save or Save As.

Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit

In the Database Name window type a name for the fix you just created and click on OK.

Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit

Now, browse to the location where you want to save the database, type the file name and click on Save.

Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit

How to apply the UAC fix

To apply the fix you need to start the Command Prompt as administrator. Find it’s shortcut, right click on it and select Run as administrator.

Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit

Type the following command: “sdbinst [path]\filename.sdb”, where [path] is the location of the file you created using the Compatibility Administrator, and then press on Enter.

Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit

The application for which you have created and applied the fix should now start without any UAC prompts. If the fix doesn’t work and you just want to uninstall it, start the Command Prompt again and type the command: “sdbinst [path]\filename.sdb -u”.

Related applications:

How to disable UAC
How to run older applications in Windows Vista

Recommended articles:

Windows 7: What is UAC & Why You Should Never Turn It Off
Windows 7 vs Windows Vista: The UAC Benchmark
Running Vista Every Day! – UAC – The Good and The Bad
4 Ways to Make UAC Less Annoying on Windows Vista

24 thoughts on “Disable User Account Control (UAC) for certain Windows applications”

  1. Doesn’t work for me
    OS= Vista Home Premium
    All went fine until the step for “dbinst.” It gave this error message:

    ‘dbinstall’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,
    operable program or batch file.

  2. Run with admin privileges?
    The RunAsInvoker parameter makes sure that an application runs with the same privileges as its parent process. Therefore, your UAC fix won’t be helpful if you want that the application runs with admin privileges. You don’t see the UAC prompts anymore because the application will only run with standard user rights. This is also the case if you configure the application to run with admin privileges. You can try it with notepad. Follow the procedure above and then try to save a file in the programs folder.

  3. not quite
    For some reason my Vista Home Premium decided yesterday – after some other issues – not to run the latest Microsoft Office if the User Account Control is on. (I get a message that Word, for example, is not installed for this user – when I’m the only user and running as administrator.) After reinstalls, tweaks, calls to Microsoft, etc., I gave up. I’d like to run UAC, but I’m not willing to give up Word. I tried your fix – didn’t quite work. If I change it to run as administrator rather than run as invoker, it at least lets me run Word after responding to the UAC prompt.

  4. Doesn’t work on ProTools
    When I installed this for ProTools LE, ProTools immediately emitted “ProTools Application has stopped working.” I uninstalled the fix and the app started normally.

    Too bad. This is a constant annoyance.

  5. what does work.
    Thats the biggest problem with vista, having to choose between using one app or another..

    I would prefer to keep UAC running, but several major (Microsoft) apps I use should not have me constantly answering, do I need to have permission to run something i just tried to run. Sheesh.

    Problem is a lot of the ‘solutions’ for the above, work for some things but not other, even on Microsoft products.

    Up till now most of my problems have been 64bit versus 32…

    But I am actively now trying to cicrumvent UAC and am likely to shut it off till a really good solution shows up.

    I will continue to try to use these admin tricks to make something work, but so far I am manually running about 8 or so apps after bootup.

    What I would is a app manager that would not get the msgs but would run everything I throw at it without issues.

    For me though curently the only really true problem for me is the ‘non-live’ ‘non-cable’ non-internet’ part of WMC doesnt work on 64bit . (mainy the showcase) and I would love to completely hide or delete that whole section of WMC.

    not being able to do that makes WMC bloated and worthless in my view and i am likley to customize WMC to do only LIVE TV per tricks I saw somewhere.

  6. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! o/ o/
    Thank you for fixing the single biggest headache I have with Vista. I am much obliged.

    Now if only I could get the printing to work correctly, but that’s another story …

  7. Not working for me – VirtualBox
    I have configured one of my Virtual Machines in VirtualBox to use a physical partition. Problem is this requires admin privileges. I tried your fix – didn’t work. I guess I have to find another solution. Thanks anyway.

    Mike

  8. Re: UAC Circumvention – Too Convoluted
    I have never seen such a convoluted way to fix a problem. Why doesn’t Microsoft just allow the system administrator to check a simple box (ie — like Windows Firewall) to make an exception. Both are obvious, obvious, obvious fundamental MS O/S security operations. I can’t believe the amount of time I have spent trying to locate a simple solution. I can easily understand why users choose to disable UAC. Nothing personal, but I hope Microsoft will introduce a realistic, common-sense approach to fixing the problem.

  9. UAC
    My Windows Media Player works only if I run as administrator. I tried the above steps for windows media player and the ‘sdb’ installation was successful but the wmplayer does not work without UAC prompt. I just need my wmplayer to work with out UAC, cause i could not see any medias on the web whic is using wmp. I do not want to disable the UAC completely to gain access to wmp from the web. Any other method to run wmp??

    • Windows Media Player addons
      On a “normal” configuration, Windows Media Player works with UAC turned on, without having to run it as an administrator.
      Did you install any weird add-ons for Windows Media Player which may cause this behavior? If you did, try to uninstall them and see if it works.

  10. UAC fix
    True. This ‘fix’ will just supress UAC whining, but will not give proper rights to the application you want to use.
    Tried this on Win7 x64 with a x64 version of WinRar 3.93.
    It just throws a bunch of errors at me, saying ‘access denied’.
    Also, I don’t understand why Win7 wants me to have administrative rights while trying to write to my external USB-harddisk.
    I really tried to cope with UAC because I think generally its a good thing. But if it stays the way it is, I will shut it off once and for all.

  11. Holy Mother of… that is
    Holy Mother of… that is considered ‘a fix’?!? I’m sure some programmer in Redmond thought it was an easy fix, for the rest of us it remains a pain in the butt.

  12. windows 7 por
    Hi am having a major problem with win 7 i currently have a few inhouse applications that run if i login as administrator, but will not run as a standard user, is there a workaround? please help

    fp

  13. This doesn’t after rebooting the machine
    This only works for me as long as the machine isn’t rebooted. I am trying to get ATI Tray Tools to start at boot up but the UAC always prompts me to accept for the first time it starts upon rebooting. If I close the program and restart it after it no longer prompts me. What can I do to make this permanent?

  14. sdbinst “too many command Line arguments””
    W7 Help: In my Command Prompt ( as admin) and I’ve typed < sdbinst c:filename.sdb >
    When I hit ‘enter’ I get back ” Too many command line arguments’ ? :-(((( What the heck :-(( ?

    Matt

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