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“No really I want to do that you stupid Vista UAC!” That’s what I find myself screaming at every new Vista install I encounter. At least until this infernal feature is turned off!

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you are one of the lucky ones that has yet to sample this latest effort by Microsoft to safe guard Vista users from their own stupidity – the UAC or  “User Account Control.”

In fact UAC has so captured the furry users, it’s been incorporated into the latest Apple “Hi, I’m a PC – I’m a Mac” TV spots in the US. It’s priceless and one of the best in the serious, if you’ve missed it you can see it here.

We all know and hate malware, viruses, Trojans, the list goes on and on.  UAC, attempts to prevent these threats from compromising a system in the first place. It attempts to do this by requiring the user to acknowledge actions that could expose a PC to potentiality harmful actions. Now that doesn’t sound like such a bad thing, the problem is in its implementation.

Just like the Apple commercial illustrates, practically every action you do will pop up this “Deal with me box” – that’s a rant for another time. The box gives you the option to allow or deny the action in question. The angst here is that you have to actually understand what you are acknowledging or refusing. This idea goes completely against all logic, as a power user is going to not launch the suspect app in the first place, and the novice will simply say, “Sure, I need that crappy browser plug-in to make my MySpace page crash!” Yeah, good God help us!

As I already stated one of the first things I do when configuring a new Vista install is to turn UAC off all together. Yes, yes, I know this could be opening myself up to untold dangers (all the ones I’ve always been vulnerable to on XP.) So if you want to be a super 1337 user and play it fast and lose, like your’s truly, below you will find a step by step crib sheet to turn this D&mn thing off.