Running Vista in Administrator account

[jfuze]

Hey everyone

I built a new computer a couple days ago and now im running Vista 64 Home premium. It's alright, but I noticed it kept giving me an error saying I didnt have permissions to do certain things...

So I found a way to enable the Administrator account, and now im running that as my main profile and deleted the first one I started with.

Is this ok to do? are there any disadvantages of using the administrator account?

I guess I should have looked into it some more, but just wanted some advice.

thanks to anyone that can help

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: jfuze
Hey everyone

I built a new computer a couple days ago and now im running Vista 64 Home premium. It's alright, but I noticed it kept giving me an error saying I didnt have permissions to do certain things...

So I found a way to enable the Administrator account, and now im running that as my main profile and deleted the first one I started with.

Is this ok to do? are there any disadvantages of using the administrator account?

I guess I should have looked into it some more, but just wanted some advice.

thanks to anyone that can help

This was absolutely the wrong thing to do. Create a regular admin account, and redisable this one. Deal with UAC, it keeps you safe. SP1 greatly reduces the UAC prompts you'll see (and also note you are seeing them alot because your in the middle of installing lots of stuff, I rarely see one in day to day use)

Bill

 

[George P Burdell]

Originally posted by: bsobel
This was absolutely the wrong thing to do. Create a regular admin account, and redisable this one. Deal with UAC, it keeps you safe. SP1 greatly reduces the UAC prompts you'll see (and also note you are seeing them alot because your in the middle of installing lots of stuff, I rarely see one in day to day use)

Bill

Agreed x1000

 

[nerp]

You're basically running your machine as root with no real protection (BTW, virus and spyware scanners are a false sense of security -- most are months behind the actual realtime threats out there).

Of course you're going to encounter a lot of UAC prompts when you just install the OS. You're in the midst of configuring it. Give yourself a few weeks of normal usage and you'll quickly find that the bitching and moaning about UAC is really just whining.

 

[jfuze]

Originally posted by: nerp
You're basically running your machine as root with no real protection (BTW, virus and spyware scanners are a false sense of security -- most are months behind the actual realtime threats out there).

Of course you're going to encounter a lot of UAC prompts when you just install the OS. You're in the midst of configuring it. Give yourself a few weeks of normal usage and you'll quickly find that the bitching and moaning about UAC is really just whining.

Bitching and moaning about UAC? What the hell are you talking about? I said it was giving me permission errors.

You need to learn to read and go outside.

 

[nerp]

I can come and go as I please due to the nature of my job, which is a nice thing, so although your recommendation to go outside is a point taken, I've actually been outside for quite a bit today and it's only 26F out so I think I'm entitled to being inside a heated building.

I read your first post but your information was vague.

I noticed it kept giving me an error saying I didnt have permissions to do certain things...

If you provided us with more specifics as to what you don't have permission to do, perhaps we'd not assume you're referring to UAC prompts. Instead of indicating what you were trying to do and the associated permissions issue, you said you decided to run as admin and asked if there were any repercussions to that. We said yes, there are many repurcussions.

So I'm not sure why the snarky comments are necessary here. If you're not referring to the at-times nusiance of hitting "OK" to UAC prompts, then you need to explain yourself better and tell us what you were trying to do in the first place. I'm running Vista64 with no permissions issues to speak of and I'm not running as an Adminstrator. I did have to take ownership of some data files on a hard drive I added to this machine, but that's a routine task.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: nerp
I can come and go as I please due to the nature of my job, which is a nice thing, so although your recommendation to go outside is a point taken, I've actually been outside for quite a bit today and it's only 26F out so I think I'm entitled to being inside a heated building.

I read your first post but your information was vague.

I noticed it kept giving me an error saying I didnt have permissions to do certain things...

If you provided us with more specifics as to what you don't have permission to do, perhaps we'd not assume you're referring to UAC prompts. Instead of indicating what you were trying to do and the associated permissions issue, you said you decided to run as admin and asked if there were any repercussions to that. We said yes, there are many repurcussions.

So I'm not sure why the snarky comments are necessary here. If you're not referring to the at-times nusiance of hitting "OK" to UAC prompts, then you need to explain yourself better and tell us what you were trying to do in the first place. I'm running Vista64 with no permissions issues to speak of and I'm not running as an Adminstrator. I did have to take ownership of some data files on a hard drive I added to this machine, but that's a routine task.

Wow, nice read nerp! Usually when someone is "biting the hand that feeds them" (so to say) I'm too lazy to type up anything and just don't help them anymore.

And to the OP, since it's all already been well explained, I'll just say congratulations, you've circumvented probably the biggest security improvement in Vista.

 

[blackangst1]

Dumbest idea ever. For all the reasons bsobel stated.