How to work around UAC on Vista for CoH only

So, if you're reading this, you're probably aware of the UAC credential prompt that pops up every time you run the CoH updater on the Vista OS. You can turn off the prompts entirely, but I've never come across a way to disable, or work around, the prompt for a single process.

Until today.

Note: ONLY do this for programs you truly trust, as you will be entering your administrator credentials for that program's use. We do this explicitly and individually every time we run the updater, so I personally don't feel it's a security hole for me. But you need to make your own call on that.

Steps:

1) Browse to the CoH folder on your computer.
2) Right-click the CoHUpdater executable, and select Properties.
3) Select the Compatibility tab, and ensure the checkbox for "Run this program as an administrator" is checked.
4) Hit Apply, then OK. You're done with this part.

5) Now open up Task Scheduler: Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Task Scheduler.
6) Choose "Create Task" from the right pane.
7) On the General tab:
7a) Give this task a name (here: "CoH LUA workaround").
7b) Make sure the task is running under an administrator account.
7c) Select the radio button for "Run only when user is logged on".
7d) Check the box for "Run with highest privileges".
Note: You will be prompted for your credentials at this point.
8) On the Triggers tab: Clear any triggers that may be set.
9) On the Actions tab: Create a "Start a Program" action, pointing to the CoHUpdater executable.
10) On the Conditions tab: Clear all conditions.
11) On the Settings tab: Check the box for "Allow task to be run on demand", and clear all other settings.
12) Save your new task.

13) Finally, create a new shortcut (right click the desktop, New -> Shortcut) similar to the following:

C:\Windows\System32\schtasks.exe /run /TN "CoH LUA workaround"

You're done. Now, to run CoH, you start that shortcut, instead of your usual shortcut. You'll get a quick on-off flash of a command window, and then the updater will fire up - without prompting you for creds.

If you don't like the command prompt flash, you can set your new shortcut to always run minimized (right click it, select Properties, and change the Run drop-down from "Normal window" to "Minimized").

This is a pain in the *butt* to set up, but it's a one-time deal, after which you don't have to deal with the constant prompting.

HTH,

Kam

I like it!

If you set the shortcut to turn off desktop composition, does it stick?

The new shortcut (to the scheduled task) cannot have its compatibility modes changed. However, you can change the compatibility modes on the actual CoHUpdater executable, and that will stick and be run as such when the scheduled task is fired.

Kam

very cool

seems a tad bit risky, as there may be some way to exploit this behavior. Not saying that there is a way mind you, just that there is a risk involved that should be considered

but then, you shouldn't be running games on a mission critical computer anyway right? lol

*nod* Yeah, like I said in my first note: make your own security decisions. It's certainly theoretically possible for malware running as a limited user to trigger this task and own the system through the elevation. However, any malware that triggers this task in order to exploit its elevated privileges would have to know about its existence ahead of time - i.e. be tailored to your system - and, for home machines, that's not really worth worrying over.

Kam

Does this workaround still allow you to have extra commands in your shortcut (i.e. - renderthread 1, - compatiblecursors 1, etc)?

Yes. When you're creating your action (Actions tab) to run your executable, there's a separate typing entry box to enter command-line switches.

I use -compatibleCursors 1 myself - believe me, I wouldn't be using this workaround if the switches couldn't be added!

Kam

Nice workaround.

It if accepts switches, then just add " -cov" somewhere in there, then you get the CoV skin. 'sides, the CoH client can be used to play CoV, login screen skin doesn't matter.

Oh, when I titled the post "CoH only", I probably should have said "Co*". My intent was to indicate that this was a single-program workaround which leaves LUA intact, not a how-to guide for disabling LUA entirely.

Kam

I got this to work on an Admin account, but when I get to the part of making it on a standard account, and it asks for Adminn credentials, it gets an error saying "The username is unknown, the password is incorrect, or you do not have permission to create this task". How do you fix this?

Can someone please help me with this?

Can you 'run as administrator' any other program from that limited account?

CoH and FSX are the only programs I have installed right now, and CoH is the only one with the option

Edit - The 'Run program as administrator' option is grayed out on the limited account. But there is an option under it that says "See settings for all users', that requires administrative credentials.