Always get prompt by UAC when launching CoX

That worked perfectly. Thanks for the link.

... Captain Photon beat me to it.

Short version is that UAC won't do a thing to actually stop the most common viral entry points. Clicking on a bad link in an email, visiting a web-page loaded with malicious java-script, or downloading a trojan-horse application. Nor would it stop more innovative attacks. Microsoft, for example, can use Windows Update to bypass UAC and install software anytime they want to as long as you have an internet connection. And no, this isn't wild theory, Microsoft has actually done this before. Microsoft has used Windows Update to force additional software onto computers even when admins had do not check for updates checked. So it's of little wonder that virus writers also had little problems getting around UAC.

In short, UAC doesn't actually do anything but annoy the user. As far as security jokes go though, it's right up there with the claims that IE is a secure browser.

Far will it be from me to defend UAC, since I don't even use Vista or 7 (the few months I did use either of those, I disabled UAC). However, I never considered it as a security feature; it's called User Account Control, not Virus Control. What UAC is supposed to do, and all I've seen supports that it does that, is prevent non-administrator accounts from making changes to the system files. So if you have a computer that everybody in the family uses, you can set your own account as Administrator, but your 10-year old kid's account as limited user -- and then UAC would prevent any changes made to the system from the limited user account, like installing programs you don't want on the system, or deleting files from the other accounts. Sure a virus can break through it (see here) but fending off viruses is not UAC's purpose.

Saying UAC is a "security joke" is like saying seatbelts are an "anti speeding joke". Sure, you may argue "seatbelts give you a false sense of security that you may survive a crash, so you may as well go ahead and speed!"... but... yeah, I don't think I need to explain it any further.