Disable UAC for a specific program (Windows 10)

On Windows 8.1, the following registry change allowed a user with Administrator privileges to launch a particular application without the User Access Control popup warning about changes being made to the computer:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers]
"C:\\path\\to\\app\MyApp.exe"="RunAsInvoker"

For example, to open Registry Editor or merge .reg files with the UAC prompt:

"C:\\Windows\\regedit.exe"="RunAsInvoker"

Can't get this to work on Windows 10 - the UAC prompt happens regardless. Is this possible on Windows 10?

3 Answers

You can do this with Task Scheduler. This will be much better than mucking around with the Registry which can go bad all too easily.

Disable UAC for a Specific App

Windows: User Account Control can be obnoxious when it prompts you for approval on certain apps every time.

Tips and tricks blog MakeUseOf suggests adding frequent offenders to Task Scheduler to avoid this annoyance.

The process is a little tedious, but easy enough if you're familiar with Task Scheduler:

In Task Scheduler, right-click "Task Scheduler Library" and select "New Folder" Name it whatever you would like.

Select the new folder and click "Create Task" (not "Create Basic Task")

Name the task something descriptive. Enable "Run with highest privileges," and select your OS under "Configure for."

Under the Actions tab, select "Start a program" in the Action dropdown if it isn't already. Click Browse and find your app's .exe file (usually under Program Files on your C: drive).

(Laptops) Under Conditions tab, deselect "Start the task only if the computer is on AC power."

On your desktop, right click and select New > Shortcut. Paste 'C:\Windows\System32\schtasks.exe /RUN /TN "Name of folder\Name of task" into the text box.

This will create a link to your program that will automatically skip the prompt asking for permission to make changes to your computer.

The app's icon won't transfer over, but this can be easily fixed.

This solution can be used to start programs from Startup folder, if UAC intercept them (non-system programs). Otherwise, UAC will block program (without prompt or any clue what happened) and it will never start.

Regarding the Registry Editor question I have found a working solution on Windows 10 21H2 when editing directly with RegEdit. The Task Scheduler answer unfortunately didn't work for me as nothing happens when running the shortcut created which is why I went for the following Registry Editor solution.

In the registry, instead of the RUNASADMIN instruction as the value data attached to the string value with the app/program address I'm using ~ RUNASINVOKER. This at least works flawlessly for me as an invoker as I'm using an admin user account. When you're at the registry address as instructed above

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers]

you can either add your specific program or edit an existing string. Either way an example would look like followingD:\APPS\HWAIDA64_Extreme\AIDA64_Extreme_6.60.5900\aida64.exe as the string value/name, ~ RUNASINVOKER as the value data.

I'm sorry but this is my first SuperUser post so don't know how to most clearly or best describe my solution/answer so I hope it isn't too confusing.

*Edit So the programs I initially used to test this method for apparently didn't need to be run as admin for them to function. At least not how I were using them at first. This meant that as soon as I tried this method on an application that did needed to be run with elevated privileges I hit a snag as soon as I ran that application with the ~ RUNASINVOKER instruction added with the Registry Editor. The application became inoperable. This really sucks and since the Task Scheduler solution doesn't work I'm crap outta luck and back to square one. Really wished someone with the knowhow could simply create a small batch file/script/application or whathaveyou that made it easy to just add whatever program you want to a whitelist where all your desired NON UAC prompt programs could be added... Alas...this will in all likelihood remain a dream.

This can be done easily with the portable tool UAC Pass (download here).

With the programs that I start this way, I'm only seeing the problem that these programs are suddenly no longer correctly DPI-aware on high-res monitors, strangely only in certain areas of the program window, e.g. only in the toolbars of the respective program.

This is certainly not due to UAC Pass, but probably is related generally to the start method via Task Scheduler.