Hello,
Administrators in Windows Vista now run in what's called Admin Approval
Mode, which is powered by User Account Control (UAC).
In this mode, Windows only allows programs to run with your administrator
powers if you explicitly authorize them through a permission prompt
("Windows needs your permission to continue"). If a program does not prompt
automatically or you do not manually give the application permission, it
cannot use your administrator power.
Programs that automatically prompt or programs that you explicitly start
with admin power by right-clicking them and clicking Run As Administrator
will be able to use your administrator power.
As an example, notepad.exe does NOT automatically prompt you for admin
power. If you start notepad and attempt to use it to modify a system file
(such as your HOSTS file), you will receive an access denied message,
because notepad needs administrator power to do this, and you have not
granted it this power.
However, if you right-click notepad and click Run As Administrator, you will
be able to use it to modify system configuration files because you have
granted it permission to use your administrator powers.
Another good example is the command prompt - if you are going to use the
command prompt to perform system administration tasks, you will need to
right-click command prompt and click Run As Administrator - otherwise, the
tools that you run from within command prompt will not be able to perform
their tasks, because they have not been granted permission to use your admin
powers.
Programs that require admin permission to start will be shown with a
security-shield icon. Also, some programs will run without admin powers but
are programmed so that doing admin actions inside of them will automatically
prompt you for permission. These actions will also be shown with a security
shield icon. For example, when using Windows Explorer, changing security
settings on a file will generally need to use your admin power, and so the
edit button on the security properties dialog will display a security shield
and prompt you for permission when you click on it.
Right-clicking a program and clicking Run As Administrator is called
'elevating' that application.
The built-in Administrator account runs OUTSIDE of Admin Approval Mode by
default - when logged in as the built-in administrator, all programs that
you run will be able to use your admin power, without prompting. This is the
same behavior that exists in Windows XP. However, the built-in administrator
account is depreciated and disabled by default, and can only be used in safe
mode if (and only if) the computer is not part of a domain and there are no
other administrator accounts that can be used to log in at that time.
--
- JB
Windows Vista Support Faq
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/
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