It's just as relevant today, so we've bumped it as part of our #ThrowbackThursday initiative. When you log in to Windows, your account is assigned a token that contains identifying information including your user groups and privileges such as read, write, and execute permissions.Īmong the information in that token is an integrity level which is used by the operating system determine the trustworthiness of objects like files, registry keys for the purpose of informing users when installations are being launched as well as isolating processes from having unnecessary access to system files.Įditor's Note: This feature was originally published on October 2018. UAC remains a fundamental component of Windows 10's security to mitigate the impact of malware, although the overall experience has been relaxed and improved in subsequent releases.

The security feature prompts you when software tries making changes to your system and rests at crux of why applications sometimes require 'elevated' access. Those of you who made the transition from Windows XP to Vista will probably remember the introduction of ' User Access Control' (UAC) or ' Mandatory Integrity Control' (MIC).

However, we were curious to know more about what happens under the hood of Windows when you tell the operating system to run a program as an administrator, and why this process is necessary in the first place. As a TechSpot reader you've surely opened software as an admin on Windows before – maybe as recently as today – so the function probably isn't foreign to you.

Run task manager as admin