UAC (Control Freak) Has Pushed Me To The Edge.....

[wnyhusker]

Chrome is my default search engine, and I'm frickin' tired of waiting for the UAC to ask if I really  want to open my Chrome link!!  So I shut off my UAC and am currently residing in Administrator Eternity (as I'm the only user anyway). But now I get these URGENT fashing messages from the HP Support Assistant stating that I'm putting my PC at risk!!  If there's another way to fire it up - like Edge, Bing, or IE (all Microsoft products, mind you)...... without the annoying & unneccesary UAC roadblock, please let me know. Otherwise I'll continue to rely on Norton Security and Malwarebytes to stop any bad behavior (isn't that quite remote & highly unlikely anyway?). Would appreciate any comments from those who have dealt with this and can point me in the right direction!!

[IT_WinSec · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Welcome to the HP Support forum. Thank you for posting.

With regards to HP Support Assistant:

- try to open it. Click on the "Settings" link.

- Scroll down to "How would you like to be notified?". Uncheck all the options including :

"Display and icon in ..."  , "Display pop-ups for important messages..." , "Display pop-ups for important warranty..."

- Save the changes

You may also try to disable Windows Action Center as the methods described here > https://www.howtogeek.com/244539/how-to-disable-the-action-center-in-windows-10/

If the above does not work, uninstall HP Support Assistant / HP Support framework .

It is useful app but is not mandatory for your PC to work and its functions can be substituted by other functions or apps.

[A4Apollo]

Hey there! @wnyhusker, Welcome to HP forums.

I understand that you want to use chrome as a default browser to open links.

Don't worry I will try to help you out.

Did you make any software or hardware changes on your PC?

Please try the steps recommended below.

Install Chrome if it isn't installed yet. Chrome will need to be installed before you can select it as your default browser.
Open the Start menu and click or tap "Settings." This may just look like a gear.
Select "System" from the Settings Home menu. This will display the different system settings.
Click or tap the "Default apps" tab. You'll find this in the left menu of the System window.
Select the "Web browser" option. This will display the browsers installed on your computer.
Choose Google Chrome to make it the default. Chrome will automatically open links and HTML files.
Use the Control Panel if your settings aren't being saved. Some users have reported that their default browser choice is not saved by Windows, or that Chrome is not appearing. If this is the case, open the Control Panel and follow the steps in the next section to set Chrome as the default browser. You can open the Control Panel by right-clicking the Start button and selecting Control Panel.

To disable notifications on support assistant, please try the steps mentioned below.

Open HP support assistant, Click settings.
In the Choose how you would like to be notified section, you can change the following settings:
To display a notification icon in your taskbar, click Display an icon in your taskbar. The icon will change, based on the type of message or update.
To display pop-up notifications for important messages, click Display pop-ups for important messages that required immediate attention.
To display pop-up notifications for important warranty messages, click Display pop-ups for important warranty status messages.

Disable all if you don't want any notifications from HP support assistant.

Refer this article to know how to use HP support assistant.

If the issue still persists try creating a different user account on your PC and check if it helps.

Select the Start button, then select Settings   > Accounts > Family & other people > Add someone else to this PC. 
Enter a username, password, password hint, and then select Next. You're done!
On Windows 10 Enterprise edition:
Select the Start button, then select Settings  > Accounts > Other people > Add someone else to this PC.
At the bottom of the page, select I don’t have this person’s sign-in information, and at the bottom of the next page, select Add a user without a Microsoft account.
Enter a username, password, password hint, and then select Next. You're done!

Let me know if this helps!

Have a great day ahead! 🙂

[IT_WinSec]

Something else:

Chrome is a browser, not a search engine.

The browser is the app that you use to surf the Net, to open webpages usually via HTTP/HTTPs protocols.

Search engine is the app/engine you use to search the Net - popular search engines are Google, Bing, etc...

Google Chrome browser or the Google search engine does not usually require a password, does not trigger a User Account Control (UAC) prompt.  UAC promped is triggered when a software requires higher/admin privilages. If Chome asks for such privilages, something else is seriously wrong.

Try to :

#  right click the Chome's icon > go to  Properties on the Chrome icon, properties then Compatibility. Look for and uncheck "run this program as administrator" if selected

# right click the Chome's icon > check for the start target properties - like >here<  or >here< These might have been modified in your PC and may be malicious

# re-install the entire Chrome browser. Delete all Chrome shortcuts and follow the steps here > http://www.wikihow.com/Reinstall-Google-Chrome

Scan your PC for malware/PUPs  using :

- ESET Online Scanner > http://download.eset.com/special/eos/esetonlinescanner_enu.exe

User Account Control is an important safety and information security feature which enforces (tries to enfroce) the principle of the least privilige >  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_privilege 

During my career in IT and cyber security I have seen it fail numerously but I have also see it in action prevening cryptolocker malware from acting. I would definitely check if it can really stay enabled.

Cheers