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My Icon to "Safely Remove" my thumb drive is missing - What should I do?
How can I turn off UAC (User Account Control)?
How do I disable Windows Security Alerts?

You should have an aarow ( < ) symbol to the left of your clock - click on that, and it will show "Hidden" icons. Windows automaticall hides certain icons that it doesn't think you need constant access to. You can change these settings if you want to.

We do not recomend that you disable UAC, even though it can be annoying, it is in place for your protection.

That being said, if you would like to disable it - first, click on your START button, then type MSCONFIG in the search box and hit ENTER. Click on the TOOLS tab, then look for DISABLE UAC - Highlight it, and click LAUNCH. You will get a black box that tells you it has been completed. Then restart your computer.

One possible side effect of doing this is that you might get a Security Warning with a bubble telling you that your UAC is disabled. If you do get this, see "How do I disable Windows Security Alerts?"

We do not recommend disabling any Windows Security Alerts, but if for some reason you need to, here is how:

Also - this requires editing the registry - Make sure to make a back-up before making any changes - and only proceed if you are comfortable editing the registry.

Click on your START button, then type REGEDIT and hit ENTER. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center\Svc - Inside you will see AntiSpywareOverride, AntiVirusOverride, etc - They all default to value "0" - which enables all of these checks, double click an entry, and change it to "1" to disable the alert.