I am the one and only administrator. Is there any way I can alter the settings to make sure it never asks for administrator permission again?

I've found solutions applying to Windows 7 and Windows 8. I'd like a solution that applies specifically to Windows 10.

EDIT: Perhaps this question's bad rating will improve if I clarify that I am indeed moving files between folders within Program Files. This is necessary for the project I'm working on, which accesses files using a fixed path in C:\Program Files.

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3 Answers

All folders on the C drive, with exception of your own users folder and any folder you make yourself, will have higher security settings applied to them.

As such, you will always need administrative permissions to copy or move files, because upon creating the new files, their security permissions are adjusted to those that are below.

If you have a D: (or other storage location) present, note that this limitation does not apply for that drive.

If you do not want this UAC prompt to appear for a specific folder, right click that folder, go to properties, security, and give the users group modify rights.

It is possible to do this on C:\ and make it prolongate through almost your entire harddrive and all other folders, including c:\program files will now work as you want. Keep in mind, that by changing this on a global scale instead of only the folder you want, the chance of spyware, in particular ransomware, causing much more havoc than normally is big.

Although the folders C:\ProgramData, C:\Program Files, C:\Windows, C:\Users and maybe some others are not set to inherit permissions from their parent, changing the C:\ folder security settings, may change these folders too, which could break your windows.

Also keep in mind, that changing permissions inside the C:\Windows folder is never a good idea. Although the special folders are well protected and you need to take ownership, some rely on exclusive rights and will break, such as the C:\Windows\CSC folder, which holds the offline files for your network.

You really don't want to do this on a global scale unless you know exactly what you are doing.

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You should be able to accomplish this by disabling UAC notifications.

1. Open Control Panel and make your way to User Accounts and Family Safety\User Accounts (You could also open the start menu and type "UAC")
2. From here you should just drag the slider to the bottom to disable it.

Note: This is usually not recommended because new software can make changes without prompting for permission first.

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I believe I've cracked this one, thanks to @LPChip:

As explained by others, having ownership of a folder ensures you will not be met by annoyances from the OS.

Customize the ownership and permissions all you want, but make sure along your changes you also* grant full access to All Application Packages group.

That group is the difference between Win 7 and 10.

*The logic is to never break OS access to OS files. By OS I mean SYSTEM, TrustedInstaller, and All Application Packages.

For instance, in my PC, I grant the Administrators the ownership of the whole C: unit.

Then, I grant Full Control to Administrators, Everyone, nt service\trustedinstaller, system, and finally, All Application Packages.

I installed a fresh Windows 1903, made those permission changes in safe mode (so less files are in-use by the system), booted in normal mode and updated to version 1909.

I also had a non fresh install of windows 10 v1909 on a different partition. Made all those changes there too, and everything seems fine.

There also exists an All Restricted Application Packages, which is naturally applied to the Windows folder, Program Files, etc, and seems that it is only possible to grant permissions to this group via Powershell.

But I did not go through this hassle, and everything seems to work well...

...Curiously

Awayting now peer review before turning this answer into a new topic

Bye bye annoying and useless permission request !

I copied without hassle a program recognized as dangerous onto the Windows folder, for testing. The only one that complained was the Defender

Anyone willing to comment about the "danger" of these changes will be barking on the wrong tree, as everyone here on this topic came for this.

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