What the tool does is replace the default UAC prompts with it's own. It doesn't disable UAC it just enhances it's features. It adds an ability to remember your choice which is something the default UAC prompts don't allow you to do. For example you are tired of always clicking allow when you start a program that needs admin priviliges so with the tool you can now make it remember your choice so the next time you start that program the UAC prompt will be suppresed.
Vista's default UAC prompt:
Norton Tool UAC prompt(notice the little
Don't ask me again checkbox):
Again i provide a quote from one of the developers of the tool to give you a bit more info ... I quoted this from the BetaNews page. Pay attention to the part i put in the red letters in particular.
[disclosure: I am a developer at Symantec and was involved in the Norton UAC Tool. I am posting here because I wanted to clarify a few things regarding the Norton UAC Tool and respond to a few of the concerns posted in comments.]
The Norton UAC tool allows an application to run with silently-elevated privileges only in a specific context that was previously approved by the user with the "don't ask again" check box selected.
This means that there is a difference between regedit.exe launched from the start->run box, regedit.exe originating from a shortcut double click, and regedit.exe launched from a double click on a .reg file (and the context actually changes with each .reg file), and regedit.exe being launched by an application (malicious or not).
Given the contextual awareness of Norton UAC tool's automatic answering, the Norton UAC tool provides a usability improvement over Vista's default UAC prompts, while maintaining obvious security improvements in the Vista kernel (such as isolation, file/registry virtualization, and user interface privilege isolation) that are all disabled when UAC is disabled.
We decided to write this tool after we noticed two alarming trends with UAC. The first is that users fully disable UAC - which is a horrible workaround to a minor usability issue (since it disables isolation and virtualization - which in turn removes IE's protected mode). The second is that users get so used to responding to UAC prompts with "allow" that the prompts are often not even read by the user (Chicken Little "the sky is falling syndrome).
As a result, we are collecting information on the subject matter of prompts in addition to the response times to determine if reducing the overall number of prompts (by allowing users to remember their answers) causes users to spend more time reading the prompts... Microsoft records very similar timing and response information for all of Vista and Office when you agree to take part in the Customer Experience Improvement Program.
As for the impact to your system, the Norton UAC tool produces no running processes and is only active during a UAC prompt. We worked very hard to ensure the Norton UAC tool as as fast or faster than the built in Vista UAC prompts.
