- Messages
- 182
- Location
- Portland, Oregon, USA
OK, i've done a bit of research on this already, and i have long known why some programs have this shield on their icon (to indicate that some apps might require elevated priviledges to run). but i have been using PCs for quite a few yrs now and consider myself an experienced user, so now i just want to get rid of it forever without turning off UAC so i can continue to use Metro/Modern apps. i read up on several methods, but the most interesting one involved editing the imageres.dll file in C:\Windows\System32, in icon #78 (i think that's the one). you can see what i mean by right-clicking on any shortcut and selecting the "change icon" option and then navigating to the imageres.dll file, then you will see all the possible icons in Windows. The one i'm referring to is the blue/yellow shield.
But anyways, i used IcoFX to edit that one icon in the file and made it transparent/opaque, and then imported the icon into imageres.dll with Resource Hacker (i found a tutorial on another forum). then i rebooted, deleted the imageres.dll from C:\Windows\System32 and from C:\Windows\SysWOW64 via a CMD prompt on my 8 install usb drive, and replaced it with my edited file. Windows booted up fine, at which point i still saw the UAC overlay, so i cleared the icon cache for both user accounts on my PC. then rebooted again. this time the overlays were gone permanently................until i changed my desktop to use Small Icons, because that's how i like things to be. and as soon as i did, it came back. but switching back to medium/large icons removes the overlay again.
so my question is, since i completely edited the UAC shield from the imageres.dll, then where else can Windows be finding it so as to display it? it has to be coming from somewhere and im wondering where the source is, probably within imageres.dll, so i can edit it out. i realize this is really no big deal, but i just like to personalize my pc to the max and have everything looking/running the way i like it as much as possible. so if anyone has any idea what im talking about then please respond. thanks!
on a side note, i dont see this overlay on any icons while i'm logged into the so-called "real" Administrator account, only on my MS account. but i'm sure that is because the real Admin account isnt subject to UAC by default and any apps ran under that account are always elevated. I'm also not seeing the UAC shield in the right-click context menu under "Run as admin" or elsewhere after making this change, but that dont bother me, and my system appears to be running just fine. and of course i backed-u-p the originals so that i can always restore them if need be. so no harm done regardless.
Am posting several screenshots to illustrate. i'm not uploading my imageres.dll because it is too large (60+ MB). but nmy basic steps were to open it IcoFX, extract the UAC icon, make every opaque/transparent, and then merge the icon back into imageres.dll with Resource Hacker. for anyone who wants to look at it, its identical to the one provided by MS except the blue/yellow shield has effectively been removed (but not really, just made invisible to the eye)..........
But anyways, i used IcoFX to edit that one icon in the file and made it transparent/opaque, and then imported the icon into imageres.dll with Resource Hacker (i found a tutorial on another forum). then i rebooted, deleted the imageres.dll from C:\Windows\System32 and from C:\Windows\SysWOW64 via a CMD prompt on my 8 install usb drive, and replaced it with my edited file. Windows booted up fine, at which point i still saw the UAC overlay, so i cleared the icon cache for both user accounts on my PC. then rebooted again. this time the overlays were gone permanently................until i changed my desktop to use Small Icons, because that's how i like things to be. and as soon as i did, it came back. but switching back to medium/large icons removes the overlay again.
so my question is, since i completely edited the UAC shield from the imageres.dll, then where else can Windows be finding it so as to display it? it has to be coming from somewhere and im wondering where the source is, probably within imageres.dll, so i can edit it out. i realize this is really no big deal, but i just like to personalize my pc to the max and have everything looking/running the way i like it as much as possible. so if anyone has any idea what im talking about then please respond. thanks!
on a side note, i dont see this overlay on any icons while i'm logged into the so-called "real" Administrator account, only on my MS account. but i'm sure that is because the real Admin account isnt subject to UAC by default and any apps ran under that account are always elevated. I'm also not seeing the UAC shield in the right-click context menu under "Run as admin" or elsewhere after making this change, but that dont bother me, and my system appears to be running just fine. and of course i backed-u-p the originals so that i can always restore them if need be. so no harm done regardless.
Am posting several screenshots to illustrate. i'm not uploading my imageres.dll because it is too large (60+ MB). but nmy basic steps were to open it IcoFX, extract the UAC icon, make every opaque/transparent, and then merge the icon back into imageres.dll with Resource Hacker. for anyone who wants to look at it, its identical to the one provided by MS except the blue/yellow shield has effectively been removed (but not really, just made invisible to the eye)..........
Attachments
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 8.1 Pro x64, Windows Server 2012 R2 x64
- Computer type
- Laptop
- System Manufacturer/Model
- Lenovo G700
- CPU
- Intel Core i7-3632QM, 2.20 GHz
- Motherboard
- Lenovo
- Memory
- 6 GB DDR3
- Graphics Card(s)
- NVIDIA 720M, Intel HD 4000
- Monitor(s) Displays
- 1 monitor
- Screen Resolution
- 1600x900 (max)
- Hard Drives
- 1 TB HDD (5400 RPM), 1.5 TB HDD (5400 RPM) installed in a 12.7mm disc drive caddy
- Case
- Lenovo
- Keyboard
- Lenovo
- Mouse
- Laptop/notebook keyboard/touchpad
- Internet Speed
- It varies, since I'm mobile most of the time
- Browser
- Chromium (the open-source browser which Google Chrome is derived from)
- Antivirus
- Kaspersky, Malwarebytes, Spybot, Privatefirewall
- Other Info
- I will add more information here later