How can I get Vista to stop being an overprotective mother?

Vista's "overprotective" behavior is one of the biggest complaints. Just like with an overprotective mom, User Account Control (UAC) really is for your own good - but if you want to take the risks, you can disable the prompts.

This is done through the Local Security Policy settings in Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate editions. At the command prompt or in the Search/Run box on the Start menu, type secpol.msc to open the LSP console. Vista will, of course, ask for your permission to continue (but this could be the last time). In the left pane, expand Local Policies, then click Security Options.

In the right pane, scroll down to User Account Control: Behavior of the Elevation Prompt for Administrators in Admin Approval Mode. Double click it, and on the Local Security Setting tab, click the down arrow in the drop-down box and select Elevate Without Prompting. Now, when you're logged on with an administrative account, you won't get that annoying "are you sure?" dialog box (and you also won't know when programs are elevating privileges). Click OK, and you're done.