Vista issues just trying to VIEW something

[Evil_T0NY {CLR}]

My parents recently got a laptop with VISTA on it, and they have been very dissatisfied with it.

Vista tends to "OVERHELP" users a little too much.

Or has a lot of interrupts when trying to install programs.

1. Everytime you try to install or even RUN something you get an annoying pop up saying, "Are you sure you want to run this?"

How do you stop that

2. My mom tried to view my dads cat scans from the Hospital (something important becuase he has health issues) and apparently Windows VISTA would not let her view the items unless she installed that software...AND in order tin INSTALL that software, she would have to log on as Administrator

Well, guess what, as far as we know They're the only people that log in.

My mom actually had to resort to just putting the CD on an older lap to just to view the Cat scans.

It should NOT have to be this way.

I browsed in order how to do this....on google, apparently you have to go into Adminstrative tools, Comp Mgt, and find the "Local Users and Groups" folder to take care of it there

But guess hwat "Local Users and Groups was NOT there on my folks computer

Why should we have to go through ALL that just to like at images on a CD????

This is unacceptable.

[Dead...Again]

Take a deep breath, Tony.

UAC can be rather annoying. It can be disabled, but I would recommend "replacing" it with this:

Norton UAC

This one remembers your answers, so it doesn't bug you quite as much.

As far as admin stuff goes, I just made all my user accounts admins...

"Local Users and Groups" should be under System Tools.

[mapes]

My guess is the cat scans are in a proprietary image format and need some type of viewer to view them. So you need to install the cat scan package. UAC is annoying and asking for the right permissions to install the package. You can turn it off but, if your folks are not computer savvy this could be bad. You could try putting your folks users accounts into the admin group. The reason you prolly don't have a local user and groups is because you have the stripped down "Home" version... On some level MS tried to do the right thing by locking the machine down. I mean they were bashed for years for having machines that were so easily hacked that they finally did something in the right direction. However the implementation was so bad it just pisses people off now. Or maybe any type of security would piss off the average window user by this point... They tried I will give them that.

[DougBob]

That's exactly what it's trying to install mapes is a viewer.
The main thing Tony is if they get prompted for a password they are NOT an administrator account.
This is normal and as the others have said the UAC is not a big deal.
This type security is just something to get use to and it's not going to get better. It's time for everyone to get use to using strong passwords, etc.
Give them administrator access or if you are trying to control the machine install if for them. You can also, as previously mentioned, turn off the UAC. I will caution you here though, the advantage of UAC is mostly for the novice user and prevents an unknown trojan from launching a program with privileges that could cause damage.
If you don't live with them I would suggest you setup a remote system using something like VNC. I use the registered version so my connection is encrypted. I can access my home PC in CO from here in NC. The free version will not go secure.