As Savyg said I also recommend leaving UAC on. I have to admit I have skipped Windows Vista, but Windows 7 UAC looks like it is doing a great job and it is not very annoying.

I only use Windows for gaming and the multimedia capabilities, for the rest I use a Linux distribution (Ubuntu at home, Fedora at work). In Linux you have to enter a password (yours our the root account) to install a program or do any stuff related to system configuration.

So from my point of view UAC is very permissive, you only have to press yes and search for some solutions on the internet when you hit some problems (usually at the software company that created the software).

I do not recommend turning UAC completely off: There are benefits beyond that dialog box that you may not notice, but may prevent you from getting stung.

There is a workaround in Vista, and I'm sure it applies to 7 as well:

Use the the task scheduler.

Interestingly enough, the task scheduler starts as an elevated process and has the ability to create new elevated processes without prompts. Just add a task in there to load your programs with admin privileges at startup.

A Ph.D. security professional (who works at a nuclear power plant) lists a series of security maxims you should know about, here are a few:

You're right, the systems he maintains are likely to be vastly more secure than any desktop OS in existence. He still warns vehemently about being arrogant and downgrading your security.

For example, most people know how to write security tokens and use them daily whenever a piece of software requests resources from the OS. Most people have written their own browser using protected mode. And oh, yeah, most people already know how to stop automated clicks by malware.

If you believe that UAC is just that prompt you see, you do not know what UAC is.

Until, of course, something happens. Which hasn't happened yet for you, but for many people it has.

I don't care how long you haven't had problems. I haven't had problems in a long time, either. But I still don't recommend scaling back on security.

Just because incidents are rare does not mean they don't happen. You personally may not be hacked, but somebody else taking your advice might be. And there's nothing saying you won't have an incident in the future, either. If you do have an incident and UAC could've prevented it, you'd be pretty embarrased.

You haven't had an incident? Great! But don't think that the bad guys simply go away, and don't think that current security practices will always be enough in the future. Stuff changes.

Maybe from a different point of view may help:

I like knowing when something wants to access my system files. That's how most stuff gets in, by overwriting the system files.

If I disable UAC, how will I know if that new program I've downloaded is trying to access files it shouldn't?

BTW - with most new installers on legit software, they offer the choice between being accesible to all users or being accessible to just the current user.

If you choose to install for just the current user, many installers won't bother you with UAC.

As an added bonus, the installed software gives you a UAC prompt if malware hooks onto it, and then you can know if something is wrong.

If you're on a single user system, it's a good idea to install most stuff for just the current user. Less UAC prompts.

UAC isn't bad, especially on Windows 7, and especially with newer installers.

Well, that's likely more a flaw with the driver rather than windows 7.