Windows Vista Odd 'shield' behaviour on desktop icons.

Hello, I checked for an Apple update using the updater (I have it set to 'never auto update)'. I have it as a shortcut icon on my desktop. I also use SpywareBlaster & have that as a desktop icon as well. Both of these icons until today had a little coloured shield in front (& slightly to the right) of them (coloured red, green, blue & yellow). The same as the Security Centre shield. I am assuming it is for applications which are admin by default. For some reason the shields disappeared from in front of the Apple updater & SpywareBlaster. Everything seems to be working normally. I am running Vista Home Premium.

I had turned the UAC off earlier to customise the toolbar on K-Meleon but that was turned back on after about five or ten minutes or so. I am Admin on this computer & the only user. I have right-clicked on SpywareBlaster's icon & checked 'run as admin' in 'advanced' & the shield has returned.

I find that I can't do this with the Apple updater though. I cannot tick the check box.

The Apple Updater (unlike SpywareBlaster) has never ran as admin by default anyway & I just click on it to run it. I have run AV & anti-malware scans & a full SUPERAntiSpyware scan & everything is clean (not even a tracking cookie). All of my security settings seem normal.

I am fairly convinced this behaviour has been triggered by my turning off the UAC momentarily once or twice over the past couple of days as I have been customising the GUI on various default K-Meleon skins.

Has anyone else encountered a similar event?

Can anyone explain this please?

 

I use QuickTime quite a bit & it updates occasionally. When you install QuickTime it also installs iTunes. I don't use iTunes much but QuickTime is very useful. I also have Safari 4 installed although I don't use it much. If you have any Apple software installed there is an updater which you can manually check for updates. I made a desktop icon of this for convenience. It doesn't matter how often I delete & re-make these icons they stay the same. SpywareBlaster runs by default in admin & always has, which is why I believe it has the 'admin shield' on its desktop icon. For some reason the Apple Updater icon had this shield as well. Even though you didn't have to run it as admin. In fact, I don't think you ever could run it as admin. I would just click on it & it runs & checks for Apple updates. It still does this. I am just at a loss as to why the 'shield' has disappeared. I am relatively convinced that it has to do with my turning off the UAC a few times recently to customise the K-Meleon toolbars config. With K-Meleon on Vista you can't save changes to the Notepad document for the tools config with the UAC turned on. So I have sometimes switched it off while I customise the GUI. Over the past week I have probably turned the UAC on & off, with the attendant re-starting of the computer, four or five times as I have been customising various K-Meleon skins.

I am assuming this has some bearing on why the 'admin' shield has disappeared from the Apple Updater. It was never 'admin' anyway. SpywareBlaster can only be run as 'admin' & the shield disappeared from that at about the same time. However, I have discovered that I can return the shield to its desktop icon. Which makes sense as it is the only icon that can ONLY be run as admin. I can change any of the desktop icons to run in 'admin' if I want to. However, the little shield does not appear on the icon I choose to run as admin.

I think this disappearing shield behaviour was almost certainly precipitated by my switching the UAC on & off over the past couple of days or so.

I think.....

 

I installed QuickTime & Safari on a relative's computer (also Vista HP) & the Apple Updater icon has this shield. Mine did until recently. I have only turned the UAC off a couple of times on her computer, this was specifically to install the adblocking list in SRWare Iron. The process is not dissimilar to saving config changes in K-Meleon.

I have checked by right-clicking on the respective icons. As I said, SpywareBlaster now has this shield logo back, as I can check a box to do this. I'm no expert but I am guessing that this is indicating that the icon has to be run as admin. The funny thing is, is that the Apple Updater never did run as admin, or admin only. It doesn't on my relative's computer either. I can't understand why it ever had the shield logo to begin with.

It may not sound very important, but I like to figure things out. My theory is that the UAC is a bit weird & it is only until you switch it off & on a few times it works properly.

It must at first believe that the Apple Updater is 'admin only' when it never actually was.

After the UAC has been run a few times by switching it on & off it must realise its mistake.

I'm just guessing....