Has anyone ever seen a Windows 11 UAC prompt look like this?
Posted by HJForsythe@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 89 comments
I'm having a bit of a crash out trying to figure out what is making the UAC prompt on this machine behave this way... notice that the username field is 'tabbed out' from the side of the window and it appears to be a completely different type of form field than the password field.
I'm becoming convinced that this machine has been compromised or something but I can't find anything.
I've asked Microsoft but they don't have any idea.
Here is the image:
Also the monitor being dirty isn't really my choice.
dlongwing@reddit
Looks like they set the alignment on the fields to center in the box. Notice how the end is also short by the same measure?
Valdaraak@reddit
More like their AI set the alignment and nobody double checked before pushing to prod.
dustojnikhummer@reddit
And nobody cares to fix it. I think I first saw this on this very subreddit a few months back
HJForsythe@reddit (OP)
The two form fields don't even look like the same field maybe it's because one of them is the active field that they look different but this looks like my 1995 HTML
Palantir_Scraper@reddit
Lmao you're right
Any-Fly5966@reddit
lol I knew what the picture was before opening. Yes, mine looks like that as well after upgrading to 25H2.
maggotses@reddit
24H2 looks like that too
dustojnikhummer@reddit
Confirming this on 24H2, pretty sure I have had this for a few months
ZippyTheRoach@reddit
Yeah, I think the March update triggered this for me
dustojnikhummer@reddit
I have that on 24H2
HJForsythe@reddit (OP)
oh thank god it would be nice if they acknowledged it. I asked them in a ticket and they said they had no idea.
narcissisadmin@reddit
Was that before or after they told you to run sfc /scannow LOL
charleswj@reddit
It's the needful thing one does
HJForsythe@reddit (OP)
they actually did
nightwatch_admin@reddit
good god that is magnificent
HJForsythe@reddit (OP)
Indeed. The only question now is will anyone ever notice or fix it?
loosebolts@reddit
Or just ignore your time zone preferences and phone you in the middle of the night.
snklznet@reddit
User did not answer, assuming resolved. Closed
Hollow3ddd@reddit
It’s the old AOL sign on fake box. For the 90s teens here
outcastcolt@reddit
Because they probably dont know and or don't care.
Read up on the whole azure fedramp debacle, give you a little insight to how much they care.
Unable-Entrance3110@reddit
haha, yep, same. As soon as I saw the headline, I knew what I was going to see here.
Windows 10 UAC prompts still look fine, but Windows 11 all show this strange alignment problem now. Been happening since the February updates, I believe.
dracotrapnet@reddit
Same prompt on 24h2 at work, all my stuff is locked out of 25h2 right now. We always stay 1 feature update behind. Just like concrete doesn't cure for years, windows features are cured for a long time.
Rawme9@reddit
Yep lol threw us for a loop too.
dustojnikhummer@reddit
Nope, they broke the dialog about a year ago. There were jokes about MS rebuilding this with Copilot.
OgdruJahad@reddit
Hello Microsoft I'm getting this weird UAC message box and..
Microsoft:"Hey man I'm just a scammer just leave me alone."
thezemo@reddit
What's wrong with it?
Sourve@reddit
Wait until you get the UI that is minimized in the bottom-left of the screen. I just had a computer with that happen and it took awhile to find because I was attempting to open programs and nothing would open but it wasn't frozen. The prompt UI was hidden behind other programs and prevented you from doing anything. You could only see the username line with no other indicator of what it was.
nesnalica@reddit
someone at microsoft messed up the gui that was working fine for decades.
CeC-P@reddit
Some "one?"
I think you mean some AI system.
theEvilQuesadilla@reddit
And then promptly promoted, I assume.
thebigshoe247@reddit
Just doing the needful.
G8racingfool@reddit
Nah, they were a contract worker and their 18 months was up so they were let go.
fnordhole@reddit
At least they got to keep their source code.
osricson@reddit
Some AI you mean…
Opiboble@reddit
100% this.
Evil-Bosse@reddit
I imagine the workflow being something like "hey copilot, my metrics are looking bad this month, I need to push more code. Can you fix some stuff in stuff we haven't touched in ages? And give me what to close the tickets with"
joedotdog@reddit
You could have just stopped right there.
tejanaqkilica@reddit
Apple did the same with the latest release of iOS. Change for the sake of change.
Haboob_AZ@reddit
Yeah it came with the latest updates. It's annoying.
curleys@reddit
Oh sweet summer child. That's not your fault, Microsoft has been vibe coding again.
jmbpiano@reddit
It's not just 25H2.
I can confirm from experience that the monthly update a couple months ago did the same thing to 24H2 and I wouldn't be surprised if 23H2 was seeing the same thing (we're running Pro, not Enterprise, so I can't check).
Lots of people have been griping about it on the Patch Tuesday megathreads since it happened (myself included).
BrainBackedUpToDisk@reddit
I was going to add this, its definitely not just 25H2. I did notice it but didn't think much of it other than another microsoft bug, but its the same on lots of our 24H2 machines. We run enterprise but cant comment on 23H2
hooblelley@reddit
Absolutely, this happens when you replace engineers with fucking AI
Nexthink_Quentin@reddit
yeah mine looks like that too after 25H2, freaked me out at first but seems like it’s just how it is now
tmontney@reddit
Started noticing that on 25H2, maybe some 24H2, a month or two ago.
fingermeal@reddit
I know exactly what causes this. Or at least I thought I did. Made a change to policy a few months back and then the UAC acted like this. Thought it was just a bug with that. weird.
CoolNefariousness668@reddit
Yeah I saw this in the last few weeks, I thought I was cracking up.
tuxedo_jack@reddit
Are they using display scaling?
100% is the way ~
Vicus_92@reddit
Noticed the same thing yesterday.
Just another new QA failure and bug. Don't worry about it, Microsoft being Microsoft.
reciprocity__@reddit
Quality control at Microsoft strikes again. I've found so many of these UI issues across the UI as a whole. It's a shame.
Pimpdaddymatt822@reddit
Yes
Horrigan49@reddit
Yes. MS vibecoding AI at its finest lately.
HJForsythe@reddit (OP)
Yeah change the UAC prompt so that OCD/neurodivergant folks just lose their minds and then gaslight them when they open a ticket and tell them you have no idea what happened.
Majik_Sheff@reddit
What do you mean? It's always looked this way.
fearless-fossa@reddit
Just wait until they make the password part of the window vertical.
RikiWardOG@reddit
yup all the time now lmao
Overdraft4706@reddit
i would love to see it, but imgur is blocked in the UK. Because government reasons.
rebri@reddit
Yes. I have to run in privileged mode now. Thanks Microslop.
baw3000@reddit
Dirty monitors are always a choice.
HJForsythe@reddit (OP)
c'mon man its not my screen
baw3000@reddit
Sounds like something that someone with a dirty screen would say.
iogbri@reddit
Microsoft support having no idea, what? They all look like that where I work and have been looking like that for a little while already.
HJForsythe@reddit (OP)
its apparently not a 'known issue' to them.
hadrabap@reddit
Apparently it is not "known feature" either 😀
joeysundotcom@reddit
Aren't they like... a software company of sorts, that could easily correct something like this?
Well... probably better not. Crash pilot will fill the space with "You are absolutely right. The field shouldn't be indented."
Retrowinger@reddit
Yes, same here 😑
recoveringasshole0@reddit
You might be interested in my post from January 9th.
WindowsVistaWzMyIdea@reddit
Mine don't look like this because I clean my screen.... Otherwise this looks normal
Bippychipdip@reddit
yeah I noticed this on some of our machines as soon as we started testing. Didn't see anything written from MS after that, and saw others mentioning it first lol. Spooked me a bit at first
Dodough@reddit
If you're convinced the machine is compromised, Just trigger your security incident procedure.
There's no point in investigating why this happens if you don't know what you're looking for and if you plan to wipe the machine.
You should hire some cybersec consultants if you need to do forensics at this point
thortgot@reddit
This isnt a compromise. Who are you hiring to investigate GUI changes?
Dodough@reddit
Op is saying they suspect a compromise. I don't know about this change as i don't elevate privileges on workstations so I really have no idea on why it looks like that
Reek_Elderblood@reddit
good penetation Testing can also help them if any of those thing happed to them.
rmich18@reddit
Yes, mine has looked like that for over 2 months now. Couldn’t tell you if it’s still happening - I switched to Linux (finally) a little over a month ago. I’m sure Microslop will fix it by 2028.
unstopablex15@reddit
Good 'ol Microsoft keep you on your toes.
OldElPasoSnowplow@reddit
Yeah see my post in the r/iiiiiiitttttttttttt
Sillent_Screams@reddit
It’s not the UAC bug is it ?
vabello@reddit
I think last month’s update caused this. It’s on every updated machine I touch.
One_Monk_2777@reddit
There are now 4 possible ways for this to be displayed, with the tab as you see, sometimes ask for username, sometimes asks for users name(not at all confusing), and if entra asks for email
Brilliant-Advisor958@reddit
The dpi settings seem to affecting the uac prompt these days.
Secret-Result-5360@reddit
Yep. It's stupid and I hate scrolling to click the things I want.
Less_Inflation_8867@reddit
Yep. Mine does this.
jmhalder@reddit
What is in the domain field? If this is a company machine, you should let them know, not Reddit. Maybe they changed the "level" on UAC requiring a username/password.
The default policy for UAC only requires Yes/No buttons for local admins, which is why this is 100% a question for your company.
HJForsythe@reddit (OP)
You missed the point of the post, I'm not mad at you but it's just... true.
jmhalder@reddit
I updated my comment before it even counted as "edited".
Everyone immediately jumped in here to say that this is indeed a half-assed Microsoft UI change.
PolMacTire@reddit
I had this as well and couldn't attribute it to anything untoward/malicious. I settled on the assumption that it's yet another W11 bug until I find out otherwise.
netburnr2@reddit
Microslops broke that in a n update a couple months ago.
NirvanaFan01234@reddit
I've noticed that 'tabbed' username field lately.
Magic_Neil@reddit
It started a month or two ago immediately after a cumulative update on 25H2