So I never used Vista, except for the 30 minutes between un-boxing my PC and upgrading to Windows XP, until my new position. Its pretty and glossy, but I am starting to understand the UAC headache. So here is one way Im working around the frustration.

Pretend you want to edit a file that needs elevated rights. Usually you wont realize it until youve opened it, attempted to save it, and found it doesnt allow you to so.  Then you open Notepad, browse to the file and then make the change.

I found this helpful article about how to customize the Send To menu in Vista. I followed that and added Notepad to that folder twice. One was a regular shortcut, but I renamed the other to Notepad as Administrator.

Then right click the Notepad as Administrator, click Properties, click Advanced, and then check Run as administrator.

Click OK out of all the dialogs. Now when you right click a file you have a few extra options.