Secure Desktop is feature that works in combination with UAC and dims your entire desktop whenever a new UAC message comes up. This is very annoying! Luckily, you can turn off secure desktop without affecting your UAC settings. Thank you Microsoft.

How to Turn Off Secure Desktop in Windows 7

Note: in Windows 7 you can also just drag the UAC slider to turn off the secure desktop instead of using the registry hack, but the UAC settings won’t be as strict. It’s a trade-off, your choice.