Hi @badger101, it does feel like @bruno29a might be on to something but the whole admin/non-admin/uac thing does feel odd nonetheless.
I wonder if it might be worth doing a second installation of KNIME on your pc, by downloading one of the zip file versions of the install (rather than the “installer”). Just unzip to a totally separate folder outside of Program Files or wherever, and run the knime.exe file contained within it. Then see if that version behaves itself with UAC switched back on. I’ve currently got 3 different versions of knime installed side-by-side in this way (each with its own workspace).
Another thought… what folder do you have KNIME installed in, and what folder are you using for it’s workspace? I remember having an issue with an installation of firefox some years ago that fired a UAC prompt at me almost every time it started up because it was doing (yet another) update. I finally figured that for whatever reason, during installation, something had caused it to install itself in a way that made windows think it was an elevated application. Uninstalling and re-installing somewhere different fixed the issue.
Also… how to check if a specific application is running with elevated permissions, using task manager: