I've had a trend lately of GOG games triggering UAC every time I launch them. If you don't know what UAC is, it's when Windows warns you a program is trying to "make changes to your computer." Usually it only happens when installing something, and it can be a useful security feature in case you accidentally launch a bad exe. Anyway...

Is there a way to stop this? The shortcuts also have administrator icons on them, but "launch in administrator mode" is not checked in properties. Also, that shouldn't trigger UAC anyway.

It's happened with three games in a row now, all of them roughly Windows XP era games. The "use Windows XP mode" is checked and cannot be unchecked.

Plenty of games made for XP and 9x require running in admin mode to work. And if that icon's there, it means it will run in admin mode, that setting may force admin mode if checked, but if the program itself requires it, having it unchecked won't make it not run in admin mode. As for whether it triggers UAC or not, depends on your settings. In my case it always will trigger it, but been used to that since Vista, so...

Hmm, it's a new thing for me. Guess I could check UAC settings, I thought it was just on or off.

Does it do it when you install to folders which are not windows controlled (e.g. not in program files)? As I do not get this and I never install anything to program files or x86. I always create c:/mygames, c:/myprograms, etc.

Out of what I have installed now, NWN and KoDP require running as admin, though that may not be relevant for the current GOG versions as NWN is the retail version and KoDP the old GOG one, not the new/enhanced.
Trying to remember whether Return to Krondor, Disciples 1 or at least some of the first three AoW games also required that, think at least some did.
None installed on the system partition at all by the way.

But a quick search turned up various other threads about various games requiring running as admin:
https://www.gog.com/forum/stalker_series/how_do_you_run_the_game_without_admin_rights
https://www.gog.com/forum/general_archive/why_do_gog_games_need_admin_privileges/page1
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/some_games_requiring_admin_privs_to_run
https://www.gog.com/forum/system_shock_series/any_way_to_avoid_admin_access_requirement
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/618459931322551949/
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/612823460257426546/ (This includes a registry hack to supposedly stop them from running as admin, says it's also tested for GOG versions of NWN, NWN2 and Settlers 3.)
And even this help entry about something as recent as Fallout 4, recommending to run it as admin, https://help.bethesda.net/app/answers/detail/a_id/25516/~/what-should-i-do-if-i-get-a-message-stating-failed-to-start-game-%28unknown

The whole "launch in administrator mode" in properties is only for "compatibility" purpose, as in if you want to force a program in administrator mode.

But that's not the only way to have a program to run in admin mode, the most common is the specify it in the EXE manifest (for example if you look at regedit.exe), that's probably the case here.

As to your question, it's not really easy, you can modify a compiled exe manifest with some dev tools but it's rather hackish, also if Gog forced the admin mode it might be because it is required for the installation to succeeded.

You can change these settings and here is how: Right-click on the shortcut -> Compatibility -> Change settings for all users

I'm using UAC Pass to circumvent this issue. But read the FAQ carefully how it works exactly.

They're installed to a "games" folder directly on C drive.

I get that they're running in admin mode for particular reasons. I just don't know why that triggers UAC on every launch. Lots of stuff runs in admin mode and doesn't do that, in my experience. Unless this is a new Win10 thing.

Ah, could be. There was an update just recently that forced Edge in, I.e. you had to go a few steps of the install in before you could remove the dreadful thing, so I wouldn’t be suprised if they are pushing more “security” features in a effort to lock more into the windows “oh my how bad is it” store, or GFWDead 2.

In many cases i've disabled admin priveledges and it works fine... Actually can't name one that didn't work yet...

Windows 7 is better than 10.