Vista UAC

Posted on October 12, 2008

Vista user? Like UAC? Didn’t think so…

Windows users get awfully tired of Vista’s pop-ups so Microsoft says they are doing something about it. Next time.

No help for now but if you will buy the new Windows 7 when it comes out, you’ll find a revised and scaled back User Account Control.

One of the main intents of the UAC feature was to let users know that something was trying to make system-level changes to the computer — like installing some program or plug-in or turning off the firewall, etc. The idea was to help less experienced users, to let them know about the changes taking place in case any of them were malicious in nature.

For everyone else, the UAC pop-ups are quite annoying. Even new users soon get tired of constantly seeing the UAC’s prompts. If you’ve used Vista for any length of time, you know that being asked to Allow or Cancel, having to click Yes to continue, needing to convince Windows that you really know what you’re doing after all, can really begin to get to you.

Microsoft is revamping the UAC and reducing the number of prompts for both usability and security. Usability is up front with most users’ thinking but security should not be disregarded just to reduce the number of extra clicks one has to make. With that in mind, some say Vista spends so much time popping up alerts that malware may actually have an easier time slipping in.

Either way, Windows 7 could be available by late 2009 or early 2010. Maybe things really will be better.