Microsoft Improving User Account Control

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According to the Engineering Windows 7 blog there are a lot of changes being made to Microsoft’s User Account Control for Windows 7 and Ben Fathi, vice president for core OS development, says the changes will be for the better.

User Account Control (UAC) is, arguably, one of the most controversial features in Windows Vista. Why did Microsoft add all those popups to Windows? Does it actually improve security? Doesn’t everyone just click “continue”? Has anyone in Redmond heard the feedback on users and reviewers? Has anyone seen a tv commercial about this feature? In the course of working on Windows 7 we have taken a hard look at UAC – examining customer feedback, volumes of data, the software ecosystem, and Windows itself. Let’s start by looking at why UAC came to be and our approach in Vista.
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"User Account Control (UAC) is, arguably, one of the most controversial features in Windows Vista"

Boy, I don't even think it's arguable. Seems like every Tom, Dick and Harry that bitches about Vista can only come up with UAC as a real reason Vista sucks. The BSOD's and other so called Vista problems seem to be something most just read about then repeat to others as fact.
 
For my grandma and the general windows user it IS a great feature because of their lack of understanding of how an OS works. For people here at HardOCP it can be annoying and we all know how to disable it. I feel like one of the few that feels they are heading in the right direction with this and after reading the article it is clear they understand what needs to be changed and improved. It will be excited to see what Microsoft has up their sleeves in the next few years.
 
UAC was the best idea and the worst implemented idea in Vista.

Outside of that, I have zero complaints about Vista.
 
Hopefully they do it right in windows 7
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ya. UAC i can see the usefulness however what UAC should do is keep track of what changes does the program do. Not just say ok allow or ok disallow.

This way if a program did something nasty you can see what it did.

I disabled my UAC because it was just annoying for me. What we really need is to be able to see changes of what a program does.
 
homernoy said:
"User Account Control (UAC) is, arguably, one of the most controversial features in Windows Vista"

Boy, I don't even think it's arguable. Seems like every Tom, Dick and Harry that bitches about Vista can only come up with UAC as a real reason Vista sucks. The BSOD's and other so called Vista problems seem to be something most just read about then repeat to others as fact.
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ehhhhh....no. UAC would suck if you couldn't disable that trash app. I don't think anybody is bitching about Vista. Chuckling would be more accurate. :p
 
UAC is a non issue for home use, but pisses me off at work. You'd think SOMEONE would have at least thought of using an always-allow feature.
 
homernoy said:
Seriously, in the last 18+ months that I have had my Vista build, I have not had a single BSOD that wasn't caused by hardware problems (ie, overclocking)

Monkey34 said:
UAC is a non issue for home use, but pisses me off at work. You'd think SOMEONE would have at least thought of using an always-allow feature.
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It's annoying that it doesn't give you 5 minutes or so, like Linux does. Only bothers me on my kids computer (because it's turned off on mine) when I need to install something or fix something, because it just keeps asking for the admin password every time I try to do anything.
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I hated the UAC at first, but in the end realized it was a pretty nice security feature if really badly done. The only reason why it stays off on my machine is I have an application that redownloads itself from the web everytime it launches. And no matter how many times I tell the UAC to ignore it, I get a prompt everytime I use the program. Which is Every day so the UAC stays off. Hopefully the next version will have a feature that says "Ignore This program, all the freaking time I don't give a crap how many times it redownloads itself."
 
I have UAC turned on with my system, and I even took it a step further: the account I log in with isn't an administrator, so I have to punch in a password on UAC prompts. Now, I can tolerate this becuase nothing I commonly use triggers UAC prompts, so I only see them when I install something new or start mussing about with the system (which is rare).

The biggest issue with UAC (in my opinion) is that it only elevates for a single command. If I'm having networking trouble, I'll see UAC once to disable the connection and again to re-enable it. Microsoft really needs to take a page from Ubuntu on this one: when you elevate, it sticks for 10 minutes or thereabout. Far less annoying for when you need to make quick changes that might require multiple steps.
 
I'm getting closer to installing linux 64 as a host OS to a virtual with Vista for Exchange.
 
aarmenaa said:
The biggest issue with UAC (in my opinion) is that it only elevates for a single command. If I'm having networking trouble, I'll see UAC once to disable the connection and again to re-enable it. Microsoft really needs to take a page from Ubuntu on this one: when you elevate, it sticks for 10 minutes or thereabout. Far less annoying for when you need to make quick changes that might require multiple steps.
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Good point and a good idea.

Either way I'm still ok with it. People complain too much and UAC is fine now, anything to improve security.
 
Uhm.... Why not fix it for Vista. Is this going to be the great new feature in Windows 7 that will make everyone want to buy it.

This is crap.

Someone please make an OS and kick Windows/Microsoft's ass. We need real competition real bad.
 
Bamboo said:
Uhm.... Why not fix it for Vista. Is this going to be the great new feature in Windows 7 that will make everyone want to buy it.

This is crap.

Someone please make an OS and kick Windows/Microsoft's ass. We need real competition real bad.
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Why should they fix Vista anymore than they should keep working on XP?
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
 
Really though, whatever happened to that "subscriber content" thing?

You know, where winxp was supposed to be the last OS you ever buy from MS, and everything is an incremental upgrade package?
 
I dont object to MS coming out with new OS's, I just wish MS would increase the time between them and add more *useful* features. Right now there is one and only one reason for me to want to goto Vista, the 64bit version supports more RAM than XP32 and has more vendor support than XP64 does.
 
They should also seriously consider making Explorer not suck. And maybe bring back the old Windows Picture and Fax viewer, which was much better than the new Vista photo gallery in my opinion.

Also, the bubbly interface got old after about the first two weeks. Give us some options. (and I don't mean the option to use the Windows classic theme)
 
I personally think it works.

I don't know how they are going to "improve" it, without sacrificing security.
 
Bamboo said:
Uhm.... Why not fix it for Vista. Is this going to be the great new feature in Windows 7 that will make everyone want to buy it.

This is crap.

Someone please make an OS and kick Windows/Microsoft's ass. We need real competition real bad.
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What makes you think they won't put it in Vista? They moderately improved UAC in SP1 which means they can make changes to it.

I'm pretty sure people would rather Microsoft test it out on Win7 first before implementing it on Vista.
 
UAC is usefull.. obvious stuff like..

OI!! that keygen dont need admin rights!!

but then again, to the 'average' user, they don't realize a keygen doesn't need admin rights... so i guess it's pointless to whom it was directed at ;)
 
TechieSooner said:
I personally think it works.

I don't know how they are going to "improve" it, without sacrificing security.
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Of course it can be improved! You'll be forced to type in your password too, just like OSX and Linux. Then they can no longer say it's worse than theirs.

lol yeah right.. they'll think of something
 
Azhar said:
What makes you think they won't put it in Vista? They moderately improved UAC in SP1 which means they can make changes to it.
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Not changes to UAC itself though.

It just prevented multiple prompts for one action (like deleting an Administrative folder over a network share), instead you just get one.

Azhar said:
Of course it can be improved! You'll be forced to type in your password too, just like OSX and Linux. Then they can no longer say it's worse than theirs.
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The problem with prompting for a passsword each time is that is it only is PHYSICAL security... Mac fanatics don't actually realize it's more work the Apple way.
 
TechieSooner said:
The problem with prompting for a passsword each time is that is it only is PHYSICAL security...
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Or they could do it the right way and only require a password once, if you so choose. That's the biggest problem with UAC, no true admin mode. It bugs you EVERY single time it's triggered, while that's fine for some users, some of us would prefer not being treated like an idiot.
 
bonsai said:
Or they could do it the right way and only require a password once, if you so choose. That's the biggest problem with UAC, no true admin mode. It bugs you EVERY single time it's triggered, while that's fine for some users, some of us would prefer not being treated like an idiot.
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That's fine, but I still want it to prompt.

In your scenario:
I run msconfig: Prompt once.
I change my Windows Update settings: no prompt.
Malware changes files in c:\windows: no prompt.
 
I have programs that require me to right click and "run as admin" every time..
 
TechieSooner said:
That's fine, but I still want it to prompt.

In your scenario:
I run msconfig: Prompt once.
I change my Windows Update settings: no prompt.
Malware changes files in c:\windows: no prompt.
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Not quite. In my scenario:

I install a program: Prompt once, enter pass word for admin
I install another program: no prompt

I make changes to my start menu: Prompt once, enter password
I make more changes to my start menu: no prompt

I run some programs for a while

Malware attempts to install: oh wait, I haven't had an admin password for a while, prompt and ask for password

There are effective ways to do it and not be so intrusive, and Linux does it similar to this way.
 
UAC is annoying at times, but I'm used to it now. I'd rather see them make other improvements, like bringing back NTBackup.
 
UAC, what's that?

I don't know a single Windows Vista user that pays attention to the warning messages and/or has it enabled because they find the feature “useful”.
 
bonsai said:
Not quite. In my scenario:

I install a program: Prompt once, enter pass word for admin
I install another program: no prompt
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Still flawed.
In that situation, malware could still install crap all over your machine, and you won't ever get prompted.


bonsai said:
There are effective ways to do it and not be so intrusive, and Linux does it similar to this way.
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Linux has sudo, which isn't the same thing.
And most Windows users won't know how to run things from a command line session anyway.
 
vengence said:
UAC was the best idea and the worst implemented idea in Vista.

Outside of that, I have zero complaints about Vista.
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I agree. Experienced people complain about how annoying UAC is. While I do agree it's nagging, at least MS is trying to make steps to make your software safer. Why do people bash forward progress so much?
 
TechieSooner said:
Still flawed.
In that situation, malware could still install crap all over your machine, and you won't ever get prompted.
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That all depends on implementation.

Linux has sudo, which isn't the same thing.
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Right, it's not exactly the same, but similar in theory. Sudo requires use of a password when first initiated and enables a temporary admin level privilege. I'd like to see something similar in for UAC.
 
Master Blaster said:
I agree. Experienced people complain about how annoying UAC is. While I do agree it's nagging, at least MS is trying to make steps to make your software safer. Why do people bash forward progress so much?
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Annoying the hell out of people who dont need to be hand-held and annoying the hell out of people who dont understand what the prompts mean anyways is progress?
 
IMHO, for UAC to be effective, it shouldn’t be a separate process that can be disabled. Instead, it should be an integral part of the OS that’s incorporated into the multi-user aspect of Windows. UAC needs to be completely customizable. An administrator should be able to configure UAC and disable or enable prompts for different security risks (i.e. time setting, system settings, registry changes, etc.). This should be configurable via a user interface in the Administrative Tools and via a group policy. Default user accounts should NOT have administrator privileges by default and should prompt for a local/domain administrator password when performing tasks protected by the UAC. Furthermore, entering a password allows for a temporary administrative session that expires at a specified time.
 
Bamboo said:
Uhm.... Why not fix it for Vista. Is this going to be the great new feature in Windows 7 that will make everyone want to buy it.

This is crap.

Someone please make an OS and kick Windows/Microsoft's ass. We need real competition real bad.
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we have competition...

Apple's OSX is a pretty good OS...too bad to have to pay an arm and a leg to use it. :rolleyes:

*nix distros are too "techie" for the home user, unless you really dumb it down like what Asus did with Xandros on the EeePC. My cousin has been using my 701 for taking notes in her nursing classes and it does everything she needs it to with Xandros.

If you want "better competition" then some things need to change on all sides of the coin. For now though, Windows will keep dominating until that happens.
 
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