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Vista UAC Offers Protection, Headaches
Doug Caverly
Staff Writer
2006-05-24
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
In the beta version of Windows Vista, many users have found the User Account Control (UAC) to be little more than a nuisance. A large number of them have apparently disabled the feature, which is designed to protect the computer. But there are other, and better, options than that strong measure.
In Vista, the default UAC setting requires users to provide administrative credentials before installing a program or altering a Windows system setting. This represents a big change from XP, in which most users had unrestricted access as members of the administrative group. Disabling the UAC will prevent the feature's dialogue consent boxes, but it will also turn off protection against spyware, viruses, and unwise (or accidental) system configuration changes. Ed Blott, a veteran tech writer, has some better ideas.
He suggests that users run Control Panel as an administrator. This would allow for all Control Panel options to be used with full administrative privileges. Alternately, users could run Internet Explorer as an administrator, which Blott says would let them "use this window to run any program, browse any drive or folder, or use any Control Panel option without seeing another consent dialog box."
An even more effective measure would be to open a Command Prompt window as an administrator. Users could do anything they'd want to in that window. For a more drastic option still, users could turn off the Secure Desktop. "This option leaves you vulnerable to security exploits that spoof ordinary consent dialog boxes," Blott warns, "but for an experienced user this tradeoff might be acceptable."
If all of these solutions seem like too much of a nuisance, you still don't necessarily need to disable the UAC as soon as you get your hands on Vista. There have been enough complaints about it in beta form that Microsoft will probably make some changes before releasing the final version. If Microsoft doesn't adjust the UAC, though, you'll probably want to read more about Ed Blott's proposed workarounds here.
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About the Author:
Doug is a staff writer for SecurityProNews, InternetFinancialNews, SearchNewz, and WebProNews.
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