macnn/electronista
04/11/2008, 1:35pm, EDT
Friday, April 11thMicrosoft: Vista UAC intended 'to annoy users'
One of Windows Vista's design features was deliberately implemented "to annoy users," a Microsoft executive admitted yesterday at the RSA 2008 conference in San Francisco. David Cross, a product unit manager, explained to an audience that Vista's User Account Control scheme was built to discourage people from running as an administrator on their computers, which in case of attack can grant hackers deeper access than they might otherwise be allowed. "We needed to change the ecosystem, and we needed a heavy hammer to do it," said Cross.
The problem, many Vista owners have complained, is that it is common for users to run as administrators regardless, and UAC can harass people regularly and unnecessarily. Cross dismisses these concerns, noting that "most users" have no UAC warnings on an average day, although only 66 percent of sessions are said to be alert-free. Cross also rejects the notion that that users are shutting off UAC, citing Microsoft statistics that 88 percent of Vista users keep it active.
"Are there some annoyances with UAC? Yes, but advanced users know how to get around them," says Cross.
Filed under: security, software
Other story tags: Microsoft, Vista, Windows
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Doofuses.
First thing I did was find the Windows Classic button to get rod of the POS Aero UI.
Second I was annoyed at UAC. I wanted to look at device manager - UAC to just LOOK. I wanted to remove some icons from the menubar - UAC. Want to poke around and just look? UAC. A smart way would be to UAC you if you try to change something, not just look.
VISTA=POS
Second, because Aero is so completely different, it introduces an unnecessary learning curve - so again, I turn it off. Windows Classic - eases the transition.
YMMV.
Trying to achieve a goal through annoyance is childish and ineffective.
For all their size, it appears the M$ has no good design sense at all, and this is just one more example.
If they were truly smart, they'd offer alternatives that were more attractive and safer to entice users away from admin accounts, not piss them off until they gave it up.
However, we should know by now that the M$ architecture wouldn't make this easy to design. Their loss, I guess.
Here's a better idea - design an operating system properly and you can have a secure operating system without annoying your users.
Why does one seem to need a "PHD in MS operting systems"?
When will MS write an OS for novice, non-techies, who don't want to spend hours figuring out how to stop annoying stuff like this?
Makes me glad to be a "Mac Kool-Aid" drinker than a "PC Kool-Aid" drinker!
But to be fair, Apple should also do more to educate (as opposed to MS's annoy tactic) users to not use admin accounts for their day-to-day computer use. It's probably not as big a deal on a Mac, but it's still a good practice. I'd bet that the vast majority of Mac users run as admin, not because of a specific decision on their part, but because that's the account that was created the first time the started up their Mac. And they've never had reason to consider creating a non-admin account to use.