If after the computer is setup you are constantly seeing UAC prompts you are
doing something wrong. I hardly ever see a UAC prompt.
While getting at financial information and identity theft is the goal of
some malware it is not the goal of most current malware. Most current
malware has the goal of extortion (e.g. spysherrif) or the goal of taking
control of your computer to use it as a zombie. The extortion malware is
very obvious when you get it. The trojans that take over your computer for
use as a zombie are not. The fact that many hundreds of thousands of
computers are available for sale as part of a botnet attests to the fact
that you cannot secure XP (or any OS) if you run as an administrator. I see
many computers that have up to date antivirus and antispyware software that
are compromised in this fashion. UAC (or running XP as a standard user)
would have stopped these infections. Turning off UAC may relieve some short
term pain but it won't cure the disease and may have the opposite effect of
helping to spread the disease.
--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca
"JD Wohlever" <techware-> wrote in message
news:19079D31-44E2-4DBD-BAEF-...
>I hate to say so MS, but your average joe, the person you are making UAC
>for, is going
> to do exactly what they are doing, that is turning UAC off.
> Example, my mother is your basic Internet User. She just graduated from
> AOL to
> a normal broadband connection after me telling her for years how much
> better broadband would be for her. She bought a PC that had Vista Home
> Premium on it.
> Suddenly dial-up became a major pain in the butt because Vista is geared
> more toward a constant net connection. No problem there, I agree.
> However, 2 days later she calls me up and asks me to put Windows XP back
> on her computer.
> When I ask her why, the response " I'm sick of the computer asking me
> questions every 5 seconds. It didn't do it before. I have an anti-virus, a
> firewall, and a anti-spyware program running. Why do I have to OK every
> single thing I do?"
> I tried explaining the benefits, but she would hear none of it. She has
> been told by the Norton's and the AdAware's of the world that as long as
> she runs their programs and practices safe netting that she is ok. So it
> was either turn UAC off or install Windows XP for her, she was that
> serious.
> And to be honest, I understand how she feels. In 5 years she has never had
> a virus, has only had very light malware (Which SpyBot SD quickly
> removed), and has nothing of hi-value on her PC for a hacker to have much
> interest in other than family photo's of the dog etc.
> My point being is that the average user who buys Windows HOME versions are
> not going to WANT this elevated security, and as soon as they find a way
> to remove it, they will.
> MS should have made UAC a Business / Enterprise feature and left the
> standard user and admin feature set of XP for the Home licenses of Vista.
> I build PC's for a living so I know the problems that John Q Public can
> make for their selves on a PC on the net with no protection. But simple
> education and running the big 3 (Anti-virus, Anti-spyware and Firewalls)
> should be more than enough to protect them. Now if they are stupid enough
> to store all their financial information or work related trade secrets and
> not have the "the big 3" then they certainly aren't going to tolerate UAC.
>
>
>
> --
> Thank you,
> JD Wohlever
>
> Techware Grafx
> techware(dash)grafx(at)hotmail(dot)com
>
> "Kerry Brown" <*a*m> wrote in message
> news:...
>> There is some pain associated with UAC. Jimmy Brush's post explains it
>> very well. I'll add a bit of history as to how we got to UAC and why it's
>> needed.
>>
>> There were two families of Windows, NT based (Windows NT) and DOS based
>> (Windows 95). NT was mostly used in business networks and had excellent
>> security. Everyone ran as a standard user and only used administrator
>> accounts for things like installing programs, maintenance etc. Win95
>> really had no security as it was based on DOS and all users had total
>> control of the system at all times. Windows 95 became very popular and
>> many programs were written for it. Microsoft published guidelines on how
>> to program using established APIs and recommended programmers use this
>> method. Because the hardware at the time was limited, programming through
>> the documented APIs made for slow programs. Most programmers including
>> those at Microsoft, ignored the APIs and basically did what they had to
>> to get their programs running at the speed end users expected. This is
>> where most current programmers got their start and learned their habits.
>> As time progressed the DOS based versions of Windows were abandoned and
>> the NT and DOS world merged in XP which is NT based. All the end users
>> and programmers from the DOS world didn't change their ways. End users
>> ran as administrators all the time and programmers bypassed the APIs and
>> expected the users to be running as administrators. Around this time the
>> Internet exploded. Malware became a major problem exacerbated by the way
>> programmers and end users were using Windows. There was no way to secure
>> XP given this situation. Microsoft decided to write a new more secure OS.
>> There is a lot of changes under the hood but in the end the best security
>> is to enforce programmers to use the APIs and not have end users running
>> as administrators. Unfortunately this would break almost all existing
>> software. Thus we have UAC. It allows most old programs to do what they
>> do and tricks them into thinking it worked. It also allows users to run
>> as an administrator but gives them a warning when those administrator
>> privileges are going to be used.
>>
>> --
>> Kerry Brown
>> Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
>> http://www.vistahelp.ca
>>
>>
>> "alex" <> wrote in message
>> news:8F96CCFA-A18E-44F7-A41C-...
>>>
>>> Hi Kerry,
>>>
>>> Here's the problem with Vistas security as I see it.
>>>
>>> I am a long time Windows user with, at best, an intermediate knowledge
>>> of
>>> how programs work and how they're supposed to work with computers.
>>>
>>> Whenever Windows prompts me for confirmation regarding a security issue,
>>> to
>>> be honest, at times, I haven't the slightest clue whether I should allow
>>> or
>>> cancel something.
>>>
>>> Other than the most obvious "A program is trying to destroy your
>>> hard-drive
>>> and clean out your bank account" message, I'm likely going to let the
>>> program
>>> do what it wants to do.
>>>
>>> I minimize my exposure to to malware by not downloading software or
>>> opening
>>> e-mail attachments with which I'm not familiar. But sometimes I visit
>>> CNN.com or MSN or something as seemingly benign and I'm told that an
>>> update
>>> has to be performed and I'm asked if I trust the source.
>>>
>>> No, I don't trust the source. But if I'm going want to visit those
>>> sites I
>>> have to allow changes to be made.
>>>
>>> The UAC just annoys me and actually puts me in the habit of just
>>> clicking
>>> "continue" without reading what the window says.
>>>
>>> Ehhh. Personal preference I guess.
>>>
>>> BTW: This reminds me of how Microsoft didn't give the user the ability
>>> to
>>> download attachments in Outlook in Office XP (I think it was XP). What
>>> a
>>> pain-in-the-a@@ that was.
>>>
>>>
>>> "Kerry Brown" wrote:
>>>
>>>> Disabling UAC disables much of the improved security in Vista. Once you
>>>> have
>>>> your computer set up as you want it, it is recommended to turn UAC back
>>>> on.
>>>> You can do everything you always did with UAC on you just have to do it
>>>> in a
>>>> new way. UAC actually gives you more control as you now know when a
>>>> program
>>>> is about to do something that may affect the whole system. This is the
>>>> price
>>>> of security.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Kerry Brown
>>>> Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
>>>> http://www.vistahelp.ca
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "alex" <> wrote in message
>>>> news:CC64E5E0-3D62-4752-A16B-...
>>>> > Never mind. I found the UAC options.
>>>> >
>>>> > "alex" wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> >> How may I disable all the prompts that appear whenever I try to do
>>>> >> something
>>>> >> like uninstall a program or delete a file or directory?
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Vista Premium
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Thanks,
>>>> >> Alex
>>>>
>>>>
>>
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