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User Account Control to be relaxed in Windows 7
Microsoft promises a reduction in unnecessary prompts, as well as more obvious control over UAC
Although any knowledgeable PC user knows how to disable Windows Vista’s User Account Control system, the nagging nanny of Vista has become a big figure of fun in the industry. Not only did it wind up pretty much every informed PC owner as soon as they saw it, but it also gave Apple some more fuel for its Get a Mac ads, in which it lampoons UAC. However, Microsoft may have learned its lesson, as the company says it will revise UAC for Windows 7.
On the Engineering Windows blog, Microsoft’s vice president for core OS development, Ben Fathi, outlines the reasons why UAC was introduced, and what Microsoft has learned from the experience. Fathi humbly introduces the issues with UAC early on, saying that it’s ‘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?’
Fathi argues that UAC has been successful in its original goal, which was to make PCs safer for standard users. ‘For most users,’ says Fathi, ‘the potential benefit is that UAC forces malware or poorly written software to show itself and get your approval before it can potentially harm the system.’ However, he also says that ‘we understand adding an extra click can be annoying, especially for users who are highly knowledgeable about what is happening with their system (or for people just trying to get work done).’ He also says that the setting to disable UAC is ‘admittedly hard to find.’
After trawling through the feedback, Fathi says that ‘We’ve heard loud and clear that you are frustrated. You find the prompts too frequent, annoying, and confusing.’ However, he’s confident that Microsoft can still ‘provide you control over what changes can happen to your system, but we want to provide you a better overall experience.’
The answer, according to Fathi, is a revised UAC system, and Microsoft claims that it will improve it in the following ways in Windows 7:
- Reduce unnecessary or duplicated prompts in Windows and the ecosystem, such that critical prompts can be more easily identified.
- Enable our customers to be more confident that they are in control of their systems.
- Make prompts informative such that people can make more confident choices.
- Provide better and more obvious control over the mechanism.
Regarding the last point, Fathi says that Microsoft wants Administrators to have much more control over the range of notifications that you will receive, and that the information provided in the prompts will also be more informative.
Reddit | Technorati
im no computer expert but less popups from the UAC would be a bad thing would it not ?? since the only way to diminish the popups would be a memory feature. you let that program run once then windows lets it run everytime under ur UA unless u tell it otherwise. basically working how most firewalls do .. u install the firewall get annoyed by all the requests but give it a few days and its not too bad after that. so what happens when someone designs a virus . calls it the same name as a popular small program ? .. ok even MS aint stupid enough to base permissions on filenames alone but im sure those with the know-how could make windows think the files signature was legit and make the SHA1 or whatever checksum method they decide to use match ? im no computer expert by all means though. i only know what ive learned from personal experience (which compared to a lot of the poeple on here probably isnt a lot). just thought id voice my thoughts .. feel free to bash :)
Comment by djlee at 12:51pm 17th October 2008
once again a microsoft OS is l8, i just dont see the point of publishing something and then despatching it couple of years down the line. 2b honest windows 9 sounds kool. but then again how many SPs will u need 2 download for 7? i mean u wud think they wud have learnt from vista wen they did Mohave. i guess they dont learn from their mistakes. :(
Comment by Trikadoc at 5:30pm 16th October 2008
Seeing as Microsoft only added UAC because MAC and Ubuntu already have it I don't see why it gets so much abuse. Of course they could have done it better but imagine how many trojans it's actually stopped in their paths.
Comment by m1key at 10:06pm 15th October 2008
I have looked all through the Debian menus, and I am unable to find any of the UAC stuff. Guess that is one of the reasons I am happy with Linux and opensource........
Comment by Runaway1956 at 7:36pm 15th October 2008
. . to users feedback. Let's hope they keep on listening. You never know, Windows 7 might actually be ok after all. Maybe? Hopefully? In the meantime I'll stick with XP thanks.
Comment by manxminx at 7:32pm 11th October 2008
Microsoft used to aim at a 3 year life span of OS and move on. Due to XP not being the finished article even after 3 years, it went on to last 7. People forget that. If you have a problem with MS making money then go join the Linux camp of freeloaders and open source garbage. Believe or not but Vista was polished a lot quicker than XP ever was, so a late 2009/ early 2010 release for W7 is fine.
Comment by crazyceo at 7:30am 11th October 2008
The same reason we needed Vista when XP worked fine..... MS need to make money.
Comment by l3v1ck at 9:24pm 10th October 2008
Can someone explain to me why we need Windows7? My Vista works fine since turning off the Granny-friendly-UAC feature and all the other annoying bits.
Comment by CSQuake at 7:25pm 10th October 2008
.... is "Will it still be annoying"? I've only used Vista once on a friends laptop. UAC kept on popping up for really trivial every day things. If MS stop these annoying pop ups for every day things, then I may well leave UAC on when I buy Windows 7, however the moment it starts to bug me for routine tasks, it'll be getting switched off.
Comment by l3v1ck at 7:16pm 10th October 2008
At a cost of another (after Vista) £70-80 we will now have UAC more user friendly ... that is awesome! I love throwing my money at MS.
Comment by CSQuake at 5:12pm 10th October 2008
first thing i did with vista was to turn off UAC. however, if they are providing tweakability as to which prompts are shown, ill probably have it on for a few low-level options
Comment by soddit113 at 3:56pm 10th October 2008
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