• Vista Wallpapers
• Windows Wallpapers

Vista is more secure than XP, despite what others might say, but it still gets infected. Since over 80% of all infections are based on social engineering, the popups should focus on that weak point. If UAC targeted the key areas where people run into trouble (as opposed to harassing the user on inane actions), it would be far more helpful and potentially make a really significant impact on infection rates.

Absolutely right. A single request for permission doesn’t bother most people. What gets under the skin is the second UAC prompt, and the third, and the fourth, and so on. The closer together those dialog boxes arrive, the more annoying the phenomenon.

I was all prepared to lay out my modest proposal for how Microsoft should tweak UAC in Windows 7. And then I said, “Hey, wait a minute! I already did this.”

And sure enough, with a little help from Google I was able to reread “How Microsoft can save User Account Control.” which I wrote way back in May 2006, while Vista was still in beta. In that post, I offered four “suggestions that might ease the pain” of UAC. Two years later, I think those recommendations are still valid, so I’m reprinting them here, with a little updated commentary on each one:

Create a special Admin Mode. Power users would appreciate a UAC option that lets an administrator respond to a single prompt and temporarily open a session that runs with full administrative permissions. The devil is in the details, of course. How do you keep people from choosing this option as the default?