[JeffAHayes]

I quit using Norton the last time I upgraded computers -- Webroot Spysweeper, too -- and both for the SAME REASON -- they're slow as HELL and they don't seem to work any better (or even as well) as the PCcillin I got a 3-year subscription to with my Dell system for less than 18 months with Norton would have cost me.

Not only were they both slow to do their scans, they also REALLY slowed down boots and took forever with updates and everything else. PCcillin is an all-in-one product that includes a firewall and spyware detector and it's done a great job for me, so far.

Jeff

[Evildave]

Unfortunately, UAC also relies on the judgement of end-users, and is routinely disabled.

There are many 'howto' sites, including sites offering technical support for software products that lead users through the steps of disabling UAC without really bothering to tell them what it's for and why they might NOT want to disable it.

Even worse, even when it's on, it's just 'one more annoying popup' to most people. They dismiss it without even 'seeing' it. Humans are marvelous pattern-matching machines, and when the 'Dismiss this or I can't complete this task' popups appear, those popups literally get dismissed before the user is even aware of them. You can ask a user who has just dismissed a UAC warning why they did it, and they'll actually ask "Did what?". Watch them and ask.

So in reality, UAC is no barrier whatsoever for rootkits, since users blindly allow ANYTHING to happen, and once you've given a setup program UAC permission, you've actually given it total permission to do anything to the system it wants. Users will still download and run silly content from inappropriate sources, and they're distressingly easy to trick into giving permission for anything.

The problem with UAC is, most people think it's all the same warning, and the permission they give when they dismiss it to run a dancing-rubber-dogpoop applet in their browser basically can be 'keys to the kingdom' permission to do anything to any file on the system.

All in all, I don't 'despise' UAC. I despise how badly those Microsoft knuckleheads BOTCHED it. I shouldn't need explicit UAC permission for every single frickin' item when I re-arrange crap randomly dumped into the start menu by retarded setup programs, for instance. Somehow, those useless, clueless, brainless, Microsoft turd burglars thought it would be appropriate for it to 'work' like that.

I probably shouldn't be so harsh. I've seen the decision making process inside of big corporations (including Microsoft) in action, and it is all very consistently as Scott Adams portrays in his Dilbert comics. The sillier and more bizarre the comic, the closer it usually is to the real situation. It would be frightening if I wasn't so used to it by now. The programmer at the bottom gets his ten ream thick 'design document' from the PHBs above who believe they're smarter than god, and so code boy can't deviate one iota or give any feedback, even if the design surpasses all former limitations of 'stupid' previously recognized by science.

[piyushsingh]

I agree with you on the fact that most people simply turn it OFF. Many others simply push the OK button without even seeing the details of what process needs attention. But if people themselves want to get hit by using bad stuff on the system then no one can help, whether its a windows or a linux.

UAC has its origins from what has been used in linux. Ya msft screwed it a bit in the beggining with numerous prompts for a series of connected tasks . Post SP1, uac had been changed and much better as far as prompts are concerned.

One thing that always comes to my mind is that why people call it an annoyance ? The same thing under linux runs fine , No one has any complaints when you have to give the credentials for a small thing like changing the screen resolutions (default settings). The similar prompts under vista became so much unpopular that users started taking it as a annoyance. Moreover users feel better to disable UAC and use 3rd party softwares as system guards to protect themselves. Who can help in this case ? ;-)

[MarioJP]

or when you can't install ubuntu 8.04 64 bit in vmware for some odd reason. yep all it does is get to the loading screen with the loading bar moving left to right and just sits there. Run it on live cd does the same. Try to install it does the same. and this is on vmware we talking. You would think on vmware Linux will work just right since vmware is emulating legacy hardware. but Nope. just won't load at all. And other news vista 64 just works and as far as the uac goes i don't have a problem with it after sp1 is installed. And i am ready to jump from xp 32 bit to vista 64 bit oem ultimate. I don't know about you guys but vista gets my seal of approval after testing it in VMware. All my apps just works. And most importantly of all is that all my games works!. No compatible issues what so ever.

[Keat]

I'm one of those people that turns off UAC and I have a good reason. On the systems I've used that allow Aero, whenever a UAC prompt comes up, the screen is briefly painted black before the UAC screen is displayed. This slight flicker combined with repeated UAC prompts gives me a headache. I could see UAC causing migraines or epileptic seizures in those that are susceptible.
Now, I have a notebook with a graphics system so old that only the "Standard VGA driver" is supported and it doesn't have this problem. So, it is possible to display the UAC prompts without giving users flicker-induced headaches, but this doesn't happen with the hardware and settings that Microsoft recommends for the best Vista experience.

[MarioJP]

UAC is not that big of a deal. It can be turned off if you want more control which i will only recommend that if you know what you doing. Thats the first i will do when i install vista. With that said i am going to vista 64bit for 2 reasons. One I want to finally move to 64 bit and finally make a push. and 2 is because i have 8gb of ram on my system.

[mikegbarry]

I keep mine on. It has shot down an undesirable several times now.

[hmelnick]

I turned it off. I use several older programs and having to click through UAC to use them is a PITA.

[peggsie]

I have left it on. What's a couple more clicks if it protects you from rootkits. Besides, the average home user does not always understand what they are clicking on so it gives them a chance to say no .



Peggsie

[JeffAHayes]

Wanna read something really funny?

During the middle of all this discussion, a little Java icon appeared in my bottom right toolbar, on the left side of it, beside the last applet that loads during bootup, but NOT after a reboot (I believe it was after I took the computer out of Sleep mode). Since I have and use Java, I figured maybe I needed to Upgrade my Java, although there was no Popup from the Icon saying so... At any rate, I right-clicked it, and one of the options was to upgrade, so I did, and clicked right through all the UAC prompts.

Well, the VERY NEXT TIME PC-Cillin ran, it found four new Java-based viruses on the computer. It quarantined them, and I was able to delete the quarantined file, and everything seems to be working fine, so as far as I know, there was no permanent damage (I did a reboot and ran a COMPLETE PC-Cillin scan AFTER the virus delete, just in case). In order to be SURE, I probably should go to some of their competitors' sites, like McAfee and/or Norton and run on of THEIR free webscans, as well, I guess (just in case something got past {or INTO} PC-Cillin), and I likely will in the coming days).

At any rate, I thought some of you might find this amusing, as it DOES prove that even those of us who KNOW to be careful and the sorts of things of which to be wary CAN still be duped.

Jeff

[MDElliott]

I am a very active gamer and in some games i have multiple accounts, usually to add storage for excess items I will need for later quests. To do this I need to run 2 game clients which when the UAC is on it freezes everything till you give validation which occasionally keeps the graphics from recovering making it to where i cannot run 2 clients succesfully making me have to turn it off and on (usually leave it off) but learning its usefulness against root-kits will keep me more vigulent about turning it back on when done with gaming that requires 2 clients. The fact that other software does not catch very many is scary to say the least. To Jeff, I have also learned that lesson the hard way about Java which makes me doubly cautious when updating it.