Modern operating systems like Linux and Mac OS X operate under a security model where even administrative users don’t get full access to certain features unless they provide an in-place logon before performing any task that might harm the system. This type of security model protects users from themselves, and it is something that Microsoft should have added to Windows years and years ago.
Here’s the good news. In Windows Vista, Microsoft is indeed moving to this kind of security model. The feature is called User Account Protection (UAP) and, as you might expect, it prevents even administrative users from performing potentially dangerous tasks without first providing security credentials, thus ensuring that the user understands what they’re doing before making a critical mistake. It sounds like a good system. But this is Microsoft, we’re talking about here. They completely botched UAP.
The bad news, then, is that UAP is a sad, sad joke. It’s the most annoying feature that Microsoft has ever added to any software product, and yes, that includes that ridiculous Clippy character from older Office versions. The problem with UAP is that it throws up an unbelievable number of warning dialogs for even the simplest of tasks. That these dialogs pop up repeatedly for the same action would be comical if it weren’t so amazingly frustrating. It would be hilarious if it weren’t going to affect hundreds of millions of people in a few short months. It is, in fact, almost criminal in its insidiousness.
Hopefully this will be long since rationalised (if it is likely to be such a royal pain in the rear) before I dip my toe in the Vista swamp ;D
I will give it a huge amount of time to iron out the bumps and finish the job that should have been completed by the gold release and wait at least until it is in SP1 of Vista like I did for XP.
Im glad to see Vista getting this feature, Mac and Linux users have long enjoyed it. It does not have to be a pain in the rear if it is implemented right but this clearly says MS did not do it right. Suprise? I dont think so.
Seriously though, I doubt it is that intrusive in the Mac interface, there users wouldn’t put up with it. Based on the comments of the original review if it is worse than Clippy it is bad.
david in Mac PS X the box pops up when you install new software or updates to the Operating system or make changes to the system prefrences, thats it you can set it to ask about other things if you like but that is all it does by default
most application prefrences have a small lock that says click here to prevent changes click that and whenever you try to change the settings it will prompt you for the password agian