Vista - "Protected mode: Off". What does it mean ?

My "Enable Protected Mode" box is checked but all my browser windows status bar shows "Protected Mode: Off", with a red "locked" circle icon on an eye icon or a circled exclamation mark in a square icon... next before blue globe icon "Internet".

Is this what it is supposed to be? Or am I missing some built in protection here? Shouldn't it be "Protected Mode: On"?

You have to have UAC enabled.

Hi coolnewyorker,

Have a look at the following Tutorial (note the section headed Warning): User Account Control (UAC)
The icons you mentioned are, from left to right, Privacy Report (double click to view and alter settings) and Phishing Filter (this will usually disappear if nothing suspicious is found).

Hah! I had decided to turn it on only when Guest account is on but it seems there is no skirting this intrusive security feature, eh? Thanks.... Aaron, Dwarf.

Yes coolnewyorker,

I know that in an earlier post you said that you don't need it if you're an admin. This is not really true. You are missing a Big chuck of security if you have it disabled even if you're the only one using the computer. It will notify you of any program or system altering change and in doing so gives you the option of stopping malicious programs from installing or running, drive by downloads and such. I'ts an important part of security.

Well, I had UAC on for a few days until I got tired of clicking the same warning box before I could go on with deletion, stalling and unstalling stuffs. I have never experienced seeing the same warning box for my confirmation when I am not installing/unstalling/editing/modifying. It just felt monotonously redundant to be repeatedly asked if I was the one doing stuffs. I figure it is more relevant to a guest or another user with standard account.

As my Vista tutorial poignantly pointed out...UAC is both a bane and smart feature...I guess depending on the situation.

Now that I am done geting rid of factory installed bloatwares and installing relevant and important softwares and changing some default settings, I probably will keep UAC on as I would not be seeing much of that nagging annoying warning box.

Have you read this tutorial?
Bypass UAC

You will get used to it after a while but I would recommend leaving it on for added security for surfing and such.