Vista - Microsoft: The Why of UAC (User Account Control)

You are right of course. The UAC IS ANNOYING. But it serves a purpose that many users would be foolish to ignore. Unfortunately most users of Vista are not too good at knowing what they are installing. For those who wish to live on the edge, I agree, turn it off. If you are a bit more cautious, you know, the sort of person who locks their house when they go out, leave it on.

ROTF - apparently you've been living in a cave for the last 5 years or you'd know about the SQL server poisoning and malicious advertising that drops malware installers on your system - *without* you installing a thing.

If you get hit with a malicious banner ad, for example, that installs 1 legitimate piece of software that you need as an update (say, Adobe Flash) and then installs 9 pieces of Malware, and you accepted the first instance only, and according to your model, the other 9 get accepted because you accepted the first one - well, buddy, have fun with cleaning that off your system

That is the *exact* reason why UAC is a repeat offender. One time, 2 times, etc., is never going to be *enough* warnings - because as soon as it is documented that UAC prompts only X amount of times, sure enough the Malware authors will write malware that gives you X number of legitimate installs.

If you are clicking on banner ads to download Flash, then you deserve whatever is installed on you system.

I would never download anything from a banner ad. I only get my software for the legitimate creator of the software. If I want to update my Flash, I will go to Adobe.

Anyway, we are getting away from my original point. I am not trying to convince any not to use the UAC. If you like the annoying multiple popups asking you the same question over and over, then by all means use it.

I for one have never used it and I could not tell you the last time I had a virus, trojan horse, or any other piece of mailware on my system.

I live just fine without the UAC and if I choose to upgrade to Windows 7 I will immediately turn it off there as well.

No, no clicks required. Read up on it - it was completely drive by - you visit a page, the banner loads and poof! it drops a Trojan downloader or backdoor downloader.

I do understand the difference between *clicking* on a banner and a drive by.

You web browser should catch that kind of attack or your Virus Detector.

Anyway, I guess I've learned not to offer my opinion here.

Am I sure I want to do that? ---- Yes.
Am I really sure I want to do that? --- Yes
Wait, I have to be an Administrator to do that (even though I am already one) --- OK
Are you still sure you want to do that? --- Yes, Just freakin' do it!

To the above poster....

Right click application>Run as administrator. This should fix your problem.
What I would like to know is this. Why would your internet browser stop viruses or malware, when a browser is just a way to search for files and foulders on a larger file system? This is seperate from running processes, or threads.

Why should I have to right click and run as Admin when I am already an Admin??? That is insane!

As for your question, you browswer asks you if you are sure you want to intall activeX items (at least IE does). All I am saying is that your browser can easily detect if something is about to be installed on your system as the result of a banner ad (something you did not click on) and warn you.

Basically I am saying this. The OS (or the browser, whichever) can detect if something is being installed as a result of it being clicked on or if it was not clicked on. Only warn me if an item is being installed as a result of something I have not clicked on.

If I click install, then I know what I am doing and don't bother warning me. If I did not click on anything and something wants to just install on it's own, then warn me.

Or better yet, let my virus software take care of warning. The OS should not care what is going on. If I am stupid enough to not use a virus detector or not keep it updated, then that is my fault.

Perhaps, but not everything that is being installed is a result of what you are doing on your computer. That is why the UAC was put into place.

That is my point. If I am the one doing it, then I don't need warned.

If it is being done by someone else (without me clicking on anything), then I need warned.

True, unfortunately the UAC does not make the distinguishment.