Well, I do my best. ;-)
Richard, I appreciate Microsoft making a better effort
at securing the OS. For me, there are several ways to
do that- *without* being harassed by that annoying prompt.
I am always messing around with my computers- being
prompted every single time really is distracting and totally
unnecessary- it takes away from a free flowing user
experience. I guarantee you, UAC is going to be the biggest
complaint from users when Vista is released. The key is
to stop the crapware from ever getting on your machine.
That, really, is not a hard task to accomplish. If you
have Internet Explorer secured (yes, it is easy to do)
and simply do not blindly open attachments- most infections
would *never* happen, and by all means have a firewall.
The combo of a firewall and router is much better.
How long before some hacker writes a program that
mimics the UAC prompts? With some creativity and
trickery, users can be fooled and will be fooled- prompts
thrown at them left and right, confusion sets in. It's
just a matter of time.
I've read for years about the impending doom of the internet
because of malware- much of it, hyped by the security companies
themselves. To me, a lot of it is nothing but good old-fashioned
fear-mongering. I don't accept "protecting me for my own good
or protecting me from myself"- I'll decide the level of protection
I need- as will many other users once they've been annoyed a
few times by UAC.
There's a lot more I could do to secure my house- put bars
on the windows, an alarm system (my three dogs are my alarm),
multiple locks on the doors, build a fence or wall around my
property- but I'm going to do that, it's too much. I'm going to
use some common sense and I will not live in fear. It actually
seems like some folks spend more time trying to secure their
computer than they do their own house.
If the security implementations are a pain in the arse- folks
will stop using them- quick fast and in a hurry. I actually
made an effort through a few builds of Vista to keep UAC on-
to see if I could live with it, I couldn't. I am not anti-security,
just anti-annoying-every time-I fart pop-up-prompts.
To each their own.
Take care,
Michael