When installing software programs (such as an antivirus, malware, backup
program, etc) on a new computer with vista business edition, should each
installation be at the administrator level or will that be determined by the
requirements of the software being installed? Thanks Sam.
Boy are you in for some surprises, assuming you're brand new to Vista.
Begin by forgetting EVERYTHING you knew about administrator as defined
in prior versions of Windows.
Vista introduces the much hated and next to useless UAC (User Access
Control). You can learn all about it directly from the horse's mouth.
The actual software engineers that wrote in this hour plus video.
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=288259
To give you an idea: In Vista everybody runs as Standard User, a new
user account security construct, UAC, acts as gatekeeper of process
security boundaries - a doorway to process security context elevation.
In English that means while you may think you own your computer and
the files on it and you like before could do what you wanted with
them, that is no longer the case. Microsoft takes over "control" by
assigned "owners" and "permissions" similar to how UNIX handles this.
If you want to do X to a file or application and you don't "own" it,
lots of luck, Vista will nag, nag, nag. This is suppose to be a new
level of security. In reality it's just a royal pain in the ass.
Thankfully UAC can be turned off from the Control Panel. In fact you
can turn it on and off. If you're installing a bunch of software on a
box, probably best to have UAC off at least until that's done.
How you can work with UAC varies depending on Vista version. The
higher cost versions like Home Premium and Business allow you to
fiddle with the security settings tab that's now part of most
files/folders except for legacy software thereby overriding things if
Vista becomes stubborn.
In this new era almost every action at times can be seen as a threat
if real or not. Vista has been known to nag and prevent you from
deleting orphaned shortcuts on your desktop that point to nowhere. I
guess nowhere is now a "threat" to the boys of Redmond. How much of an
annoyance UAC is depends on how complex a system you're setting up.
Things can go smoothly or you may be in for a real headache that
continues for weeks.
Vista will attempt to build a wall around the partition you install it
on claiming it as it's own turf and Vista flat out hates any attempt
to copy/move/access any of YOUR data files outside the restricted
preset folders like documents and pictures.
My advice keep all your data on separate partitions and you'll avoid a
lot of UAC issues. However if you're moving a lot of data or access it
from external drives Vista being as stupid as it is likely will
challenge some ownerships preventing your from accessing your own
data. This is suppose to be progress. You won't think so if you have
to modify thousands of file permissions like I did.
If fact Vista is so dumb it is possible to configure UAC where you
turn off or customize some "features" then after you're done it will
claim (wrongly) that UAC isn't turned on and constantly nag you to
turn it on while it shows it IS running in Control Panel. Classic
Microsoft sloppy programming.
