User Account Control to be relaxed in Windows 7

Posted at: 3:12pm 10th October 2008 by Ben Hardwidge

Microsoft promises a reduction in unnecessary prompts, as well as more obvious control over UAC

Although any knowledgeable PC user knows how to disable Windows Vista’s User Account Control system, the nagging nanny of Vista has become a big figure of fun in the industry. Not only did it wind up pretty much every informed PC owner as soon as they saw it, but it also gave Apple some more fuel for its Get a Mac ads, in which it lampoons UAC. However, Microsoft may have learned its lesson, as the company says it will revise UAC for Windows 7.

On the Engineering Windows blog, Microsoft’s vice president for core OS development, Ben Fathi, outlines the reasons why UAC was introduced, and what Microsoft has learned from the experience. Fathi humbly introduces the issues with UAC early on, saying that it’s ‘arguably, one of the most controversial features in Windows Vista. Why did Microsoft add all those popups to Windows? Does it actually improve security? Doesn’t everyone just click “continue”? Has anyone in Redmond heard the feedback on users and reviewers? Has anyone seen a tv commercial about this feature?’

Fathi argues that UAC has been successful in its original goal, which was to make PCs safer for standard users. ‘For most users,’ says Fathi, ‘the potential benefit is that UAC forces malware or poorly written software to show itself and get your approval before it can potentially harm the system.’ However, he also says that ‘we understand adding an extra click can be annoying, especially for users who are highly knowledgeable about what is happening with their system (or for people just trying to get work done).’ He also says that the setting to disable UAC is ‘admittedly hard to find.’

After trawling through the feedback, Fathi says that ‘We’ve heard loud and clear that you are frustrated. You find the prompts too frequent, annoying, and confusing.’ However, he’s confident that Microsoft can still ‘provide you control over what changes can happen to your system, but we want to provide you a better overall experience.’

The answer, according to Fathi, is a revised UAC system, and Microsoft claims that it will improve it in the following ways in Windows 7:

• Reduce unnecessary or duplicated prompts in Windows and the ecosystem, such that critical prompts can be more easily identified.
• Enable our customers to be more confident that they are in control of their systems.
• Make prompts informative such that people can make more confident choices.
• Provide better and more obvious control over the mechanism.

Regarding the last point, Fathi says that Microsoft wants Administrators to have much more control over the range of notifications that you will receive, and that the information provided in the prompts will also be more informative.