Vista's flaws surface again on eve of Windows 7 beta
Attendees of the International Conference on Cyber Security 2009 in New York Tuesday were reminded of the shortcomings of Windows Vista a day before Microsoft is expected to reveal the first beta for its follow-up, Windows 7.
Microsoft Investigative Consultant Michael Dunner asked attendees how many of them have used Vista as he gave a presentation on the security differences between that OS and Windows 7.
When people in the audience raised their hands, Dunner then asked, "How many of you like it?" Only about half of those who acknowledged using Vista raised their hands.
Dunner also called Vista's User Account Control (UAC) feature "annoying" and one of its "biggest problems," to which one audience member responded, "Yes, it is annoying."
Problems with UAC have been widely publicized and even spoofed by television commercials from competitor Apple. The feature was meant to improve the security of Vista by preventing users without administrative privileges from making unauthorized changes to a PC. But because of how it was set up, it can prevent even authorized users from being able to access applications and features through a series of screen prompts that interrupt normal user workflow to ask for account privileges.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is expected to unveil the Windows 7 beta during his keynote Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Microsoft has publicly acknowledged the limitations of UAC. The company has called it one of Vista's most "controversial" features and has said it will improve the feature in Windows 7 to make it more efficient and to reduce the number of prompts users receive.
Dunner's comments and the lackluster audience response to Vista Tuesday was evidence of users' overall disappointment with the OS, which many view as a failure for Microsoft. In addition to problems consumers have reported, many business customers have opted to skip Vista and run Windows XP until Windows 7 is available.
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UAC
I still do not understand what people have against UAC, or what people are doing on their machines that are so different from me.As a systems administrator, it was nearly impossible for me to run my laptop as a limited user under Windows XP. With Vista and UAC I now happily run as a limited user and elevate my access as needed. Yes, that means I type an account name and password several times a day, but it it worth it for the additional security of not running as Admin.
Most typical users would still run as Admin, meaning they only need to click OK (not actually enter a password) and most users wouldn't need to elevate their access nearly as frequently as I do, so why do people hate it so? After all, I don't here Linux people complaining about needing to sudo all the time.
IF they have made UAC less invasion and still kept it as effective as it is in Vista they that's fine, but if they reduce the security to silence the complainers they are going down a dangerous rat hole.
UAC
I tend to agree with Dano. Also, if people don't like it, there's a nice little link in the control panel for their user profile that turns it off.Although, I do recall hearing that in Win7, there's a slider controlling how often those prompts occur.
UAC
I agree as well. Even the Mac asks for your admin password when installing or entering certain levels on the computer. I honestly don't know what is wrong with Microsoft and why they can't seem to make the public happy. They have so many issues with their OS and they can't seem to pull it together. I was always a PC user and tried Vista once that was it for me. I now use a Mac and I am honestly happy. It's a new world of no issues and its fun. Vista is such a waste and honestly most of the Windows OS systems are a waste but windows hit the market first and the world is use to it. Linux is free and its amazing. Windows had a great run but it seems like they are out of energy.