Microsoft cites 'click fatigue' for Windows 7 security change
Microsoft changed the default settings of one of its most important security features for Windows 7 because users balked at clicking more than two prompts a day, a company executive said Thursday.
According to Jon DeVaan , the senior vice president responsible for Windows' architecture and core components, the company changed User Account Control (UAC) in Windows 7 because data showed that users got ticked off when they were asked to deal with more than two UAC prompts in a day.
Responding to mounting criticism of the changes Microsoft's made to UAC for its still-in-development Windows 7, DeVaan said that the company studied how people reacted to the security feature, which debuted in 2007 with Windows Vista .
"In making our choice for the default setting for the Windows 7 beta, we monitored the behavior of two groups of regular people," said DeVaan in a long entry to a company blog. "Half were set to 'Notify me only when...' and half to 'Always Notify.' We analyzed the results and attitudes of these people to inform our choice."
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Either way you look at it Microsoft Data Center management did not follow standards or best practices in this failure. In which case it makes me wonder more about the outsourcing of corporate data much less personal data.
- mburton325
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