What’s New in Windows 7: User Account Control (UAC)
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Oh Vista UAC how we hate you. The UAC is still present in Windows 7. Instead of just being an all-or-nothing as the UAC is inside of Vista, it has selectable controls in Windows 7! Windows 7 UAC Settings has a Slider to change your ‘comfort-level’ with the notifications.
To customize your UAC in Windows 7, go to the Control Panel, and choose User Accounts, and then Account Settings. You can choose to “never notify” or “always notify”… and there are two other levels in between. My recommendation is to leave it at the default setting for a bit, to see how that works for you, and then adjusting as needed from there. The default setting is to only notify you when something attempts to make changes to Windows. That’s probably a good thing for most people to know about, right?
If you’re a novice, or setting it up for a novice, my suggestion is to bump it up to always notify. That would notify them any time programs try to install software or make changes to the system. If they aren’t sure of what they’re doing, they could potentially create harm on their computer.
Since most programs didn’t support the UAC when it was unleashed in Vista, the programs would fail and create unnecessary problems, which created bad user feedback and experience. Since most software is built with the support of the UAC now, it’s pretty much a great experience within Windows 7.
It’s very nice to see that the UAC has been casually refined. It’s apparent that Microsoft listened to the feedback from the users who hated it when it came out in Vista. So far, the only time I’ve been prompted by it in Windows 7 is when installing drivers. That’s a good thing, since those would definitely make changes to my system.
This is better than all-or-nothing as it was in Vista. Keep your settings at the default level when you start out, and make your changes as needed. Definitely try Windows 7 if you have a machine to do so with. Start playing with it! You won’t be disappointed.
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6 Comments
Geenome
January 18th, 2009
at 11:29pm
I totally agree with you Chris. I have used Win7 only a couple of days, but already it’s looking good. I do prefer the Vista Media Centre better than the Win7 MCE. I don’t like the font they have used. I’m still trying to get used to the MCE menu system being lower than Vista’s one (menu was in the middle of screen.
But it has been so good as far as the revamped UAC. I have only had UAC pop up 3 maybe 4 times, usually regarding what program I was installing.
So far, I would give UAC a 8 out of 10.
John Chorley
January 19th, 2009
at 12:05am
I personally don’t need Windows 7, I have Vista and it runs just fine on my system. I do how ever like the features you covered, such as the changing the desktop background every so often (refer to the program desktoptopia). But a few features arn’t really enough for me to upgrade to windows 7. If they made it free (which I dobut) for Vista users then I would upgrade.
But anyway I’m happy to see that you like Windows 7 (after all that trouble with your video card), Hope to see you go over some more features in Windows 7, I must say it has me wondering.
Backlin
January 19th, 2009
at 9:22am
I would like UAC a lot better if it asked whether or not to install programs, not when the program attempts to make changes to Windows.
Greg Swift
January 19th, 2009
at 1:19pm
I am running 32bit and 64bit Windows 7 on my new HP laptop and both are very nice. To me the 32bit version feels a little less solid than the 64bit installation. I only issue I have so far and this applied to both versions, is Windows 7 cannot come up with a driver for my SMbus controller so it does not function normally. Everything else about Win 7 is very cool.
Axlin
January 24th, 2009
at 12:13am
I’ve been using Windows 7 for the last week or so and I do have to say that I like the direction they’re going in with UAC. The ability to customize UAC was one of the things that Vista’s UAC most definitely needed. My only one remaining gripe, however, is that I really wish they would require you to enter an administrator *password* like in *nix systems instead of simply clicking a cancel/allow button. That way you’re also protected from malicious use of a computer when the malicious user has physical access to the computer.
Thrawn
March 2nd, 2009
at 8:19pm
I’ve just encountered UAC on Windows Server 2008, and I can see valid uses for it (ie blocking something that was installed without my knowledge). I have two gripes:
- It needs a safe list. You should be able to tell it, “I trust this program; don’t ask me about it again.”
- Sometimes, it blocks things without asking, causing programs to fail mysteriously. For example, with UAC on, a local administrator can’t log into SQL Server without using ‘Run as Administrator’.
Are these improved in Windows 7?