Via Jeff Duntemann: -
Several people online, in an almost offhand fashion, have indicated that Vista’s knucklehead UAC feature is training people to click “Allow” automatically, no matter what it’s asking about. That may be the single greatest design error in Vista, and could over time render Vista as insecure as anything that came before it, and certainly less secure than just working in an LUA under XP.
He’s absolutely right of course, and it’s pretty scary.
I’ve been using Vista as my main work OS for the best part of a year, with mixed results. UAC has remained on because, as a developer, I know that’s how it will be for most of my users. In other respects, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by performance, but dismayed by robustness (compared to either XP or Linux).
I’ve remained uncomfortable with UAC throughout, especially compared to the more rational alternatives found elsewhere (see, e.g., Ubuntu). Jeff’s post has crystallized why it’s such a bad idea.