Windows User Account Control and You: Pros and Cons

Hello and welcome to Computer Fitness’ Blog! My name is Josh. You may know me from the Internet Beacon. We have a pretty cool blog over there. If you’re new to our sites, do check it out; there’s plenty more awesome over there. Computer Fitness is a tech support firm in Finksburg, MD. Our areas of expertise run the gamut from desktop repair to server maintenance.

Windows User Account Control, or UAC, was introduced in Windows Vista as a way to make the Windows OS more secure. There are a lot of arguments as to whether or not this is true, but the fact remains that it is a part of Windows. Today, let’s examine some of the Pros and Cons of using UAC.

Pro – UAC Prevents Unauthorized Installations and Changes to Your System

UAC does its job here. It will keep changes from happening to your system without your express permission. This includes changing settings on your machine as well as installing software. This is incredibly handy, as a lot of malware gets around computers this way.

Pro – Adjustable Levels of Access

UAC allows you to set varying levels of warning for your computer. This comes in handy if you are always installing new programs or making changes to your PC. You can custom tailor notifications from the UAC in the Control Panel.

Cons – UAC Can Be Intrusive

One of the biggest complaints that users have about UAC is that it can be incredibly intrusive. This was more of a complaint in Windows Vista, but it is valid. Most people don’t know how to change the settings that control UAC, so getting a notification every time you want to do a lot of things on your PC can be very frustrating.

Cons – Too Specific

UAC’s biggest flaw is that it is too granular. The specificity that UAC applies to computer management is more of a hassle than a help. You can unblock one application but a process started by that application may be flagged. This leads to a lot of frustration and unnecessary action on the user’s part when dealing with UAC.

That about wraps up our section on Windows UAC. There is a lot more to this feature and I encourage you to check out more for yourself (see Windows UAC).

-Josh
Computer Fitness
Onsite and Remote Tech Support

Tags: Information Security, Tips, UAC, Windows

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 at 11:18 am and is filed under Desktop - Workstation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.