To solve that problem, Microsoft is delivering custom "shims" designed to fool installing applications into thinking they're writing to the places where they expect to write, when in fact Microsoft is rerouting that data to a safer location. By working this way, Microsoft adds a significant level of protection from malware that seeks to pass itself off as other programs, or that infests the System Registry, or both. But while this is an excellent work-around, how many shims can Microsoft write for specific applications? It will probably only take care of the most visible, most popular business and entertainment apps. So it's possible that hundreds or even thousands of Windows programs will not work properly with Vista when it ships.
Besides the fact that User Account Controls will almost certainly improve Windows security dramatically, there's another bright spot over the horizon. Those of us who've been complaining to Microsoft that the UAC user experience isn't satisfactory have apparently made some sort of impression. At the Microsoft Windows Vista reviewer's workshop on May 23, Austin Wilson, director for the Windows client, promised that Microsoft will be refining UAC protections to eliminate the number of pop-up boxes Vista will, ah, throw up. He promised that the Release Candidate 1 version of Vista would show improvement in this area.
17. Two words: Secure Desktop.
You have to see this to understand why it was worth its own number on the hit parade of things you won't like about Vista. Secure Desktop is Microsoft's name for a set of dramatic visual cues that serve as a backdrop for the User Account Controls confirmation prompt. The desktop and any open windows surrounding the UAC prompt go noticeably dark. Perhaps even more important to the security involved, with the UAC prompt open and unanswered, you can't access anything at all in Windows. In order to get screenshots of the prompt, I had to run Windows Vista Beta 2 in VMware Workstation 5.5. If you're buying into the full necessity for all aspects of User Account Controls, the Secure Desktop visual cues help you understand why the dialog is completely modal and effectively locks Windows down until a real person sitting at the computer answers the prompt. But when you're seeing it a dozen or more times a day (I'm seeing it a lot more frequently than that because, apparently, I have a habit of opening dangerous things), it gets old real fast.
16. No way to access the Administrator account in Vista Beta 2.