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Security is a balance between, well, security and convenience. UAC was introduced with Windows Vista, primarily to detect when admin rights were needed, and to automatically prompt you to authenticate with an(other) account, with admin rights. This made practicing the Principle of Least Privilege a lot easier.

Security is a balance between, well, security and convenience. UAC was introduced with Windows Vista, primarily to detect when admin rights were needed, and to automatically prompt you to authenticate with an(other) account, with admin rights. This made practicing the Principle of Least Privilege a lot easier.

Security is a balance between, well, security and convenience. UAC was introduced with Windows Vista, primarily to detect when admin rights were needed, and to automatically prompt you to authenticate with an(other) account, with admin rights. This made practicing the Principle of Least Privilege a lot easier.

Security is a balance between, well, security and convenience. UAC was introduced with Windows Vista, primarily to detect when admin rights were needed, and to automatically prompt you to authenticate with an(other) account, with admin rights. This made practicing the Principle of Least Privilege a lot easier.

As a side-effect, performing tasks requiring admin rights, while logged in with an admin account, gives you a chance to actually confirm that you want to exercise these rights. UAC prompts when installing software seems reasonable, whereas when opening a normal webpage doesn't.

However, it turns out most users don't use separate accounts and quite a few day-to-day tasks requires admin rights (adjusting settings for clock, network, power plan etc.), and would thus trigger an UAC prompt in Vista. This slew of prompts causes most users to

b) Disable UAC confirmation entirely

Both actions defeat the purpose of UAC.

As a side-effect, performing tasks requiring admin rights, while logged in with an admin account, gives you a chance to actually confirm that you want to exercise these rights. UAC prompts when installing software seem reasonable, whereas when opening a normal webpage doesn't.

However, it turns out most users don't use separate accounts and quite a few day-to-day tasks require admin rights (adjusting settings for clock, network, power plan etc.), and would thus trigger an UAC prompt in Vista. This slew of prompts causes most users to

b) Disable UAC confirmation entirely