Comments on: Microsoft: Vista feature designed to 'annoy users'

By way of the User Account Control feature, company set out to force independent software vendors to make their code more secure, says manager.

[The_Decider]

Why is it

That Apple and Linux Distros can produce a reasonably secure OS without annoying the user.

MS can't even come close to the security of Linux, so what is the extra annoyance for?

Once again MS tries to copy the competition and totally screws it up.

Why is that?

Oh yeah, they are incompetent.

[eonodownload]

UAC Over the Top, Linux/Unix = Just Right

I had to turn UAC off to get any work done. They should've taken some implementation cues from Linux/Unix; I work with lower permissions, only rarely getting prompted for higher permissions, and get plenty of work done.

[bluemist9999]

Actually proves Microsoft is right

That is because Linux and Unix apps are designed from the get-go with multiuser in mind. Since, by default, typical users NEVER run with root privileges, applications can NEVER assume typical users can do administrator-level things.

So developers couldn't get used to being lazy and not verifying their applications run with reduced user privileges.

To be fair, Microsoft is crippled because they need to support backwards-compatibility to Windows 3.1 days --- when the OS really didn't have a "multiuser" concept.

If/when Microsoft decides to sever all ties to backward compatibility, they have a chance to fix these long standing issues.

From what I understand, that's sort of what Apple did with OS X.

So the issue is being caught between a rock and a hard place.

[alqaqish]

Cross is full of crap!!!!

EVERYONE I know using Vista has turned off UAC! It is the most annoying and most ridiculous so called feature Microsoft has every come up with.

Everyone at Microsoft is denial (at least publicly) about how bad Vista really is and how poor the user experience is.

BTW... no one I know opts-in, and I would suspect the majority of educated users don't either. Bottom line his figures are absolutely meaningless.

I recently switched to a MacBook Pro (for my mobile computer) and the experience has been fantastic! I still have a Dell XPS420 with Vista and even with SP1 it still doesn't work right...POS

[cross platform]

Once Again!

4 Year old computer running Vista SP1. Running just fine! Using it for this post! I think what is full of crap is the over blown histeria about Vista. Ididn't even do a clean install. Down and dirty upgrade from XP. As far as I'm concerned Vista is a better user experience on my machine than XP was!

[igl00lgi]

In agreement

I am a little concerned about this opt-in situation for collecting the data. I myself know of no one that has opted in. I believe you are correct in calling into question the validity of the data. To hear that UAC is doing just as it was designed to do, annoy users, makes me all the more ready to move onto another platform. I have spent countless hours dealing with UAC and driver issues. To hear that this was designed to use up my valuable time, and annoy me, is an insult that will NOT be forgiven.

[igl00lgi]

MS would not be able to do this if it were not a monoply.

If this company were not a monopoly they would not have dared to design such an annoyance. To hear that this was designed to use up my valuable time (money), and annoy me, is an insult that will NOT be forgiven. No more MS. I would rather waste my time with OSS and VMs.

[mackenzie2881]

Unable to play movies with UAC off

I decided to turn UAC off. But after I did so I was no longer able to play movies from my external hard drive. I turned it back on and was able to play them again. Why is this?

[jlm429]

am i the only one that likes uac?

I'm a windows sys admin, and I like to know when something is being installed (or impacting the operating system). Someone mentioned - macs do the same thing, albeit a little more efficiently, but this is a new feature that has improved with SP1 so it may need just a bit of time. Something that's gotten alot better with vista is the ability to runas without logging in as admin which was a crapshoot in XP.

Also - correct me if I'm wrong - don't Macs also add the first user to the admin group by default?

[aintnorainbowdorothy]

I like UAC myself also

Let the rest quitherebitchin. I personally like UAC myself as well. I want to know if something is cross-scripted, has an ActiveX (even those from Microsoft that pop up) that might hurt my computers or whatever. I don't particularly like the question of whether I know the program and would I like to go on. But even that's necessary to be a good Administrator. These are users with Admins who have everyone running the same higher privileges as themselves, simply because they don't want to be bothered. If they don't like UAC, then let them buy Vista Basic. Otherwise it's just the usual bashing of the 'evil empire'. Now if we could just get Microsoft to come out with a feature that tells the user that the program or code makes absolutely no sense. That would really drive them buggy. And it would make programmers and those who write code for a living learn how to do so. This from a person who has 40 years experience and has seen computers go from as big as a barn with punch cards, to paper and magnetic tape, then Floppies and HD's that took more than one person to pick up, to today's machines. Too many times has a program made no sense or code have that one missing comma or whatever. Or how about a program built into the program that won't let them write a sentence with the wrong syntax. Talk about them going wild with complaints.

[djcolley]

How does this article make sense

All of Vista's features are designed to annoy users.

[gsmiller88]

Just do away with ActiveX!

The reason Mac OS X is more secure than Windows is not because it
is less popular, but because there is nothing like ActiveX on
Macintosh. The few viruses that have been written for Mac had to
be MANUALLY installed by users, which there's nothing you can do
for bad judgement. Microsoft has long tried to "babysit" Windows
users, but all it does is stifle productivity within the OS.

Oh and believe me, Microsoft, Vista is annoying far beyond UAC.

[t8]

Oh how evil

Designed to annoy.

Hmmmm.

What sort of ecosystem annoys you into doing the right thing?

An annoying one.

[ninalou]

VISTA IS MICROSOFT'S SNAFU

Vista is a SNAFU and Microsoft can't admit it or recall it (nor do I believe the SP1-2-3, etc. will fix it) because it would cost too much embarassment and money. They will keep coming up with excuses until the already planned & progressing new Windows is brought out in about 3 years. All of us are stuck and Microsoft knows it and doesn't care.

[xstevejx]

Well...

M$ says the new version of Windows will be out in 2 years...but everyone knows that's usually a year or so before reality.

Still, it says a lot that they're PLANNING to replace it THAT quickly.

[JCPayne]

R u serious? All-you like to pay money to be annoyed????

Well I volunteer my services...

You all can now give me your money-- and I'll annoy you as much as you want.... As long as you keep paying I'll annoy you as much as you want and I'll do it for way--- cheaper than M$. ;-)

[Carion]

Just admit you love UAC..

Windows users are masochists.
They just keep complaining, but keep coming back for more punishment again and again.
Use your energy to switch to Linux or Mac or whatever but stop complaining.

[Dalkorian]

they like the attention

Most masochists you meet on the streets are the closet type,
they don't go around bragging about how they like to be tied up
and whipped to a bloody pulp. They just do it in secret, covering
their wounds with long sleeve shirts and pants. But there are
some who like the attention, they like people pitying them for
being all bloody and beaten, they go out in public wearing
swimwear to show off their wounds.

Winblows users are the latter type. They tie themselves all up
and allow billy boy to beat them senseless, then they step out
onto the porch and cry about it to any fool who'll listen to their
pathetic crying.

I'm neither, which is why I run Ubuntu. Free, as in beer. Free, as
in freedom. Free, as in painless. Free, as in it's MY COMPUTER
and I decide what runs on it and what doesn't. Free, as in I turn
the computer on and have a desktop within 30 seconds instead
of waiting 2 minutes. Free, as in there is no killswitch like WGD
to "malfunction" and lock me out of my own data. Free, as in it
doesn't annoy the fertilizer out of me just to make some idiotic
point to someone else.

[Josh Hill]

So true, and I'm as guilty as any. The thing is, it's a fair amount of trouble to switch, and you always assume Microsoft is going to fix things. At least I did, before I learned that they put it annoyances intentionally.

Microsoft, have you checked Apple's rising sales figures lately? Better check them again, because you've just lost another customer.

[smokified]

WTF

"It's a myth that users click 'yes,' 'yes,' 'yes,' 'yes,'" said Cross. "Seven percent of all prompts are canceled. Users are not just saying 'yes.'"

So because 7% of people cancel the prompts, that is enough evidence to support the theory that people do not just blindly click? Not only is that stupid to say, but it is stupid to write an article about.

The 7% of poeple who cancel the prompts are those ******* idiots that do not read what the prompts are saying and know so little about computers they do not want to be the person that presses yes and launches all of the nukes..... They are the same people that ask what every little message means on the screen no matter how simple. Disk is full....What does that mean? Operation complete....So, Does that mean it is done?

You would think that Microsoft would at least have the data to support the fact that 93% of people don't know what the hell they are doing. You would also think that they would notice that as things get easier, those same 93% of people, that count for the worlds population of idiots, get dumber.

It is not because they are not capable either. They are just lazy.

[drstockton]

It's just bad software

Folks, I have really tried to use Vista. The productivity hit was too much, the OS is unstable at times, and he numerous alerts and pop-ups are really annoying. Twice I have twice backed off to "downgrade" to XP and am now quite happy again, even though there aren't XP drivers for everything in my laptop (yet). Microsoft should quit blaming users for the low adoption of Vista, get off their "know it all" stance, and just accept that people don't want to be patronized OR annoyed. Randy Stockton

[savagesteve13]

People use Vista???

Seriously? Wow I'm still on XP and have no interest in upgrading. XP64 supports 8 processors so I'm set for quite a while.

[WJeansonne]

Yeah, like hundreds of millions. Get over it.

Duh.

[oxtail01]

Annoyed

You mean they actually TRIED to annoy consumers? I thought they did it naturally.

[thedreaming]

Monkey see, Monkey Do

Microsoft made Windows like Mac OS X, but unlike Microsoft, Apple got their UAC right on the first try. You need to install something, it asks you for your password. That's it. Simple, easy to use, not the annoyance-fest that is UAC! Just watching a divx video triggers UAC more times than I care to remember.

The very first thing I do is turn that sucker off, it really is annoying, but it doesn't make me want to contact independent developers and tell them to clean up their code on behalf of the mighty Microsoft. Let Microsoft do that, it's their operating system! I just wanted to watch a video and not play 20 questions!

[Josh Hill]

CNet probably doesn't allow curses, does it? Because while I don't often have the urge to put curses in comments, in this case I have a very strong urge to write "F*** these people" in capital letters. How presumptious and obnoxious can a company be? How in-the-face contemptuous of the user? I don't give a **** about Microsoft's blinking lying statistics about how many little old ladies don't know how to turn off UAC. I wasted time trying it and being annoyed by it, and now I can't use what should be a basic security feature because they made it too damn annoying to use. Intentionally!

This takes the cake. Microsoft, I want my $200 back. I've always thought Vista mediocre and Windows in general riddled with annoyances, but never in my wildest imagination did it occur to me that you were adding annoyances on purpose.

[bsarte]

The irony is that those of us who use both Macs and Windows have been putting in our passwords for every little thing in OS X for years now with nary a complaint... but as soon as Vista's UAC popped up everyone wet their pants and went into a tizzy.

It is more obstrusive in Windows, I'll agree, but it's the same concept Mac users have had for a long time. And it's what Secure Linux users are using, too. Check out SL in any of the latest Linux releases... same princial as UAC and OS X's password protection.... Get used to it. It's the way of the world.