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Well, Microsoft has finally come clean about the real motivation behind Vista's User Account Control feature. As Tom Espiner's reports from the recent RSA Conference in San Francisco, Microsoft UAC Program Manager David Cross admits that UAC was designed to annoy users.

Espiner quotes Cross telling the security-conference audience that negative user reaction was the only way to coax independent software vendors to update their applications for Vista. As fewer programs violated Vista's rules, users would have to click through fewer UAC prompts.

I'd feel worse about being manipulated by the biggest corporation in the world if UAC weren't such a good idea, though less-than-perfectly implemented. It's true that disabling the feature may allow a balky application or process to work, but too many important Vista features rely on UAC.

To change your UAC setting, press the Windows key, type user accounts, and press Enter. Click "Turn User Account Control on or off," and check or uncheck Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer."

Alter Vista's User Account Control setting via the User Accounts Control Panel applet.

(Credit: Microsoft)

You get more granular control over UAC's behavior via the Local Security Settings. To access these options, you must be logged in as an administrator, and the PC must not be on a domain. Press the Windows key, type secpol.msc, and press Enter. (Note that the Local Security Settings aren't available on all Vista PCs.)

The eight UAC settings are found under Local Policies > Security Options. You can find more about these settings on Microsoft's Windows Vista TechCenter, but I'll save you the time and trouble: you're better off leaving the settings as they are. UAC is far from perfect, but it's better than computing with no UAC at all.

If you're experiencing a UAC-related problem, Microsoft offers a list of potential solutions on its Help and Support site. For everyday computing, you're better off with UAC than without it.

Tomorrow: low-tech Office alternatives.

If I could remember any, I would begin this post with an anecdote about how wonderful a good memory can be.

Instead, I'll just tell you how to put all your keyboard shortcuts and Windows commands in a text file that you can open quickly via keystrokes, or keep minimized for even faster access. And you can do it all without grabbing your mouse.

Start by finding a list of keyboard shortcuts. The one Microsoft put together works for me. Select all the text on the page from "General keyboard shortcuts" to just above "Other information." Press Ctrl-C to copy the text to the clipboard. (That's one of the few shortcuts I can actually remember.)

Open Notepad by pressing the Windows key (or Ctrl-Esc) and N. You can also open it by pressing the Windows key and R (if necessary), typing notepad.exe, and pressing Enter.

Press Ctrl-V to paste the plain text into a blank file, and type Alt-F, A to open the Save As dialog box. Give the file a name--"shortcuts.txt" works for me. Just be sure to use the ".txt" file extension and save the file to your desktop or some other location that's easy to access.

Save a list of keyboard shortcuts as a text file for easy access.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Now open the file in Notepad and either make the Notepad window inconspicuous so it doesn't block your work apps, or keep it minimized and Alt-Tab to Notepad when you need to refer to the file. To move or resize the Notepad window (without using your mouse, of course), press Alt-spacebar, S, and then use the arrow keys to adjust the window size.

If you need to create a custom keyboard shortcut to open Notepad, press the Windows key and use the arrow and Enter keys to navigate to the Notepad shortcut on the Start menu (All Programs > Accessories > Notepad). Press the context-menu--which is sometimes called the application key--and then type R. (Note that Shift-F10 opens this menu in some applications.)

Use the Tab and arrow keys to navigate to the Shortcut keyboard text box under the Shortcut tab. Type the keystroke combination of your choice (Ctrl-Alt-N is one possibility), and press Enter.

Add Windows' commands to the list
Be sure to add your custom keyboard shortcuts to your shortcuts.txt file. While you have the file open, add all those commands you always forget about when you want to use Windows' command line to open a program or system tool. Microsoft provides a list of commands to open Control Panel applets. You'll also find a bunch of Windows commands in an article I posted in January.

Do it quick, before you forget where you put your spare mouse.

Tomorrow: use Gmail as a network drive.

Google and Microsoft may eventually become the envy of medical researchers, as the technology behemoths take on the role of hosting health care databases for consumers' own personally controlled health records (PCHRs).

The movement toward consumers controlling their own health records and the means that will get them there raises several issues of concern, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Under a PCHR, a patient would set up a portal that could authorize their doctors, health care providers, researchers, and family members to provide and share information relating to the patient. Those records and information would be stored in the patient's PCHR, which would be hosted by Google Health or the Microsoft HealthVault.

Microsoft is working with New York Presbyterian Hospital, and Google is working with Cleveland Clinic to have those institutions provide their patients with an electronic copy of their own records.

Once patients give their approval, companies, government organizations, health-related operators, and others could create applications that would connect to the PCHR platforms.

But the authors of the report, Dr. Kenneth Mandl and Dr. Isaac Kohane, raise a number of key questions concerning the PCHR service providers, such as whether the service providers will have a research mission and whether they would allow secondary use of any aggregated data of their users. And, of course, the issue of privacy was also addressed (PDF). The PCHR service providers are not under the same regulations as the health care industry, which restricts the sharing of patient information to only those people or entities whom the patient designates under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

The report says that Google and Microsoft's databases of patient information may eventually grow to be larger and more up-to-date than the databases of other well-known medical research programs. As a result, researchers may find it easier and cheaper to team up with Microsoft and Google when doing their research, rather than relying on a number of sources for data to do their research.

Challenges in putting PCHRs to use include limitations by some laboratories in releasing medical results to patients, the fact that a substantial number of medical records are still paper-based, and that the U.S. currently has no universal patient identification system.

"Despite these challenges, many consumers with PCHRs will soon control a valuable resource--an integrated copy of their health care information across sites of care," the researchers note.

Microsoft is reportedly working on its own version of Nintendo's Wiimote and plans to introduce it by the end of the year. The report comes from MTV News, which attributes the information to a developer "who has been brief on the project" but sought anonymity to preserve business relationships.

The source told MTV News that the project, supposedly in development since last August, is being designed by Rare, the U.K.-based game studio acquired by the software giant in 2002. Microsoft would not comment on the report.

Although its functions are similar to those of the Wiimote, according to the report, the device does not need a companion controller to be used with it. The device has "face buttons, an analog stick, and microphone," MTV News said. A purported sketch of a working prototype of the device can be seen here.

Microsoft Office includes industrial-strength tools for creating forms of all types, but the Access database and InfoPath information manager are overkill for my meager form requirements. If I need to collect basic information from a bunch of people in a hurry, such as for planning a potluck lunch, I stick with the simple form-creation tools in Word.

Word 2007 groups the options found on the Forms toolbar in Word 2003 into the Legacy Tools button in the Controls section under the Developer tab. These form fields are a subset of Office 2007's Content Controls, which allow you to populate forms automatically from external sources, extract form data as XML for use in other applications, and perform other operations. I may have use for these advanced features someday, but for creating a basic form, they're too much.

Start with a template and a table
Whether you're using Word 2007 or Word 2003, create a template to serve as the master copy of your form document. The simplest way to format the form is by using a two-column table: The left column lists the field names, and the right one holds the data you're collecting. In my example form for planning a company potluck lunch, I created fields for the respondent's name, department, and preferred event date, as well as for the food and beverage each person plans to bring.

Text boxes work for the name, department, and food fields, and I use a drop-down menu for the beverage choice. I also use a drop-down menu for the date preference in Word 2003, but Word 2007 adds a control that lets people select a date from a monthly calendar.

To select a form control in Word 2007, place the cursor in the table cell where you want the control, click the Developer tab, and choose the appropriate icon in the Controls section, or click the arrow in the bottom-right corner of the Legacy Tools icon and select the control from the drop-down list.

Click the down arrow on the Legacy Tools icon to insert a form control.

(Credit: Microsoft)

In Word 2003, place the cursor in the table cell you want the form field to appear in, right-click an empty area of the toolbar, select Forms to open the floating Forms toolbar, and choose one of the controls on the toolbar.

Select a control from the floating Forms toolbar to insert it in a document in Microsoft Word 2003.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Once your form control is in place, right-click it and choose Properties to customize it. Another way to access the control options is by selecting the Properties button in the Controls section of the Developer ribbon in Word 2007, or by clicking the Form Field Options icon on the Forms toolbar in Word 2003. For text fields, you can change the default text that appears (by adding "Click here to enter text," for example). You can also specify that a number, date, or other type of text be entered; set a maximum length; specify a text format; and even set a macro to run when data is entered, or when the field is exited. This is also how you enter items for drop-down lists, and set the size and default values of checkboxes.

Add items to the drop-down form control by entering them in the Field Options dialog box and clicking Add.

(Credit: Microsoft)

There's a more elegant way to ask people to select their preferred date in Word 2007: choose the Date Picker control, which adds a month-by-month calendar to the form that appears when you select it and choose the down arrow to the right of the current entry. The Content Properties dialog lets you specify the resulting date format.

Set the date format used in your form's calendar control via its Properties dialog box in Word 2007.

(Credit: Microsoft)

When your form controls are in place, save the file using the .dotx format in Word 2007, or .dot in Word 2003. When you're ready to distribute your form, open a new Word document, and choose the template from the list that appears. Save the resulting file with the .docx format in Word 2007, or .doc in Word 2003. Now the form is ready for distribution, but first make sure your recipients can add text and otherwise access its fields. In Word 2007, place the cursor in the field, click the Properties button in the Contents section of the Developer ribbon (or right-click and choose Properties), and make sure "Contents cannot be edited" is unchecked. In Word 2003, ensure that the lock icon at the far right of the Forms toolbar is selected.

When the forms are returned, you can collect the data as comma-separated values in a text file (.txt) in Word 2003 by selecting File > Save As > Tools > Save Options, checking Save data only for forms, and clicking OK > Save > OK. In Word 2007 you should be able to do the same by clicking the Office button, choosing Save As > Word Document > Tools > Save Options, selecting the Advanced tab in the left pane, scrolling to the "Preserve fidelity when sharing this document" section in the right window, checking "Save form data as delimited text file," choosing Plain text (.txt) in the Save as type drop-down menu, and clicking Save > OK. Unfortunately, I couldn't get this function to save the form content when I tested it. I'll keep experimenting, though, and I'll let you know if I find the solution.

Tomorrow: Customize the Details view in Windows Explorer.

Ready to rumble in April

(Credit: Sony)

If you're waiting for Sony to finally release its new rumbling DualShock 3 wireless controller here in North America, you won't have much longer to go. Today, Sony announced that the wireless DualShock 3 will be available sometime in April with a somewhat hefty $54.99 price tag (the current nonrumble wireless controller has a list price of $5 less).

Sony also had a few other PlayStation-related announcements. To coincide with the much-anticipated North American launch of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots in late Q2 2008, Sony said it will introduce a PS3 bundle that includes an 80GB PS3, MGS4, and a DualShock 3 wireless controller for $499 (MSRP).

In case you're wondering what "late Q2" means, think June. That's also when Sony will release a limited-edition God of War PSP Entertainment Pack for $199.99 (MSRP). According to the press release, the bundle will include a "'Deep Red' PSP with God of War himself, Kratos, silk-screened on the back of the unit," a copy of God of War: Chains of Olympus for PSP, the movie Superbad on UMD, and a PlayStation Network voucher to download Syphon Filter: Combat Ops from the PlayStation Store. The standalone version of God of War: Chains of Olympus arrives March 4.

What's this all add up to? Well, a little pressure for Microsoft and Nintendo. With Sony hot off its Blu-ray victory, a couple of AAA PS3 titles on the horizon, and a little rumble in its controllers, things are looking up for PlayStation fans. What do you think?

WASHINGTON--The Bush administration sought to deflect criticism Wednesday over a new policy that clears hurdles for certain companies in China to receive exports of American-made multigigaflop computers, lasers, and other "sensitive" technologies with potential military uses.

Under rules that took effect last summer, some companies in China are--or will be--permitted to bypass normal legal procedures for receiving exports of certain restricted hardware and software from the United States. That list includes certain chemicals that could be used to build weapons, telecommunications equipment designed to operate at very high and very low temperatures, and computers with processor performance speeds "exceeding 0.5 weighted teraflops."

Since the Cold War, the United States has limited export of certain so-called "dual use" products that could have both military and civilian applications. The new privilege--called "Validated End User" status--applies exclusively to companies in China. They must agree to submit to a "comprehensive" review process by numerous U.S. government agencies, both before and during their participation in the program, and have a record of using American technologies "responsibly." Five companies have landed that status so far.

At an event hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation here on Wednesday, Commerce Department Undersecretary Mario Mancuso and an adviser defended the new policy as a key part of the United States' extremely complex relationship with China. The goal, Mancuso said, is to balance national security interests with economic ones: after all, China is quickly becoming one of the world's largest economies and the United States' biggest trading partner.

The VEU program is a wise move because it allows regulators more time to concentrate on whether to grant licenses to "riskier" companies, Mancuso said. It may also give other Chinese companies a "market-based incentive" to abide by U.S. export control laws in hopes of achieving that more liberated trade status, he added.

The latest approach, however, is drawing fire from critics who argue the Bush administration is being shortsighted and overly trusting. For instance, the Wisconsin Project, a nonprofit group focused on nuclear arms control, contended in a report released last month (PDF) that two of the VEU companies--Shanghai Hua Hong NEC Electronics Company and BHA Aerocomposite Parts Co.--shouldn't be on the list because of ties to the Chinese military and other government-owned operations.

Mancuso insisted that the companies named in the Wisconsin Project report were selected only after undergoing a "rigorous" analysis based on classified and publicly available information. He added that all of the companies selected must submit to periodic follow-up investigations, including on-site visits, by U.S. regulators and that their status can be revisited if problems arise.

Critics didn't buy those explanations. One of the prime concerns with exporting sensitive technologies to Chinese firms is that they will divert those ideas to the military, and the new policy won't prevent that from happening, said Peter Leitner, president of the pharmaceutical company MaxWell USA and a former senior trade advisor to the Secretary of Defense.

"The characterization of these companies as being safe is absurd," Leitner said during a panel discussion after Mancuso's speech. "They're embedded with government controlled entities who dictate the terms of trade. Government plays a huge role in directing trade, directing corporate activities, directing where technology goes, and will continue to do so in the indefinite future."

Those naysayers are living in the past, argued Mark Groombridge, a senior adviser to undersecretary Mancuso. Traditional export controls aren't as effective as they once were because of increasingly global "networks of production" and less restrictive export controls in other major industrial nations, Groombridge said.

Besides, the new Commerce Department rules may liberalize export requirements to the select VEU companies, but they actually create new licensing requirements for everyone else, Groombridge added. That's because categories of American high-tech products that previously escaped export control rules are now subject to them.

"To say there's no strategic thinking going on about China is just simply and factually inaccurate," Groombridge said.

John Tkacik, a senior research fellow with the Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center, questioned whether the new policy ultimately serves American interests.

"One might wonder whether letting this kind of technology leak off to China does have the appropriate safeguards to be sure it doesn't get stolen and put together by a Chinese company," he said.

The Ford Focus C-MAX will soon get the voice-activated system.

(Credit: Ford U.K.)

More good news for those of us who have been forced to divide our attention between the road and what seems like an ever-increasing number of gadgets and other in-car distractions: automotive voice-activation technology is becoming more widespread.

On Thursday, U.S.-based company Nuance announced that it will be putting its text-to-speech technology in select new Ford models in Europe. The system powers Ford's "Human Machine Interface" (HMI), which allows drivers to make calls, enter destinations into the navigation system, control the audio system, and change the inside temperature using simple voice commands.

For example, a driver can change the radio station simply by saying the frequency number, or in some cases, saying the call letters. And the climate control system can be adjusted by simply saying "warmer" or "cooler." The HMI system can read and understand English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Ford already uses its voice-activated Sync system, powered by Microsoft, on select models here in the U.S.

The European HMI system will be implemented on the Ford Focus and the Focus C-MAX multipurpose vehicles beginning next month. Other European Ford models, including the Galaxy and S-MAX multipurpose vehicles, along with the Mondeo full-size sedan, will get the technology shortly thereafter.

Jonathan Zittrain speaks at CNET's offices in San Francisco on Wednesday evening.

(Credit: Declan McCullagh/CNET News.com )

SAN FRANCISCO--Restrictive tools and rash approaches to security challenges are endangering the health of the online ecosystem, an Oxford University researcher warned Wednesday.

Jonathan Zittrain, who has written a book due out in April called The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It, gave a public talk on the issue Wednesday night at CNET's offices here. News.com hosted the talk--a first for our newsroom. The event, which drew 120 people, was sponsored by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

You can call Zittrain's theme the AOL-ization of technology. Instead of personal computers being able to run any program from any source without approval from a third party--which many of us were used to in the 1980s and 1990s--Zittrain fears we're entering a world where centralized approval becomes necessary.

Examples are numerous: Apple's lockdown of the iPhone. Some Google applications that say developers can't "disparage" the company. Facebook.com's copyright policy for developers that says if the application permits file-sharing, they must "register an agent for notices of copyright infringements with the U.S. Copyright Office." Some terms of service agreements that require disclosure of source code. Applications on the Symbian OS that require signatures to work (I don't think Zittrain mentioned this one, but it fits the theme).

"Can you imagine if Microsoft said that for every application that runs on Windows, we get a copy of the source code?" Zittrain asked. Google and Facebook can turn your application "into a brick at any time." Employees from Facebook and Google were sitting in the audience, by the way, but didn't engage him during the Q&A period.

Another way to think about Zittrain's point is to rephrase it this way: Who controls the technology you use? If you think you do, are you sure? There's the case of the FBI almost managing to persuade the courts to let it eavesdrop on an unspecified OnStar-like remote assistance product installed in a luxury car. There's also the lesser-known one of a federal judge ordering Echostar to send software updates to its digital video subscribers that would cripple their devices.

And Zittrain's solution? There's no simple one. Publicity, in the form of persuading people to think about these sorts of trade-offs, is one. Another is distributed control. Zittrain invoked Wikipedia as a model, pointing to project co-founder Jimmy Wales (who was sitting in the front row) and suggesting that in 2001, nobody would have thought a user-edited encyclopedia would work. And they would have been wrong.