Microsoft Windows Vista Management and Administration

Chapter 6. Using User Account Control to Establish System Security

Introduction to User Account Control (UAC)

Another, and possibly the most significant, security improvement in Vista is the introduction of User Account Control (UAC). UAC addresses the questions: “Do you know this program and do you trust it?” and “System changes are about to be made, should this be allowed?” along with requesting the appropriate level of rights to take action. UAC was designed as another defense mechanism for preventing malware and virus infections along with unauthorized or unintentional system changes. It accomplished this by providing two levels of access: standard user and administrator in Admin Approval Mode. UAC also separates the local System account ...