A few days ago, I did a article about User Account Control [UAC], in which I described that some users who are new to computing may have trouble knowing what to do when the UAC warning appears on their Vista systems. See story here. And it seems that Microsoft concedes that UAC is not a security protection and that your ctions could put you at risk.

The article states:

“Think carefully when you see a UAC prompt – make sure you know what action is about to be performed. If you are not sure, it’s safest to click ‘Cancel’ and double check. It’s very important to remember that UAC prompts are not a security boundary – they don’t offer direct protection. They do offer you a chance to verify an action before it happens.Once you allow an action to proceed, there may be no easy way back. Windows Vista provides many features to protect your system, but they require proper use. Your system security is only as strong as your actions, so think before you click.”

And though this might give the user a warm fuzzy feeling, it does little for the user if they accidentally click on the wrong answer. Is UAC better than nothing? I think so. But it may provide a false sense of trust for new users.

Note: This document was provided in Word format, but knowing that not everyone has Word on their system, I used Google to provide a html format so everyone could view it.

Some guidelines for securing your Windows Vista PC

Comments welcome.

[tags]vista, microsoft, warning, uac, [/tags]