[Jason]

Experts agree that Microsoft's Windows Vista is relatively well-protected, but its security features — such as User Account Control (UAC) — have been highlighted by security experts as one reason why the operating system is far less popular than its predecessor, Windows XP.

According to Scott Charney, vice president of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group, UAC was designed to give users more control over the applications they run and help them make better security decisions by providing them with more information. However, the main problem with Vista's UAC, according to Charney, is that it prompts the user far too often.

"Clearly there has to be work done on UAC user prompts, where users get prompts at times they don't necessarily expect it — and it's not intuitive. The challenge is — as with many of these things when we try to give users control — if you give people too many prompts in too many situations, they view it as an impediment," Charney told ZDNet.com.au yesterday at the AusCERT security conference on the Gold Coast.

View: Full Article @ ZDNet Australia

[Daveskater]

I'd agree that it prompts too often. In fact, I actually turned it off. The annoying part with this, though, is that the Security Centre tell you it's turned off every time you start the PC. It's pretty annoying having the thing pop up, but what I did is told it not to do the pop up, so the little shield comes up and I have to close that each time I start the PC instead. It kind of works out well (a bit), though, because when the shield comes up then all the startup programs have finished and I know it's ready to be used hehe.

I think the security centre moans about Defender being deactivated too.

UAC most likely is one of the reasons that people don't want Vista over XP, as well. It's ok the first few times, but it gets old pretty quickly, and if you have a CRT monitor then it takes even longer for the picture to change (as it makes everything behind the prompt go dark), and you get the funny static noise as well.

[Albert Lionheart]

They are spot on with this = a key reason for people not wanting it is the UAC nag. And even when it is supposed to be off it is, as you say Dave, still nagging at you.