Re: turn off user account control

Well, you missed it completely.

The point is not what an AV or Firewall does, it's that UAC produces too many false positive responses to be considered anything but a nuisance.

I believe that in a company environment where standard setups are the only allowed software, you would hardly or never see the prompts. That's not me. I test software, restoring backups between every test to revert back to a "standard" machine. So, I see the prompts 20 to 30 times a day. And, yes, I just click Continue since I already know what is driving the prompt.

I don't turn UAC off, because it would invalidate the testing and it tends to cause other errors with permissions during installation of files when turned off and I have to know what the customer is going to run into as they would experience it.

Yes, I typically operate as an admin over 50% of the time since I am not part of a greater network with a bunch of people who would install garbage for me if I didn't right the rules to block it. And, despite this, I still don't get malware. I do use an AV, Firewall, Router and occasionally scan for the garbage, but seldom find anything more than "spyware" cookies. (The "more" is still classified as spyware, not malware.)


"Jack the Ripper" <Jack@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:%23CaO%23d6kJHA.4404@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mark H wrote:
If your antivirus asked you every time you clicked on a file:
"The file you are about to open may be a virus. Do you wish to continue?"

How long before you turned it off?

Well, AV's don't do that, so it's a moot point.


If your firewall produced a message every time you accessed the internet:
"Your computer is attempting to connect with the internet. This could result in the loss of personal information. Do you wish to continue?"

That's not a personal packet filter's job, and something like that, a 3rd party personal packet filter like Zonealarm and others, that ask that is nothing but snake-oil technology and is not a FW solution. Those solutions, the personal packet filter or PFW if you like, shouldn't take on the role of a malware detection solution.

Unfortunately, many of them do try to take on the jack of all trades and master of none, and people lean on them like a crutch.

A FW separates two networks, and it sits at the junction point between the two networks. A FW must have two interfaces with one interface facing the network it is protecting from, and the other interface facing the network it is to protect. That is the simplest definition of a FW and something like ZA and the 3rd party solutions are not FW technology.


How long before you turned it off?

Live in whatever fear makes you feel safer.
Still malware free after 30+ years on computers.

Look, I get asked once or twice a week about UAC approval, because 99.9% of the software I run on the machine is Vista compliant that runs under Standard user rights. And no UAC prompt is required for a program that runs with standard user rights.

Nor am I playing admin on the machine constantly, even though I develop and run .Net solutions on the machine as a software developer with technology such as IIS, SQL Server, VS 2008 and other such technology running on the Vista machine.

If you're being asked about UAC approval at the rate you're talking about, then you're playing admin more than what is required, and you have a lot of software on the machine that is not Vista compliant software.

I have been in IT 30+ years. And you being malware free after 30 years, not one time have you been hit by malware on the MS platform, I absolutely do not believe it.

It's most likely that you didn't know that you had malware on the machine, because all the little detection solutions you had running on the machine missed them, and you didn't know how to go looke with the proper tools for yourself to see what was running on the machine.

UAC is not a malware detection or malware prevention solution.





.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: I turned off UAC
    ... I would rather have it enabled so that I am not on the Internet with full admin rights, like the previous versions of the NT based O/Swhich are open by default O/Sand wide-open to attack/compromise by default. ... The out of the box admin account on Vista that is given to a user or any subsequent admin account that is created on Vista with UAC enabled is NOT a full-rights-admin account. ... what if there's some malware. ... Like I said, nothing is bulletproof not even god's O/S Linux, but UAC on the MS platform is better than have nothing at all, which is the case in fact with the previous versions of the NT based O/S platform, open by default O/S, to help protect the O/S. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.general)
  • Re: I turned off UAC
    ... I would rather have it enabled so that I am not on the Internet with full admin rights, like the previous versions of the NT based O/Swhich are open by default O/Sand wide-open to attack/compromise by default. ... The out of the box admin account on Vista that is given to a user or any subsequent admin account that is created on Vista with UAC enabled is NOT a full-rights-admin account. ... what if there's some malware. ... However, network admins take that responsibly for this type of worker by using a network proxy that only allows the users to go to approved sites closing the attack vector and mitigating such damage, as its their responsibility to protect company's interest and not some office clerk, lock them down. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.general)
  • Re: Is Windows Defender built-in to Vista?
    ... It doesn't prevent malware nor is it an antivirus product. ... Microsoft provides a simple way of turning it off in Vista, ... I know I turned off UAC in Vista ... warning that I was running without a firewall after uninstalling WLOC. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.general)
  • Re: I turned off UAC
    ... users about virus or malware issues, not like you see on XP. ... but you do see a lot of posts about how UAC sucks. ... As long as you're not logged on as admin you should be fine. ... account enabled is not a security risk. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.general)
  • RE: IDS and Spywares
    ... > to get data through the network. ... a credit card number being transmitted by some malware to the ... hIDS/hIPS have more information at the host side. ... >> better than any network based security control. ...
    (Focus-IDS)
Quantcast