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Clean It for Love

One more thing.


Get It

Try It

I actually forgot to address another item in my list of things done during a typical repair of a friend's PC.

LUA. Or the lack thereof.

For my folks, I made them use a LUA and explained that admin = bad things will happen. Not that it will stop all of the malware, but it's a start. Or at least until Linux works with that hardware.

I can't seem to get that through with my friends, however. Get a new set of friends, maybe? ;) For some reason having a second account 'confuses' them.

I really don't understand how difficult it is for people to use an admin account to install things and use a LUA for everything else. The only exceptions to the rule are the *buntu-based distros and others that use sudo for temp root privs. Yes, even using an admin account on OS X is dangerous as we have discussed here in the past.

That $400 box was actually the first time I had to seriously get to know the innards of Vista other than using it for light and menial things. It wasn't five minutes into using Vista that I turned off UAC because I was so annoyed by it.

How many of these (l)users forced to use Vista are actually going to pay attention to the UAC alerts after enough times for carrying out very trivial tasks? And how many are going to be frustrated to the point that they turn it off?

Even Apple pointed this out in one of their ads.

Remember, we're talking about a tarted-up version of XP with the same file system, the same registry, the same hacks built on top of a single user model, same drive letter designations, etc.

UAC is a minor speed bump in a residential neighborhood. It annoys the motorists and does nothing to stop the speeding. I could keep going on with this metaphor about the kids using speed bumps as skateboard ramps and fire trucks on call to emergencies having to literally stop at each bump, but you get the idea. That's UAC in my eyes in a nutshell.

Turn off UAC and you have XP's security model. Not that it matters: you're still running as the *nix equivalent of root by default. Everything is fair game.

And judging from the look of things, Windows Se7en is going to merely be a tarted-up version of Vista.

What happens if MS actually develops a multi-user centric system from the ground up similar to *nix? I'd bet the AV/security industry won't like it that much. They thrive on Windows' shortcomings.

 - AlphaMack

See Also
Rant of the Week: Unable to Clean
Rant of the Week: Clean It for $1000

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