The New Face of the Vista SP1 User Account Control

With the maturity milestone that is the introduction of Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista, Microsoft has improved various aspects of the operating system, including the User Account Control. Introduced as an added security mitigation into Windows Vista, UAC is one of the features of the operating system that have been under a constant barrage of fire, throughout 2007, as it was advertised as one of the platform's problem areas. The direct consequence of the bad publicity built around the UAC is that end users perceived it as a too chatty and even excessively nagging feature, and searched for ways to disable it, dropping added security for flexibility. This is why Microsoft tweaked User Account Control taming it down in Vista SP1.

Michael Kleef, Microsoft IT Pro Evangelist has made available the video embedded at the bottom of this article, showing the new face of UAC in Vista SP1. The screencast is designed to highlight "the differences in Vista RTM to Vista SP1 in UAC prompting. We have worked hard in making sure that the original intent of system integrity is preserved though sometimes excessive prompting was occurring for a single task. My screencast shows this difference and how we have worked to improve", Kleef explained.

In the video Kleef illustrates the changes Microsoft made in order to cut down the number of UAC prompts presented to the end user in order to perform anodyne tasks such as creating and renaming folders in protected locations. But in addition, Vista SP1 brings to the table a fresh Security Policy (UAC: Allow UAccess), set up to bypass the secure desktop for programs in need of elevation.

"UAC is often maligned as over prompting for a single task. In this short and sharp clip I show a basic difference of Windows Vista RTM and Windows Vista SP1 and the reduction in UAC prompting to create a folder in a protected system location from four to one", Kleef added.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Five Language Standalone for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the operating system is available for download HERE.