Win7 features revealed: customizable UAC and integrated Accelerators

[Andrew Lyle Global Moderator]

There are some good features up there, hopefully the interface will change before the final.

Let's also hope they are working on performance, rather then just adding to Vista

[theyarecomingforyou]

Let's also hope they are working on performance, rather then just adding to Vista

Indeed. I'd like to see them follow the approach Apple is taking with the next version of OSX, where they are focusing on performance and reducing memory usage. Each update should be considerably faster, not slower. Vista, even with all the animation effects disabled, still isn't as snappy as XP when it comes to navigating hard-drives and the recycle bin still seems to take an absurdly long time to empty at times; the performance isn't anywhere near as bad as people make out (many things benchmark faster, including games) but it should have been so much better.

[Belazor]

No offense, but it seems that you have no knowledge about secure hashes. It is almost IMPOSSIBLE to duplicate a secure hash using a fake file, a virus or whatever!! Respectable security softwares use hashes and digital signatures, and that is indeed a secure setup. You make it sound simple!

Fair enough point, but "almost impossible" isn't good enough :p

Tbh I don't mind getting asked each time, especially considering Win7 will have a "temporarily suspend" function for when you perform tons of changes in quick succession.

City of Heroes is an excellent example of this. There is NO reason it needs admin privileges to download game patches.

If you mean the actual DOWNLOAD and not the INSTALL, then I agree with you.

But actual INSTALLATION obviously requires admin rights, as it's overwriting files in Program Files.

[Ayepecks]

well based on the screenshot in the OP it would seem as though it has to be actively started and so is off by default

and MioTheGreat can you explain the whole notify thing in those UAC screenshots is about. what use could notifing users have when the process as already been elevated. i don't understand why those options exist surely just the top one and the bottom one are needed.

Yes, but it looks as though that little space is there by default. I want to be able to turn it off completely, personally. Yes, I know that's nit picky ;)

[zaidgs]

Fair enough point, but "almost impossible" isn't good enough :p

Not sure if this is supposed to be a joke, but "almost impossible" means that it would take a supercomputer of our time tens if not hundreds of years of continuous processing to find such a file. So for all practical purposes, almost impossible is good enough!! Even agencies like NSA, CIA and the like use 'almost impossible' to break algorithms.

[Express]

What is the castle like tray icon?

[DreadBoat89]

What is the castle like tray icon?

might be a security center warning regarding no antivirus installed on the computer

[kagaku]

Looks about as useless as Services are under Mac OS X. And they've had 'em since 2001.

[revvo]

I have to agree with this, this is going to make UAC basically obsolete because of the basic end user idiots who will switch it off due to it being "annoying"

Not really. The notifications are off, but UAC is still working.

But, I still think UAC doesn't help in making computers safer for the general population of end-users. They're impatient and blindly click Yes/Continue/etc. to get rid of popups, that's why there's so much spywares adwares bs on their computers. They browse the net and they get a popup that asks you to download and install something, they accept. The program that they want to install asks them at some point to install some adware and you have the choice to accept or refuse, they decide to accept because they didn't read a damn thing, just clicking [Next].

You think it's any different with a UAC popup? UAC only helps those who are aware of what's going on, and at the same time that makes it sort of useless since those who are aware of what's going on do not need UAC. At least this update will make things easier for users who are more computer savvy.

[fix-this!]

they should get rid of uac because i will just disable it again.

[goji]

i bet my 2 cents that those dialogs will still look like that in the final stages of win7

ouch, it does look awful.

Keep reminding myself: "its still in dev cycle, its still in dev cycle" :pinch:

[andersonshatch]

You think it's any different with a UAC popup? UAC only helps those who are aware of what's going on, and at the same time that makes it sort of useless since those who are aware of what's going on do not need UAC. At least this update will make things easier for users who are more computer savvy.

I agree entirely.

Josh

[lalalawawawa]

they should get rid of uac because i will just disable it again.

And you know that you leave your system more vulnerable? Afaik, UAC captures all rootkits.

[HawkMan]

they should get rid of uac because i will just disable it again.

why disable when you can silence ?

[xpgeek]

Personally I have no problem with UAC. Depends on what I doing but on average get 2 or 3 prompts a day. I've grown used to it and really prefer it on, just knowing I can just walk away from the PC and not worry about anything happening without my permission.

[XerXis]

so....NTFS for another 10 years?

or is there a chance they've been working on a new File system that hasnt been announced yet?

sigh, not again ... what is it with you people? WinFS was never meant to replace NTFS, it wasn't a filesystem, it has been discontinued and integrated in several ms projects (like mssql) and no, it will never return like you want it to return, in fact, it has never been what you thought it was!

On topic: some nice features there, altough the uac level thing looks more like something they put in to stop the ultraleet-super-advanced-computer-users who hate UAC because they know malware. It's not something I would use, always notify and wait for my response ;)

[ShaneSparky_YYZ]

The new UAC should be made as an update for Vista...

I agree!!!

[fix-this!]

And you know that you leave your system more vulnerable? Afaik, UAC captures all rootkits.

i have enough security protection on my vista install. uac is just plain old annoying to me.

[HawkMan]

i have enough security protection on my vista install. uac is just plain old annoying to me.

so... silent mode

[XerXis]

so... silent mode

i always wondered, how is automatically agreeing with every uac prompt (which is what silent mode does) more secure than turning it off altogether

[HawkMan]

i always wondered, how is automatically agreeing with every uac prompt (which is what silent mode does) more secure than turning it off altogether

because it does't turn of protected mode, auto elevation of applications to the correct(requested) level and the virtual folders still work. among other things

imagine this, Java, flash and all those only need to run with the lowest privs, with UAC enable in silent mode they'll only request the lowest priviliege they need. with UAC off, they'll run with ALL privileges. So then anyone can use a zero day (wich isn't just one day, it's every day untill someone "friendly" atually detects it) to do whatever they want on your computer because they have full access.

[XerXis]

because it does't turn of protected mode, auto elevation of applications to the correct(requested) level and the virtual folders still work. among other things

imagine this, Java, flash and all those only need to run with the lowest privs, with UAC enable in silent mode they'll only request the lowest priviliege they need. with UAC off, they'll run with ALL privileges. So then anyone can use a zero day (wich isn't just one day, it's every day untill someone "friendly" atually detects it) to do whatever they want on your computer because they have full access.

i see, thanks for clarifying that, i didn't know a program needed UAC to run without all privileges. That means, in XP a program always runs as the logged in user right? except for system services ofcourse

[HawkMan]

I believe it goes beyond just what user it runs as, but yeah.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

It almost feels as if Windows 7 is what Windows Vista should have been. I know it's too early to "judge" the operating system set to be released in mid-2009, but I can't help it. As of now, I highly doubt I will purchase it.

[Conciente]

... so, what are accelerators?