Ok, first off, i'm very much on the side of those that don't like the security 'features' in Vista. I find them to be largely a pain in the butt and the most of my users are experiencing many problems trying to adjust to the new operating system. Please bear with me because I have tried to take some technical concepts and turn them into 'simple' english which may not sound 100% right. :biggrin:

The thing is, I fully understand why Microsoft have done what they have and where it all comes from originally. It comes from the Secure Computing Initiative that Microsoft have engaged in with other players in the industry. Basically, there is one group of people that we can all thank for the issues that we are experiencing with things like LUA (least privilige user account), limited access to administrative-level accounts, and other assorted crap like Digital Rights Management (DRM). With the exception of DRM, these measures have been put in place because the majority of home and business users demanded them in the first place!

Windows used to be notorius as an 'insecure' operating system that was easy to infect with viruses, trojans, etc, and just as easy to subvert to perform tasks and functions for hackers and other missfits at their whim. This stemmed largely from the fact that the older Microsoft operating systems were designed to give as much control to the users as possible, thereby letting them do whatever they wanted to with their own PC's. The major drive was to allow people to install, change and remove as much as they wanted to because, well, they wanted to ... This is part of the common belief that 'It's my PC therefore I have a right to do with it what I want to so don't stop me!'.

Ok, now the problem with that is that as a result of the operating systems being so open to 'tinkering' and full/administrative access they were also open to malicious code and intent too. This of course made users very uptight because viruses and malware were spreading throughout the Windows-based PC's like wildfire, and often without the knowledge of lesser technically oriented users. This of course was a ripe playground for people wanting to destroy data, spread viruses, steal personal information, and use other people's PC's to do their bidding.

So, along comes a new change in the attitude of the market place. 'Make our PC's safe, secure and hardened to security and vulnerability threats!'. Microsoft in effect say to the world 'look guys, they can either be safe, secure and a pain in the butt to work with or they can be open to use and abuse as you want to but at the same time vulnerable to outside attacks, malware, spyware, viruses, etc. Which is it to be?'. The resounding answer from those canvassed was 'make em safe, secure and hardened to outside threats!' so here we sit with Vista with all the security measures put in place to ensure that it is as difficult as possible for outside hackers, developers and so on to manipulate your PC into doing things they want it to, or for subversive software to grab hold and cause damage or loss of data to your PC, applicaitons and data.

It's a bit like the proverbial rock and a hard place to be honest because there has yet to be a product that is as safe and secure as possible that doesn't place limitations on the use thereof.

There are a lot of sources of information on the internet that go into detail on the Secure Computing Initiative and the way in which these principles have been implemented in the Vista operating system and why. Google will return a large number of hits if anyone is interested.

I purposefully didn't go into any great detail on DRM (Digital Rights Management) because that is another whole kettle of fish that has been enforced on the operating system and application developers by the music and movie industry to protect their products from piracy and illegal distribution. The jury is still very much out on that one too!

As per usual, just my 2c-worth, or given the length of my post maybe $5-worth! :biggrin: