Security & Failure Reporting System

User Access Control (UAC)

We are happy to report that UAC is less frustrating in RC2 and RTM, compared to Beta 2. Users can now perform common tasks like deleting, renaming and moving files without the UAC popping up. Although it is possible to disable UAC, we strongly recommend you do NOT do so. UAC definitely has its strengths.

In one instance, we accidentally double-clicked an Trojan-infected .exe executable file with a folder icon. UAC immediately popped up and asked us if we would like to proceed executing the file. At that point, we realized just what happened and clicked 'Do Not Allow'.

The Trojan was thereby prevented from infecting our system. If we disabled UAC, it is possible that we may have to reinstall Vista to rid ourselves of the Trojan.

This is especially important right now, because there are not many Vista-compatible antivirus software in the market. UAC is definitely a safe bet while these security companies work to migrate their software to Microsoft Vista.

Failure Reporting System

We were quite fortunate to be able to witness how Microsoft tackles with hardware failures in Windows Vista. We had one faulty but still usable hard drive on hand. So, we thought, why not use that to store the paging file?

We were astonished that Vista could instantly detect the faulty hard drive, inform us about it and provide steps to backup the data before "something" happened to the hard drive. You are given the choice of backing up the files, or put that off for the moment (with Vista reminding you at a later time).

If you select Start The Backup Process, you will given instructions on backing up, diagnosing and replacing the failing hard drive. You can actually print and/or save those instructions. However, we feel that the instructions provided were too general and more or less asks you to contact your computer manufacturer.

After viewing the instructions, you will be presented with two options. You can either run the integrated Windows Backup and Recovery utility to back up your files, or you can choose to use your own backup utility. If you choose the latter, a new window will appear, allowing you to shut down the PC.

We definitely loved what we saw. Windows Vista was able to detect early failures in hard drives and recommend proper procedures for backing up our data, to prevent potential data loss. Better safe than sorry!