Comparing Windows 7 with UAC to Windows XP Behavior
Users of both Windows XP and Windows 7 may still find it difficult to understand the behaviour of User Account Control (UAC) mechanism used in Windows 7. UAC is a security feature of Windows 7 that informs you when the action that you want to take to undertake requires an elevation of privileges. The list below explains the behavior changes in Windows 7 with UAC enabled when compared to Windows XP.
|
Windows XP |
Windows 7 |
| User is logged in as a standard user but can run administrative tools by right-clicking the tool’s icon, clicking Run As and then providing administrative credentials. | User is logged in as a standard user but UAC immediately prompts the user for administrative credentials when he/she opens administrative tools or applications that require elevated privileges. |
| Application fails to modify a system setting if user is logged on as a standard user. | UAC provides virtualization for important parts of the system, allowing the application to run successfully when a user is logged on as a standard user. |
| If a specific feature within an application required administrative privileges then the entire application required administrative privileges. | Windows 7 displays the UAC shield on buttons to warn users that the application or a feature requires elevated privileges. |
| User is logged on as an administrator, therefore all applications ran with administrative privileges. | Although user is logged on as an administrator, all applications run with standard user privileges. However, Windows features that require administrative privileges automatically receive elevated privileges but any non-Windows applications that require elevated privileges, Windows 7 displays a UAC prompt to inform the user. |
Read more about UAC here – http://www.windows7library.com/blog/security/understanding-uac-user-account-control/
