User security, particularly in the home market now, is becoming one of the more important aspects of computer security. One of the best ways to prevent malware from doing any significant damage to a user's system is to run as a user with limited rights. These limited rights, as the name suggests, limit what the user is capable of doing. One of the disadvantages, however, is the need to occasionally run as an administrative user to perform certain tasks, such as configuration changes or software installation. Linux has a program called sudo, Windows XP has the "Run as Administrator" option, however, the most controversial of them all is Windows Vista's User Account Control (UAC), a technology aimed at allowing users to run with limited rights will maintaining the ability to perform administrative tasks without having to log in as an administrator. As we will learn in this first real chapter of "Notes from a Vista User," UAC, for its potential merit, has some major failings.
Continue reading "Notes From a Vista User - Chapter 1 - UAC" »
Any frequent user of a computer knows that interface design is important. We are all aware of our common input interface: the keyboard and mouse. Lurking beneath these common devices is another, more important aspect of a computer interface: the output device. Looking back on the days when LEDs and printers were the primary output devices, we take for granted our monitors attached to video cards. Despite the age and inefficiencies of our clumsy keyboard and mouse interface, the combination has served us well. Similarly, despite the age of our monitor outputs, they do the job just fine. Just like the features of that new super 114-key multimedia keyboard, or a 7 button laser mouse, graphical interface design through the monitor has gone through its own evolution. This week in "Notes from a Vista User" I plan to highlight the history of the Windows GUI, and displaying the latest evolution of that design that is present in all versions of Windows Vista to some extent or another: Aero.
Continue reading "Notes from a Vista User - Chapter 2 - I hope I didn't break that glass..." »
