Norton User Account Control: a Better (and free) User Account Control for Vista
Nov 09 '08 (Updated Dec 10 '08)
The Bottom Line Norton User Account Control is an atypical Symantec product, effective, quick, and nimble. It does what's needed, improving Vista's User Account Control and the User experience, and minimizes risk.
Anyone that followed the 2008 democratic presidential primary was aware that the early favorite mainstream candidate Hillary Clinton often polled as the candidate most favored by voters and also least favored by voters. If you took a "favorability" poll among all software users, I'd predict that Microsoft and Symantec would be "Hillary Clinton's" of the software industry, with both having lots of supporters, but an equivalent number of detractors who are frustrated with their products.
So I found it interesting that Symantec recently released a beta version of a very simple, low overhead utility that actually makes Microsoft's most important product, Windows Vista, noticeably more user friendly. That utility, Norton User Account Control, replaces what I find to be Vista's single most annoying feature, the User Account Control dialogue that pops up on my screen at least once every day (whenever I ask Vista to do something Vista thinks could harm my system). Norton's version of User Account Control allows users to specify which programs should be flagged for permission requests, and which ones can run without intervention.
Windows UAC control (UAC) adds an extra step (or two) to many Windows operations. For many tasks I ask Vista to perform, Vista first stops everything, and then checks back with me for permission, typically before installing programs, changing windows settings, updating virus definitions, installing drivers, accessing the registry, changing the date, and many other "administrative tasks". I've given this permission literally hundreds of times, so many times, that my response to it has become automatic. It is no longer a "useful" warning because I just ignore it. Microsoft says that Vista's UAC does learn with time what actions it should request permission for, making it less annoying with time, but I find that if it learns, it learns really slowly. Still, on the off chance that it might actually catch something bad someday, I've not turned the feature off. (Turning UAC on or off is pretty much the only control Microsoft gives Vista Home Premium users over UAC.)
Symantec's Norton User Account Control (NUAC) replaces much of Vista's UAC. They describe how it works as follows: It will utilize the UAC security feature from the Windows Vista architecture, while simultaneously improving user-friendliness significantly. The tool prompts recommendations based on an assessment on the user-action i.e. the signature information of the executable. The tool also has a "remember me" feature that allows users to suppress future prompts from the same action.
In practice, NUAC's "remember me" feature is the feature you notice first and appreciate most. When you first run a task that Vista's UAC would ask you to confirm (by stopping all other actions and opening a popup window asking for comfirmation), NUAC opens a similar popup window. Closer inspection shows a few differences, most notably, a checkbox for Don't Ask Me Again.
Using Norton User Account Control
Before installing NUAC, I was prompted with Vista's UAC dialogue everytime I ran msconfig, a Windows utility I use a lot to keep programs from running when I start Windows. But since I've installed NUAC, and checked the Don't Ask Me Again box, I no longer see any dialogue when run msconfig, at least, when I run msconfig from the Start Search box in the start menu.
NUAC is context aware. I've told NUAC to run msconfig without prompts, and gave that permission after I ran it from the start menu. Msconfig now runs without permission prompts when I run it from the start menu. But when I go to Windows explorer and double click the msconfig.exe file to run it, I still get the NUAC dialogue asking for permission. NUAC's theory is if a malware program were to try to run msconfig in the background without me noticing, NUAC would still notice and ask me for permission. The permission I granted for running msconfig only applies in that single context under the specific conditions I was running the task, other routes to starting the program aren't covered.
NUAC provides other information more clearly than Vista UAC. It tells you...
1. If the program is digitally signed, and by whom ... and....
2. If the program runs from a protected directory
Notably, though, users will be aware that NUAC is still in beta. There's no easy way to tell if the program is running unless you start a task that requires a permission prompt. There's also no way easy way to review as list of programs that you've given NUAC to run without prompting for permission, nor is there a way to change permissions. According to user forums at the Symantec web site, to reset your permissions "You need to delete all entries (DWORDS) from ...a specific registry key". NUAC also sends data back to Symantec on what programs you've given permission to, to help Symantec build a list of friendly programs that future versions of NUAC would know how to handle.
Installing Norton User Account Control
Vista users can download NUAC from the Symantec website here:
http://www.nortonlabs.com/inthelab/uac.php
You can follow user discussions about NUAC in Symantec's forums here:
http://community.norton.com/norton/board?board.id=uact
It is a 1.1 mb download, and installs easily. You won't even need to reboot your computer. It requires almost no system resources, users won't notice any additional load on their system after installing NUAC. As a beta version, its free, but users should note that it might not work as well as the final version. User feedback seems to be very positive though, and I believe the rewards for using this beta product easily outweigh the risks.
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