IE7 protected mode

G

Guest

IE7 in Vista RTM build 6.6000 shows in its status bar “Internet | Protected
Mode Offâ€, even though I have protected mode enabled (which it is anyway by
default) as confirmed in Internet Tools | Security.

Now then, which one am I to trust/believe, IE7’s status bar message or the
Tools | Security checked settings?

Or is this just another bug in a buggy OS/browser??

Is there another way to confirm whether protected mode is on or of?

Any help and light on this one would be much appreciated.
 
J

Jeff

akita,

IE7 protected mode working fine here,
not buggy at all.

UAC is annoying at first, when you're installing lots of stuff, I'll agree,
UAC isn't bad, once you're done installing stuff, if applications are
designed for Vista, ya usually never see it.

And in my experience, the Vista firewall is working fine,
without paying for a 3rd party firewall.
Which actually, is saying lots,
XP's sucked bad.

Jeff
 
J

John Barnett MVP

IE 7.0 does need UAC enabled for protected mode to work. If you disable UAC
you lose protected mode.
In actual fact, even with UAC enabled, i have had protected mode turn itself
off on some sites. Unfortunately i haven't found out why it does this. I
also bugged the problem of protected mode turning itself off during the beta
test of Vista, but the problem still persists even though i haven't disabled
UAC.
As Jeff say UAC is annoying at first but after a while you do get used to
it. It hasn't caused me any sleepless nights:)

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..
 
J

Jeff

John,

ssshhhhh
If Jimmy B hears I said that-
I'll never here the end of it-lol

:-o

Jeff
 
J

John Barnett MVP

Oh dear, Jeff. I'm disappointed. I was just about to plaster the quote over
the front page of my websites:) Damn! :)

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..
 
A

Alun Jones

akita said:
IE7 in Vista RTM build 6.6000 shows in its status bar "Internet |
Protected
Mode Off", even though I have protected mode enabled (which it is anyway
by
default) as confirmed in Internet Tools | Security.

I don't suppose you went searching Microsoft's site at all, did you?

Here's one link:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/security/defend_against_malware.mspx
"Protected Mode is enabled by default in Internet Explorer 7 for all
security zones except the Trusted Sites zone."

So, UAC or not, a site in the Trusted Sites zone is exempt from Protected
Mode, which is why you will find sites in your Trusted Sites zone open in a
different IE window from sites outside the Trusted list.

Alun.
~~~~
 
J

Jimmy Brush

Respectfully,

You point out here instances where UAC does its job (confirms tasks to run
with admin powers and blocks all other tasks from using admin powers) and
other issues unrelated to UAC (such as the user account picture and whatever
issue you are having with IE).

You mention that Vista is showing that Microsoft "no longer wants to allow
users to have full control over Vista", but this is obviously not the case -
if that were so, there wouldn't be "consent" dialogs asking for your
opinion, instead there would be "this is how it is and there's nothing you
can do about it" dialogs :). Admin accounts with UAC on can do exactly the
same thing as admin accounts with UAC off [although you may have to do some
things a little differently]. UAC enriches the admin account by giving the
admin more control than ever before - you now know exactly which programs
need to use your admin power in order to run, and can approve or deny those
programs to have admin power via UAC. Further, programs that don't need to
use your admin power don't receive it.

Why should <insert name of a non-admin program or any unknown program> be
able to format your hard drive? And if <insert name of admin program or
program that requests admin privileges unexpectedly> opens (either by you
starting it or it being started by another program), don't you want to know
about it and be able to stop it from running?

For example, process explorer requires admin privileges because it loads a
device driver to function, and you seem to indicate that it is a bad thing
that it prompts before running. Do you really want any program that loads
device drivers to run without prompting?



- JB
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

Windows Vista Support Faq
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/
 
A

Alun Jones

akita said:
As was expected from previous exercises, Vista (Ultimate) installed fast
and
without any fuss. We created a new user account and run it as an admin
account. Why not as a standard user account? Because most people, most
power
users "out there" anyway, wouldn't want to be limited - even if such
limitations might be marginal (a Microsoft claim that as yet needs to be
fully evaluated).

That's rather like saying that the CEO wants to wear overalls to work,
because he doesn't want to be prevented from fixing the plumbing.

I've often joked that the administrator account should be renamed the
"janitor" account, so that fewer people would be clamouring for the
"privileges" you get.

Perhaps another analogy is called for - it's like the exo-skeleton power
armour in a Japanese cartoon - you only want to wear it while you're doing
the hard lifting, and after you're done with the hard lifting, the rest of
your day is spent without the armour, so you don't accidentally put your
foot through the floor.

Since some users are not comfortable with having two different accounts, and
changing out of the superhero outfit when they want to surf the web or read
email, Microsoft made it so that you have to acknowledge when you're about
to do the heavy work.

I work in a company where I'm a non-admin, restricted user, all the time,
with the exception of when I need to do administrator tasks. And strangely
enough, I like it that way. When someone says "the server died", I can say
"I didn't do it, I haven't been an administrator since yesterday". I don't
accidentally delete important files that don't belong to me, not because I'm
any more careful than usual, but because I'm not administrator, so I don't
have the rights to be able to do so.

On a development machine, I can maybe see that UAC would get in the way -
except that it doesn't actually get in the way of my own development.

Alun.
~~~~
 

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