UAC is a new security system in Vista.
If Vista detects that something is about to happen that MIGHT have security
implications, it pops up a box asking you to confirm it. If you are used to
XP, this is new behaviour and you might find it a nuisance. If you are used
to Linux, which does a similar "elevation prompt" in similar circumstances,
you won't find it much of a nuisance.
If you are logged on as a standard user you have to enter an administrator's
password into the UAC prompt, which is a bit of a drag. If you log on as an
administrator, you only have to click in the box, which is much better.
Note that even when you are logged on as an administrator in Vista you run
as a standard user in virtually every respect. Therefore I've decided to
make my standard account an administrator solely for the purpose of more
rapid handling of UAC prompts.
Having said all that, UAC prompts are really only commonplace in the first
week or two of use, while you are installing all your software and generally
fiddling about getting everything as you want it. After that they are very
infrequent in normal use.
Personally, I'm rather glad that Vista occasionally warns me when something
with security implications is about to happen.
Note that Vista is new, and as you might has a few minor glitches here and
there which are constantly being whittled away by the frequent updates
Microsoft issue. There are no show-stoppers unless you are trying to run it
on old (non-compatible) hardware or want to run non-compatible software.
Honestly, don't worry about UAC. If your hardware is new, and you install
Vista-compliant software, you won't have any problems to speak of.
SteveT
