I simply find it hugely intrusive, timewasting, and redundant, as if I am so feebleminded that I am unable to decide whether to install this or run that.
I’m not sure. I use Vista at home and it pops up “cancel or allow?” dialogue boxes when I install things – is that UAC? If so, it doesn’t really bother me because I don’t install software very frequently.
It’s not you that’s feebleminded – it’s whatever malware might run in your account’s security context without your realizing it.
Do you religiously keep your Adobe Reader and JRE environments up to date? If I can get you to navigate to a page with a Java-enabled browser, I can potentially downlaod and install malware to your computer. Which, of course, is possible in part because you’re an administrator.
At home I have always (since the days of NT 4) maintained two accounts: an ordinary user account for day-to-day work and a separate “AU” account with admin privileges that I use only to install and uninstall and whenever else I need admin privileges.
No. I don’t want to have to have to click “yes” seventeen times, or log out and log back in again, in order to break my own computer.
I do have the security settings on the browser turned almost all the way up, though, and an AV program that catches most nasties.