We’ve had 24 years of UAC and somehow Microsoft still can’t figure out either of the following:

1. The UAC prompt is triggered by an application either directly requesting elevation, or attempting to do something (write a file, tweak a registry value, change a group policy setting) that requires said permissions. So the OS obviously knows whatever it was the application tried to do, but it doesn’t tell you what that is. It just says it needs to make “changes to your device.” I would feel a lot better about that if they bothered to inform me maybe which file or directory it was trying to write to, or if it’s a registry change, or what. Because, you know, maybe I don’t want to let randomdownloadedapp32.exe change my system language to Swahili if I knew that’s what it was about to do.

2. There still isn’t a way to permanently mark a specific app or executable as trusted so it won’t nag you about UAC elevation. If you’re running an account with limited permissions and need to enter an administrator password every single time you launch some damn fool program, for instance, that’s a big time problem for your peons who may accidentally close that application at any time and then can’t reopen it. The workarounds for this (if any) typically revolve around divining whatever action that app performs that’s got Windows’ knickers in a twist, rather akin to guessing what a fussy baby is crying about, and then manually applying permissions to that file, directory, or object. Maybe it’s trying to write to %systemdrive%\Program Files? Maybe it’s keeping a count of something in the registry? Did it try to change a protected system setting like, ye gods forbid, the clock? Did it trip Windows’ built in installer detection? Or maybe it just blithely demands an elevated runtime for no reason because its developers were morons. I don’t fucking know, because the UAC prompt doesn’t tell you; See point #1 above.

It’s funny that elevation of permissions is something handled elegantly in Linux since forever, but M$ just can’t make it happen.

UAC is slow, ineffective, and inconsistent. But even when you turn it off you find some directories are off limits still. Even while you can vandalize regedit and gpedit all day long.

The “hello Windows” system of pins and bio-metrics may be an improvement, IDK. I liked using a PIN for logins and stuff right up until I needed the real password for something.

Or maybe that’s the problem: the fact that M$ handles elevation of permission in 6 different and contradictory ways that all have to be backward comparable.

sudo echo nah I am root baby.

I AM ROOT

Due to windows being inferior you have to download psexec SEPERATELY to elevate to system. Because apparently 2 prilevelege levels arent enough.

Is that some Windows joke I’m top Linux to understand?

admin1234!

Apparently not.

Wait, you folks still use Windows?

I gave up on M$ when Windows 8 came out. Shit, I even emailed M$ and straight up told them, that’s not even Windows anymore, they might as well rename that shit Tiles.

Anyways… 🐧