Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 11th Jun 2009 10:00 UTC
Not too long ago, we ran a story informing you of how the auto-elevation feature in Windows 7 is broken in a way that allows malicious programs to silently gain administrative privileges. We wondered if Microsoft was ever going to fix this one before Windows 7 goes final, and even though we're not there yet, a recent article by Mark Russinovich seems to imply pretty strongly that no, Microsoft is not going to fix this.
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Member since:2007-08-20
To answer myself: from later in the article: Win7 has a new UAC setting 'do not dim my desktop for UAC prompts'. "The only difference between that and the default mode is that prompts happen on the user's desktop rather than on the secure desktop. The upside of that is that the user can interact with the desktop while a prompt is active, but as I mentioned earlier, the risk is that third-party accessibility software might not work correctly on the prompt dialog."
So, counter-intuitively, having the UAC prompt on a separate desktop does work with old 3rd party software, but having it on the user's desktop may not.
Member since:
2007-08-20
From the article, re displaying UAC prompts in 'secure desktop' mode:
"The use of another desktop also has an important application compatibility purpose: while built-in accessibility software, like the On Screen Keyboard, works well on a desktop that's running applications owned by different users, there is third-party software that does not. That software won't work properly when an elevation dialog, which is owned by the local system account, is displayed on the desktop owned by a user."
Am I right in interpreting the 'important application compatibility purpose' as forcing those 3rd parties to update their software?