So we all know about the User Access Control feature in Windows Vista. It keeps unwanted programs from doing unwanted things. However, it is a major pain in the butt for power users, who regularly like to change the type of settings that UAC is designed to protect. So of course I promptly turned it off on both of my computers running Vista. I kinda feel guilty about that. And I don't really think UAC is that bad of an idea.
And yesterday I got a bad idea. I thought, "Hmm, I should see if it really sucks that much, and share my experience." Yes, I got to thinking that I should re-install Vista just so I could keep blog entries detailing each of the times that I was confronted by UAC (what it was for, was it quick, did I understand the need for it, etc.). I imagine the encounters would number near 50 to get the system configured as desired, which really isn't that bad--especially compared to the amount of time to clean just one piece of spyware off of a computer. Of course I would expect to be bothered by it maybe 3 or 4 times per week (or maybe less) after that as I do occasional installations and adjustments.
The bad idea part of this is because it would mean re-installing Vista (and the ensuing 8 or so hours to install all my programs). And I have about 60GB of data on my HDD that I don't have a convenient method of backing up right now. But maybe I'll figure something out. Because I really think it would be an interesting experiment.