That darn UAC function just can’t stand to not be the center of attention. It has been one of the most talked about features of Windows Vista – good, bad, or indifferent as your point of view might be- and now it has more or less dominated the discussion of Windows 7 for the past week.

Windows 7 Beta testers have pointed out that the default setting for UAC in a Windows 7 installation leaves it ‘vulnerable’ to malware altering the UAC protection level or disabling it entirely without the user’s knowledge or consent. They then also pointed out that the way UAC manages Microsoft-signed code by default could be potentially exploited by malware to cause malicious code to run without triggering any UAC warnings.

Microsoft has responded that the functionality of UAC in Windows 7 is by design in response to the mountains of feedback they have gotten on UAC from customers and from the field. They have also countered that while the claims mentioned above are true neither provides a plausible method for how said-malware would get on the system in the first place. Microsoft contends that the default UAC setting will alert or notify the user if such malware tries to run on the system and that only explicit acceptance of that UAC warning would make the other two issues mentioned above viable.

Rather than me blathering on further about UAC in Windows 7, I recommend that you read this post from the Engineering Windows 7 blog. Jon DeVaan does an excellent and eloquent job of explaining the reasons why UAC works the way it does, and the reasons why Microsoft does not feel that these issues are as critical as the blogosphere has made them out to be. DeVaan provides a detailed look at how UAC works, and an explanation of the purpose of UAC. In general, this is an excellent post. It clears up misconceptions. It shows that Microsoft is listening and responsive, even when they don’t ask ‘how high’ and go re-engineer features.

Windows 7 represents a great new direction for the desktop operating system. But, as important, or even moreso, to the success of Windows 7 and Microsoft in general is the shift in Microsoft’s mentality toward its customers and the IT Pro community. The open communications and responsive dialogue will go a long way to strengthening their reputation and their relationships with customers.