CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

Figure 13-39 UAC equivalent on a Mac
If every other major operating system uses something like UAC, why was
Microsoft slammed so hard when they unveiled UAC in Windows Vista? The
reason was simple: Windows users are spoiled rotten, and until UAC came
along, the vast majority of users had no idea how risky their computing
behavior was.
The problem started years ago when Microsoft created NTFS. NTFS uses
robust user accounts and enables fine control over how users access files and
folders—but at a cost: NTFS in its pure form is somewhat complicated.
User accounts have always been a bit of a challenge. The only account that
can truly do anything on a Windows system is the administrator. Sure, you
can configure a system with groups and assign NTFS permissions to those
groups—and this is commonly done on large networks with a full-time IT
staff—but what about small offices and home networks? These users almost
never have the skill sets to deal with the complexities of users and groups,
which often results in systems where the user accounts are all assigned
administrator privileges by default—and that’s when it gets dangerous (see
Figure 13-40).