Report: Windows Vista Security Too Complex

More bad news for Vista. Just after I reported yesterday that people upgrading to Vista may not need their custom VPN tools because of Vista's solid integrated security tools, now comes this report that Vista's security system may be so complicated and unfriendly that people won't actually use it.

eWeek has the full story, courtesy of a Yankee Group study based on expert feedback and early software developers. The report is scathing. From the story: By forcing end users with such accounts to constantly seek approval from administrators to complete tasks they manipulate freely in today's versions of Windows, and creating headaches for those people charged with handing out such permissions, [analyst] Jaquith said the features may simply be ignored or shut off by many people.

Another telling quote: "The User Account Control feature is like Chatty Kathy, it's always in your face and the danger is that users are going to start treating it like the snooze button on their alarm clock and hitting 'yes' without looking to see why they've been prompted," said Jaquith. "A lot of people, especially home users, will probably turn the feature off so they'll essentially be no better off than before."

Will Vista get its act together in time for its 2007 release or will it become a new field day for hackers? We'll have to wait and see.