Apple embraces Windows UAC prompts after a decade of finger pointing

Microsoft introduced Windows Vista back in 2007 and while the Operating System was a failure, it did pave way for many of the modern elements in Windows. One of the elements which stuck around was the Windows UAC or User Account Control. It made sure users knew what programs they were installing and prevented the installation of unknown apps on the system.

Apple, however, didn’t like the idea and they decided to voice their opinion in the best way possible. Apple made an advertisement titled “Get a Mac – Vista Vs Mac – Security” which poked fun at Windows Vista’s UAC asking permission for everything. While the ad ran back when Windows Vista came out, it recently surfaced back as Apple released macOS Catalina to the public. Among the numerous features added to Catalina, Apple also added a feature similar to UAC to prevent unauthorised installs.

While the feature is great, it also shows the importance of UAC and the fact that Microsoft was right all along. Unfortunately, users aren’t having a great experience with Apple’s version of UAC and some of the Tweets below are evidence of the same.

Remember when we all laughed about the UAC dialogs in Windows Vista? #osx #catalina pic.twitter.com/vvVT3zU5Ju

— Jens C. (@jensc) July 3, 2019

macOS 10.15 Vistahttps://t.co/QHo333lsp3 pic.twitter.com/QpjBqVJKK8

— @[email protected] (@tylerhall) October 7, 2019

https://twitter.com/drale2k/status/1161727126749556737

Apple macOS Catalina copied Windows Vista UAC feature? ??

— Yan Zhu (@picturepan2) October 8, 2019

https://twitter.com/elforesto/status/1172565347540406273

We want to make one thing clear, we are not saying UAC is a bad feature. It’s useful especially since a lot of software these days come with freeware which may not be useful for the user. The fact is, Apple did a lot of finger-pointing in the early days but they end up adopting the feature more than a decade later.