agreed, but the feel the compulsive need to open mail attachments. No known cure for that XD

I'd certainly be a little bit happier if I could simply tell a terminal application to run elevated without having to launch a new terminal as admin first. :-)

Then again, I'd prefer if I could switch away from the GUI and get to a pure terminal every once in a while too (and that's something I miss on OS X as well). Windows running on top of Powershell wouldn't be half bad, you know? Similar to how usually X runs in the 7th vterm with the others being readily accessible.

Funny thing is, I've had more BSoD with my Win7 lappy (around 3 years old now) than 10+ years I've used XP dektops. I do admit that all of the BSoD on the lappy happened trying to install any driver other than the ones provided by laptop manufacturer (so I'm stuck with drivers that are from 2010). My sisters Vista lappy has also had it's share of BSoD's.

Oh and probably should have said worked or didn't. I usually could find what part or program was causing an error/problem and windows did not have obscure background tasks that could decide wether something worked today or not without any indication why (if UAC is going to stop installation in whole or in part it should fucking tell me or aks me if it can do that... actually no, if I install something and I say I'm sure, it should never interfere at all, period.).

You mean [url=http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771525(WS.10).aspx]runas[/url]? Already there from XP.

Event Viewer is your friend, followed by Performance Monitor. Quite a bit of information there that should help identify why something failed.

By the way, I will end up getting Windows 7 for my father instead of installing the Vista copy I already have. He can afford it, and I'm getting him an SSD, so Windows 7's TRIM support would be a good thing. Windows 8 is an option, but I'm more used to 7 and I've read that Solitaire Master 5 (released in 2004) which is the most important program for him is compatible with 7 but haven't read anything about 8. (He currently has Solitaire Master 4, which is only compatible with XP, and he lost the CD anyway, so I bought 5, the last version, on eBay).

Oh... I, er... nevermind.

I'm not a Linux user. I just heard that people type sudo +something to download programs in it.

sudo is short for Switch User Do, aka Run As. su is switch user (or super user). Both commands are used to run something with elevated privileges, which is exactly what UAC does.
The linux versions require (or did back when I was using them) to type your password (for sudo) or the root's password (for su), while UAC doesn't require password entry.

It is possible that I don't recall them correctly, in which case I'm sure a linux user will correct me.

Your reading comprehension needs work. I never *advised* anyone to do anything regarding their UAC or antivirus. I said *I* (first-person) turn it off as I don't need it (read as : Yes, I know what the fuck I'm doing).

The fact that there's *any* extra prompt for what I know I'm doing is completely unacceptable. Maybe you think having all your actions second-guessed by the OS babying you is ok but I and other experts do not. Apparently you think other people know better than you what's best for you. How sad... Can't rely on common sense?!? *FACEPALM* * OF EPIC PROPORTIONS* Don't quit your day job.

And to call MS a crap company is frankly quaint. My bet is you're doing everything you do on a PC on a MS operating system and there's a higher than likely chance that all the software you use on a regular basis was programmed using their Visual Studio. I love when people capitalize on the benefits of something while simultaneously denouncing it. Armchair critics are so cute.

In what way? Care to provide even a modicum of evidence or reasoning for that argument other than "newer is better"?

What the heck are you talking about? What time? Your assumption is that a newer OS will complete tasks or, minimally, reduce the user-time in completing tasks, is erroneous and simply not true. In some cases perhaps, but not consistently enough to offer a blanket statement to say that universally it will be better in terms of time-reduction.

In fact, all of the other experts agree with me whenever I see them on conferences where us, experts, tend to meet. No, you don't know what you're doing and you need reminders. You'll be thankfull one day.
Common sense and ordinary users do not mix. But you're not in this line of work and I forgive your ignorance. Like you said, don't quit your day job ;)

MS is crap company, I've said it many times and directly to the representatives of that company. On my day job I tend to work on many operating systems so IMHO I know why I say that ;)

I eagerly await your reply :)

Mostly correct (though I don't know the long form of the abbreviations).

Whether or not sudo asks for password - and whether it's your password or that of the user you're pretending to be (both sudo and su can have you become a non-root user via su user and sudo -u user command) - is up to how the sudoers file is set up and what groups you belong to, it also defines whether or not you may sudo at all.

Similar to how some disable UAC, I'm sure there are some who set sudo to not require a password.

As I said in post 81, coffee hadn't kicked in yet, thus I didn't understand the post I was replying to properly. Apologies again, I was replying in terms of a hardware upgrade, not an OS upgrade.