This is actually an intriguing question. I remember reading a quote that claimed that the reason Windows UAC is so messed up is because all developers run as a

This is actually an intriguing question. I remember reading a quote that claimed that the reason Windows UAC is so messed up is because all developers run as admins on their Windows machines, so they never bother to make their programs run without admin permissions. Opposed to, say, Linux, where the default is to run without root priviliges, and only run as root for the things you really need.