FWIW, Vista's level of prompts is the only way to run UAC in any kind of secure fashion. The configuration that has been the default since Windows 7 makes it tr

FWIW, Vista's level of prompts is the only way to run UAC in any kind of secure fashion. The configuration that has been the default since Windows 7 makes it trivial for a low-privilege application to gain UAC privileges. Microsoft doesn't regard UAC as a security boundary if you're logged in as an admin (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/tn-archive/cc751383(v=technet.10)?redirectedfrom=MSDN https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/tn-archi...). You can use UAC as one as part of a defence-in-depth approach by logging in as a non-administrator user (like everyone tells you to do but nobody wants to do) and entering a password for every prompt, but for that to work well you'd need to make sure to turn UAC prompts back to max (read: Vista level or worse). I don't think I'd set up a system like that without a fingerprint reader or Windows Hello facial recognition camera, because typing out the password that often is just a massive pain. Windows, as configured by default, barely runs any downloaded files. You can pay hundreds of euros for a certificate, sign your installer, and still have users get told off by SmartScreen for daring to open an executable file. I don't think Apple's notarization has done anything useful so far, but their security prompts are a lot less scary than Windows'. I think it's a matter of time before unsigned Windows executables with the MotW simply won't open by default like those on macOS.