Of all the changes in Windows Vista, perhaps the most controversial is the User Account Control functionality that often results in multiple permission prompts that border on annoying. OK, let's be honest: UAC crossed the border, broke down the front door, and is camped-out-on-the-sofa annoying.

UAC can be disabled, though, and many Vista users I know have done just that. After you turn off UAC, disable the Vaseline-smeared-transparent-border Aero Glass theme, and tweak the background tasks, Vista starts to behave a lot more like XP. On my own Vista system I have done some of the UI and background task tweaks, but I've stubbornly refused to turn off UAC. I develop Windows applications, and I want to test those apps with the OS running the way most users will have it.

Until recently, all I had was a hunch that most Vista users either wanted UAC, or at least passively left it turned on. In an MSDN blog entry by Chris Jackson, I found some hard data. In that post, Jackson mentions that the Vista installed base that has UAC disabled is "currently hovering around 12%, but on the scale of Windows that's pretty huge."

Also be aware that there are some functions that break if you have UAC disabled, such as adding a printer. I stumbled across this problem last year, but can't reproduce it now so I suspect it was fixed in Vista SP1.

If you're using Vista, have you disabled UAC on your own computer? If not, why? Now, if you have deployed Vista as part of your job in computer support for your company, have you disabled UAC on those computers? If so, are you crazy?