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Vista security: A close look
Saturday, December 30th, 2006
Will users who are frustrated with viruses and other malware be willing to trust Microsoft one more 
time with a significant investment in another version of Windows? It’s a case of Microsoft saying, "Trust us, really, we got it right this time. Honest." As I wrote last week, even the best protections can’t protect users who are intent on shooting themselves in the CPU. With that in mind, let’s take a look at Vista’s user-level security features and see just how secure they really are:
Standard accounts vs. administrator accounts
In Windows XP, accounts are set up with administrator privileges by default. Administrators can do anything to the system, while limited user accounts are, well, really limited. They are so reined in, in fact, as to be frustrating and thus are not often used.
There are ways to fine-tune this via administrative tools, but they aren’t obvious to most home users — and even if they are discovered, they are hopelessly complex.
In Vista, the limited account has been renamed to "standard account," and it can do a lot more. But anything that changes the operating system in a way that affects other users requires administrator approval. More on how that happens later. Vista security: A close look | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
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