Even better, in some cases (though not all), the information in the UAC prompt could be generated by components on the admin side (i.e. more secure than the non-admin side, though not perfectly isolated) based on the objects/arguments being elevated. The user would then, in some cases at least, actually know what it is they’re about consent to in a way which is much more difficult to spoof. (Any dialog or text string generated by user-mode code can be spoofed by any other process with the same access. Similarly, any UAC prompt can be hijacked by another process and be made to do something entirely different. When the only context you have is a component name, but nothing about the actual operation, the prompts are less useful.)

e.g. UAC now displays the command-line, not just the exe name, if you expand the details. That’s a step in the right direction. If I’m consenting to a file copy/move/delete/rename done through IFileOperation, why can’t I be shown a list of the operations queued up on that object? (Well, that couldn’t work now because the elevation happens when the object is created, not when the queued operations are committed, but it refactored to work that way.)

First, it is up to developers to inform users why they are to be prompted. Every developer could put a description into place, but the words “user experience” and “standards” are rarely found in the same sentence. Also, there is a bit of a system in place for that with the shield overlay. Wherever it is found throughout the system, it indicates to users that for some reason, clicking that control will cause that sort of prompt.

Secondly, you have hit the nail on the head concerning the purpose of bubble notifications.

However, while the Java updater is a POS, and definitely shouldn’t be triggering UAC prompts out-of-the-blue, I think part of the problem lies with the design of the UAC consent dialogs: They don’t allow programs to show context about what they are asking the user to consent to.

Programs shouldn’t have to display a pre-prompt to tell the user why they’re about to prompt them. That’s a UX failure right there. Users shouldn’t have to put up with annoying prompts-about-prompts which double the amount of time & clicks they have to spend interacting with what is, to many of them, a nagging message that just gets in the way of what they’re doing (even if some of us do appreciate the prompts).

But, as I said, I do absolutely agree that UAC prompt appearing out of the middle of nowhere and with no context is a very bad thing for Sun/Java to be doing. They should be working better within the design of the OS and only launching that elevated process after the user sees and clicks on a notification bubble (or similar).

Still waiting for an application that comes along where I need the jvm…

Unfortunately, there are also many apps that require Java, so uninstalling it is easier said than done. Though, if you’re following Microsoft’s instructions exactly, you should click “Cancel” as you didn’t start the program.