User Account Control is necessary because Microsoft architected previous Windows versions such that it was too easy for most users to configure their accounts with administrator privileges, which provides the user with complete and open access to the system. Because of this, most Windows applications created over the past decade have been written to assume that users have administrator access. The problem is that when a user has administrator access to the system--giving them complete control of the system--every application and service that runs on the system does so with complete administrative privileges as well. If your system is compromised by a worm, Trojan, virus, or other form of malware, that malicious code then runs with administrator privileges as well. That's how PCs get "owned."
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