Paul Thurrott takes a look at Vista's User Account Control

With Windows Vista, Microsoft is finally moving the Windows platform toward a security model that competing operating systems such as Mac OS X and Linux have employed for years. Now, even administrators will typically run most applications and system services with Standard User privileges by default, providing a smaller "attack surface" for electronic attacks and increasing the overall security of the system. The main new feature in this category is called User Account Control (UAC, previously called User Account Protection and Limited User Account).

Windows Vista Feature Focus: User Account Control