As I have been warning Windows users over the years, a recent report by BTC (see citation below) shows that Windows computers are far more open to vulnerabilities (attacks, infections) when the user has administrative rights. I have quoted the most important part of the article below and provided a link to the article.
BeyondTrust Corp. (BTC), a software development company specializing in enterprise rights management, has indicated that the act of giving users administrative rights may leave systems more open to risk.
The report issued by BTC was prepared by assessing security vulnerability bulletins released by Microsoft in 2008, and identifying specific "mitigating factors" (those that could reduce or negate the risk of an attack) within the bulletin. If Microsoft reported that having fewer security privileges would negate or eliminate risk, BTC concluded that the vulnerability was admin-privilege related.
The result of the analysis of the 154 critical Microsoft vulnerabilities indicated that a full 92% could have been prevented if users were not logged into their systems with administrator status. BTC believes that restricting the number of users who can log in with these privileges will "close the window of opportunity" for attackers. This is particularly true for users of Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office.
http://www.infopackets.com/news/business/microsoft/2009/20090204_uac_vulnerability_found_in_windows_vista.htm
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