When Microsoft launched its Engineering Windows 7 blog last summer as part of its drive to be more transparent and more responsive to user concerns, a lot of people were skeptical about whether it would become anything more than a PR ploy. But, with the announcement yesterday that Microsoft will be fixing problems with Windows 7's UAC, even Redmond skeptics should be impressed.

In case you missed the earlier stories, MaximumPC readers and many others have been concerned about how easy it was for malware to change UAC levels and subvert the new and allegedly improved User Account Control in Windows 7.

When the Windows 7 Release Candidate hits, here's how UAC will be improved, according to the E7 blog:

... we are going to deliver two changes to the Release Candidate that we’ll all see. First, the UAC control panel will run in a high integrity process, which requires elevation. That was already in the works before this discussion and doing this prevents all the mechanics around SendKeys and the like from working. Second, changing the level of the UAC will also prompt for confirmation. [emphasis in original]

Who gets the credit for these changes?

The first change was a bug fix and we actually have a couple of others similar to that—this is a beta still, even if many of us are running it full time. The second change is due directly to the feedback we’re seeing.[emphasis mine]

As several of you have suggested in your comments about Windows 7 Beta, keep using the Feedback button early and often to tell Redmond what's on your mind. They're taking feedback seriously, and your comments are making for a better product. Take the rest of the day off to celebrate!