It's (semi) official: Guest Mode has been removed from Windows 7

I'm going to have to do something about the idiocy, obviously. Let me see what that can be.

It's a shame, since it would have put it on par with the OS X equivalent (which is extremely useful if a random visitor wants to use your PC, and you don't want them seeing web history, documents etc.) I assume it introduced some kind of compatibility issue with some apps (and it was too risky/lengthy to fix it in time for RTM)

I would bet that there would be usability studies that show where a user would've thought that documents or files would've been saved, but weren't. Probably would've disastrous if Aunt Esher let her 12-year old niece come over after school to work on a project and had it accidentally deleted when she logged off because Auntie doesn't know the difference between "Guest Mode" and "Guest account". Question is, are they still including the standard Guest account, or is that completely gone as well?

I think they are making a mistake if they give up o Steady State. It works extremely well for teenagers, libraries ect anywhere where the irresponsible user can muck up a machine 5 minutes after you walk away from them. Guest user mode I've never used, but I can see where some people might, but I doubt many people will miss it.

"It's a shame, since it would have put it on par with the OS X equivalent (which is extremely useful if a random visitor wants to use your PC, and you don't want them seeing web history, documents etc.)" We will still have a Guest user account (I assume) that is useful for that. We always have. The Guest Mode was based on Steady State. It let a guest log on to the computer, but then when the guest logged off, the hard drive was restored to the same state as before the guest logged in. So, malware they managed to install or changes they made are just wiped out.

oh and btw ken: WinFS features have already been implemented in Windows Vista/Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008. It just isn't called "WinFS".

Is there a difference between guest account and a limited user account? Is that difference in Win7 only? Or in Vista too? Couldn't find guest account in Vista and I've read somewhere it should be DISABLED for security reasons? What the...

"Is there a difference between guest account and a limited user account?" AFAIK, no, although I suspect that certain features can't be used by the Guest account (ie. parental controls, etc). I've never personally used Parental Controls on a regular basis, but I have set it up for customers kids accounts. Those were named accounts though. "Guest" is just a limited user account that isn't assigned to someone by name. There may be other restrictions, but none that I am personally aware of. "Couldn't find guest account in Vista and I've read somewhere it should be DISABLED for security reasons?" I believe you are thinking of the Administrator account. In Windows Vista, it is disabled by default on all versions, but you can leave it enabled with an unattended installation, or by setting a registry key. In Windows XP/Server 2003 era, Microsoft recommends renaming it at the very least. The reason is because it is a common account name, ie. every XP era computer had an account called Administrator by default with full permissions. Trying to hack an XP machine would be easy considering that XP Pro left the Administrator account active for normal logon. XP Home disabled Administrator from normal logon, but it was still there. You can log on via Administrator in Safe Mode on XP Home. During a standard install of XP Home, it never prompts to change the password of Administrator though. XP Pro does. By renaming the account completely, it would effectively close the option to hack into a commonly-named account. In Windows Server 2008, the first logon attempt prompts the user to rename the Administrator account, rather that creating a new administrator-level account with a different name like Vista does (same goal by different means). Guest doesn't have full permissions though, so having it enabled isn't a major security risk. Generally speaking though, it isn't a good idea to leave extra user accounts enabled and unchecked on your system.

I'm not sure Guest Accounts were immune to privilege escalation attacks anyway. If they are then I stand corrected but limited users certainly can be infected, not as often but its not that much code to add to an exploit if the cracker knows their stuff.

The reason why I liked Guest Mode was that any changes made to the machine would revert back once the user logged out. I sometimes turn "on" the Guest Account in XP and never liked that I would have to go clean up whatever was changed/saved after the user finished.

Microsoft are terrible at delivering a good user experience. http://kinesismomentum.wordpress.com/2009/04/16/skin-deep-usability/ The Big Ass Coffee Table comes with a keyboard too. How lame.