Before I installed NIS '07 I had F-Secure's Vista Beta installed plus PCTools firewall. When I was testing NIS's ability to uninstall clean I was checking to see if Windows firewall was turned back on. To my surprise SecCenter reported that PC Tools firewall was on and working. How could this be if I had uninstalled it? I deleted every instance of it in the registry plus the files that were left on the hard drive, plus the hidden ones, with no effect.
I have seen this reported before in XP, programs that were uninstalled still showing up in SecCenter like this:
I searched around but couldn't find a solution for this so I asked about it in another forum. Someone replied that it could be done by deleting a folder in the system32 directory, wbem I think it was called. It would be rebuilt on reboot and PCTools would not show up anymore.
So I tried to delete the folder but it mentioned that another process was using it. I then logged out and back into my Admin account and still no success. I then booted into safe mode and STILL could not delete this folder.
I then had a brainstorm and pulled out some Linux Live CD's I had. I first tried PCLinuxOS which let me browse the Windows directory but could not delete this folder as well. Next I tried Ubuntu but it could not mount the Windows partition for some reason. Then I tried Mepis and got the same results as I did with PCLOS. I could not believe I couldn't delete this folder using Linux! MS must really have beefed up security but in this case I wished it didn't lol. So I guess I will have to live with PCTools entry.
My next experience was when I was testing NIS by going to some "dark" sites such as cracks and warez where you are sure to pick something up. In the old days I wouldn't dream of trying this with IE6, I would have much preferred using Firefox with NoScript. But since it was my intention to catch something I browsed these sites using IE7. I was searching for a crack for Nero because it being so popular it would be targeted for nasties more (btw I use Ashampoo Burning Studio 6). But to my dismay, I couldn't pick anything up! One site wanted to install something called "Data Services Data Control" (now why would a crack site want to do this? lol) but IE7 blocked it. I even went to sites Google identified as being "dangerous" but still nothing. After an hour or so I gave up, shaking my head. The feeling is akin to going into a lion's den wanting to be eaten but none will have anything to do with you, lol.
So there are my real world experiences with Vista's security.