Microsoft has put outcry to rest with the announcement that Window 7 will trigger a User Account Control prompt for any alteration to the UAC service, regardless of its configured alert level.

Concern mounted last week when researchers revealed that Windows 7’s default UAC level — one that does not alert users of changes to Windows settings — would not notify the user even if malware had disabled the feature. Though Microsoft initially insisted that this was the intended functionality of the new, less irritating iteration of UAC, they have since relented on that stance.

Windows 7's default UAC security level

An update to the “Engineering Windows 7″ explains that Microsoft will be adding an exception to the rule in time for the upcoming release candidate. Though the default setting will continue to leave users alone when altering system settings, it will always alert users to changes in the UAC permission level.

Senior Vice President of the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group Steven Sinofsky outlined two changes that are coming to ease concerns.

“With this feedback and a lot more 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.

The update also expresses hope that this is water under the bridge that will allow everyone to look forward in Windows 7’s development cycle. “We want to continue the dialog and hopefully everyone recognizes that engineering, perhaps especially engineering Windows 7, is sometimes going to be a lively discussion with a broad spectrum of viewpoints expressed,” the update reads. “We don’t want the discussion to stop being so lively or the viewpoints to stop being expressed, but we do want the chance to learn and to be honest about what we learned and hope for the same in return.”