Exhibit A

Let's break down the pieces of information provided...

• Link to remedial firewall theory documentation
• Name of the program (which was knowingly just launched)
• Publisher of the program (which was knowingly just launched)
• Path of the program (which was knowingly just launched)
• Very broad (i.e. Private, Public) destination description
• Link to a definition of the Vista network location model. No wait, it links to "Choosing a network location"
  
  and the best one of all:
  
• "This program has already been blocked or unblocked for a different network location."

Should I Keep Blocking or Unblock? Well, without knowing where it's trying to connect to it's rather hard to decide.

In fairness, this isn't really a Vista problem. It's an issue that began Windows XP SP2, via the firewall additions and the enhanced Internet Explorer security, which also demands security decisions without providing useful information. However, with Vista UAC, this "Ask, Don't Tell" approach to client security is now threaded throughout the Windows experience.

As annoyed as I am about the lack of useful information here, I can see reasons to attempt to hide the complexity. But why include so much useless information? People don't want to read dialog boxes. And if they're going to spend the time, they should at least come away with information that commiserate with their investment.

If software can't inform, it shouldn't pretend to.