Microsoft Windows Live OneCare Subscription Online [LB]

List Price: $49.95 Discount Price: $19.99

Features:

• Automatically protect personal & financial documents, music, photos, and other files from viruses, worms, hackers and spyware
• Performance tune-ups will automate routine maintenance, keeping your PC running quickly and effectively
• Data backup and recovery tools make it simple to save and store files from a CD, DVD or external hard drive
• Simple Task Bar icon shows PC health status
• Unlimited 24x7 Windows Live OneCare phone, e-mail and chat support

Customer Reviews:

Microsoft Windows Live OneCare [Posted on 2007-01-20]
Excellent. Bought for my daughter for college. Simple for her to use and keep updated.

great idea, bad product [Posted on 2007-04-09]
Summary:
I wasted a lot of time trying to make this work, and I eventually went back to other products.

In theory, integrating virus checker, firewall, spyware, and data backup into a unified suite (like MS Office with Word, Excel, & PowerPoint) makes sense. However, this software package seems poorly made; it did not work very well for me.

Hardware, OS, & primary software used:
1. Dell Lattitude D620 Laptop with 2GB RAM, Windows XP, MS Office
2. Dell X1 Laptop (thin/lightweight) with 2GB RAM, Windows XP, MS Office
3. Dell Dimension Desktop with 4 GB RAM, Windows XP, children's games

Prior virus/spyware products:
Lattitude & X1: Norton
Dimension: freeware provided by our ISP

Theory: Since Microsoft makes the OS & office applications that get infected with viruses, their product should be better integrated with the OS. There will be synergy by integrating several related software applications.

Lesson:
Well, after a series of terrible experiences, I hope others will benefit from my wasted time:

1. Instead of loading most of the program from the CD & downloading small updates, this seems to load only a small part of the program and downloads huge files. This made me feel that the product was shipped unfinished. You had to do this separately for each machine since it hides the downloaded files then deletes them prior to finishing the installation. This took a better part of an afternoon.

2. I purchased a 3-pack license. Installing and activating the software on the 2nd & 3rd machines required a series of very annoying steps that involved logging into their website with broken links. It finally required a phone call. At least, the phone support experience was good.

3. The product promises to minimize performance impact, and improve overall performance. On the Lattitude & Dimension (powerful machines), there was no difference in performance, but we could notice a slightly slower performance with the X1. This was later verified when we uninstalled the MS Windows OneCare and replaced it with another product.

4. The product has difficulty updating. It opens a small message box that asks you to click to update OneCare, but that takes you to a webpage that only works about 1 in 4 times.

5. Except for the first time, data backup always has several errors that I have to manually fix. This has very rarely happened with other data backup software I've used.

6. Some applications, the firewall asks everytime for permission to connect to the Internet although the application is in the list to always allow this connection.

Works perfectly [Posted on 2007-05-13]
Works great. I have it on two Windows XP Pro boxes and one Windows Vista Ultimate.

I turned off the backup since I have a server that all of my machines backup to using the built in (more flexible) Windows backup/Scheduler. I also unchecked the notification that pops up letting me know it
"allowed this or that".

Personally I think Anti-Virus is 90% hype...and 10% reality and that 98% of malware can be avoided by safe computing and automatic updates. Add in a home router (Linksys, Neartgear etc) and you add another layer of protection. I have been using PC's since DOS 3.3 and have never gotten a virus....but have always paid money for AV software.....almost like car insurance.
Specials are run on this software all the time...its not uncommon to find it for $19.99.

For people having problems. I have seen problems especially if another AV program was un-installed first and a new one was installed. Norton/Symantec is horrible about not fully un-installing.

Also new computers these days from the likes of Dell, HP, Toshiba and Acer come polluted with trail-ware to include AV software...some of which are complete security suits. I blow away any new PC and re-install the OS when I get them today, it's the only way to clean out the junk for sure. This of course is not for everyone.

Anyhow great product, cheap and very good for the average user that was does not want to tweak their PC......but actually use it.

If You Live Outside the US/Canada, Beware... [Posted on 2008-01-09]
I am a civilian employee and US citizen working for the Army in Korea. I downloaded OneCare by selecting the demonstration Full Scan option available on the Microsoft OneCare website. The software worked fine, found a number of problems with the registry (no surprise there), a few other things, and I was quite happy with the results. I had just set up a wireless network in my home, so I set up OneCare to take care of two wireless laptops. Again, I was quite happy with the results. Then I tried to subscribe...

After being directed to the website where you sign up for Live, no matter from where I began, I contacted Microsoft support. I was told that Korea is not one of the countries supported and I could not subscribe. MS OneCare support told me that only those living in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States could subscribe.

There is no disclaimer anywhere (confirmed by MS OneCare support) to tell you this.

Caveat Emptor

Other than this fatal flaw, I like OneCare.

Slow and Insecure [Posted on 2008-05-21]
Switched to norton after seeing various articles on version 1 as being totally inadequate to secure your PC.

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