Windows Live OneCare: A Promise of Comprehensive PC Protection from Microsoft Extreme Simplicity of Care Adam Stone
Extreme Simplicity of Care
Current complaints aside, suppose you meet all the requirements: Windows XP, Explorer 6, no competing antivirus. What do you get for your trouble? As promised, you get extreme simplicity of care.
A visual health meter delivers a clear, continuous indication of your computer's overall level of protection and performance. If the software notices anything you can do to improve your status, a message will alert you to the situation and propose a one-click solution to the problem.
You also get tools that are in some cases unexpectedly sophisticated, such as the two-way firewall. Not only will it keep malicious items from coming in, but it also will keep you from sending out badness in your outgoing communications.
Most important is the fundamental offering: The anti-virus. Microsoft has claimed that 70 percent of consumers do not have anti-virus software or do not keep it updated. For most users, software that delivers virus protection, quietly and efficiently, with few failings and little hands-on attention needed, can only be to the good.
On the other hand...
Some (jaded) members of the PC community have suggested that many of the security threats being addressed by OneCare may well have come about due to security holes in the Microsoft operating system. Doesn't MS therefore owe it to us to include this kind of tool as part of its OS, for free? For now, it's more a philosophical than a practical suggestion, but perhaps one worth pondering by Redmond.
Pros: Easy-to-use PC protection and maintenance, backs up and restores important files, built-in defrag utility, automatic updates
Cons: Beta release lacks comprehensive protection, including spyware protection; not compatible with other antivirus tools; requires Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6+
