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Cheers and Jeers for OneCare

With the next version of somewhat-maligned Windows Live OneCare supposedly on the way, we've had some great reader e-mails on experiences with Microsoft's fledgling anti-virus suite.

Bill says that he likes it just fine:

"I have it on three home computers: An on-campus university student's, a World of Warcraft player's and a laptop used for e-mail on business and pleasure travels. Windows Defender is loaded on all of them and they are all kept up-to-date. None of them has been affected with anything and I have not had any trouble with the software. I do not use the backup (I am still making images with Drive Image 7) nor the defrag (I use PerfectDisk 8).

"I like the invisibility of OneCare and was pleased with the lack of problems. I will have to check out the AV test results.

"I also use Norton AntiVirus 2007 on three computers with mixed results. NAV provides annoying messages and on one machine shuts down AutoProtect at random."

David writes from Australia (and not Austria) to say that the anti-virus tests that banished OneCare to last place recently might not be the most reliable out there:

"The anti-virus tests you've referred to may not be all that reliable. I've always found the Virus Bulletin VB100 results to be reliable and in testing for Vista compliance, OneCare failed, but so too did the AntiVirusKit from G Data."

But Tom, who said in the subject of his e-mail that OneCare was "Amateur Hour," isn't so impressed:

"It was fairly obvious, beginning with the ordering process, that OneCare would not live up to the normal Microsoft standards. In order to get an invoice which included tax, I had to visit their Web site (most online orders will reflect an invoice in your browser after the purchase, plus send you an invoice via e-mail for good measure). OneCare also noticeably slowed down the system, which was a Vista PC."

See, Tom, you wouldn't have this problem if you worked for the Department of Transportation. But we digress.

Paul wasn't thrilled either:

"I tried OneCare and it had so many holes that I uninstalled it and will never try it again. One reason Microsoft stated for the holes was that if anything you loaded in the past had an End User License Agreement that stated it would infect your computer, Microsoft would honor the EULA. It would find stuff and then tell you it could not remove it, and it just plain missed stuff completely. I had pop-ups even when Internet Explorer was not open; the system slowed to a crawl, and I found applications running that I could not stop nor delete."

So there you have it. Incidentally, I am sorry that I no longer have time to respond personally to every e-mail I get. Rest assured that I always read newsletter responses, though, and I really appreciate your input. Thank you all.

Any other thoughts? [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on March 08, 2007


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