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Windows Live OneCare, previously known as Windows OneCare Live, is a computer security service developed by Microsoft for its Windows operating systems. An annual charge of $49.95 will be charged for the service, for use on up to three computers. It is slated for release in June 2006.

History

In the days of MS-DOS, Microsoft acquired a program and named it Microsoft Anti-Virus. Running through MS-DOS 6.0, the program only scanned for a thousand-odd viruses. Microsoft later ported the program to Windows 3.11 and called it Microsoft Anti-Virus for Windows. This did not last long, as the program recognized the Windows 95 installer as a virus.

Microsoft designed OneCare as part of an idea set named Windows Live (see the ). Windows OneCare Live itself entered a beta state in the summer of 2005. The managed beta program was launched before the public beta, and is located on BetaPlace, Microsoft's old beta delivery system. The public beta can be accessed at OneCare's official website.

Features

Windows Live OneCare features its own anti-virus software, a backup utility, and a software firewall. Plans are included to add Windows Defender to the package. OneCare adds an icon to the system tray that tells the user at a glance the status of the system's health. Three alert levels are available, from green (good) to yellow (minor problem) to red (major problem). Windows OneCare Live is built for ease-of-use, and is a good choice for beginners. Power users, however, will have a much harder time. Microsoft pledges advanced options, but has yet to provide them.

Protection

Windows Live OneCare Protection Plus is the security component in the OneCare suite. It consists of two parts:

A two-way firewall blocking both incoming and outgoing traffic, as opposed to that of Windows XP
that only blocks incoming traffic, hence is a victim to trojan or other viral infections running on the local computer.
An antivirus tool that uses regular antivirus definition files.
An anti-spyware tool that currently uses Windows Defender
as a core, but will be less dependent on it in future builds.

Performance

Windows Live OneCare Performance Plus is the component that performs monthly PC tune-up related tasks, such as:

Disk defragmentation.
Drive space cleanup.
A full virus scan by using the antivirus component in the suite.
Check for Windows updates by using the Microsoft Update
service.
User notification if files are in need of backing up.

Backup

Windows Live OneCare Backup and Restore is the component that aids in backing up important files. Files can be backed up to various recordable media, such as external hard disks, CDs, and DVDs. When restoring files, the entirity or a subset of them can also be restored to a networked computer, as long as it's running Live OneCare as well. The Backup and Restore component will support expected modern backup software features such as incremental backups and scheduling.

Criticism

On January 26, 2006, Windows Live OneCare received criticism from Foundstone, a part of McAfee, for the included firewall having default white lists set up to allow Java applications and digitally signed software to bypass the warnings, since neither of those applications carry assurances they will not have security flaws or be written with a malicious intent. Microsoft has since responded to the criticism, justifying their decision in that Java applications are "widely used by third party applications, and is a popular and trusted program among our users", and that "it is highly unusual for malware to be signed".

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Windows Live OneCare ]

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