Microsoft Windows Live OneCare 1.5 (3 User Licence)

...that led me to purchase Microsoft Windows Live OneCare to protect my PC's at home:

1) The one package included licenses for more than just the one PC
2) I had been in the Beta Test for the product, (so I had 'insider' knowledge on the program)
3) I wanted one unified protection solution from a well known company.

Throughout this review I'll be going over these three points, as well as identifying many of ...
.../> Features
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Microsoft Windows Live OneCare is an all round system and internet security system. It contains familiar system protection levels such as real time virus scanning, active firewall, spyware protection etc. but it also includes a couple of more unique items; these being Performance Plus and Backup and Restore. I shall go into these in more detail below but in summary it helps encourage backing up your machine ... more

There were a number of factors that led me to purchase Microsoft Windows Live OneCare to protect my PC's at home:

1) The one package included licenses for more than just the one PC
2) I had been in the Beta Test for the product, (so I had 'insider' knowledge on the program)
3) I wanted one unified protection solution from a well known company.

Throughout this review I'll be going over these three points, as well as identifying many of the products features, good points and the bad points. I hope you enjoy. Let's begin

Features
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Microsoft Windows Live OneCare is an all round system and internet security system. It contains familiar system protection levels such as real time virus scanning, active firewall, spyware protection etc. but it also includes a couple of more unique items; these being Performance Plus and Backup and Restore. I shall go into these in more detail below but in summary it helps encourage backing up your machine as well as running regular tune ups on your PC to help increase performance.

Packaging
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The packaging that Microsoft Windows Live OneCare comes inside is definitely striking and bares a resemblance to the same boxing style as Microsoft's Vista Operating System and Microsoft Office 2007 products. This was absolutely deliberate, I feel, because no other competitor has a box style quite like this. They want their products to stand out and be recognized and having a fairly unique packaging style helps with this.

The box has a rounded corner on the right edge of the box and is opened by pulling down at the top right of the packaging. By doing this, the inside slides down revealing the disk and a manual concealed behind it. A note I'll make now is the Product Key you'll need is well hidden behind the disk. You'll need to turn the box right around to see it. Unlike Windows and Office CD's, this disk does not have a copy protection holographic cover. It's a plain blue disk with white writing, saying the products name.

You do get a printed glossy manual with OneCare, but it's very thin and for the most of it it's feeding your ego telling you what a great decision you made in purchasing this product. It does go over a few more important aspects of the product but believe me, if you get a problem then this manual-come-brief-guide wont be much help. Symantec nail this problem on the head by giving what I call 'real' manuals. Massive thick buggers which cover every aspect of their program as well as common issues and fixes.

Installation
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Right off the bat you'll need to have an internet connection present even before you can start using it. From what I could see, the CD was fairly pointless - The installer which runs on the insertion of the disk was simply a small file that downloaded the entire product from one of Microsoft's servers. While a nice idea in principle, (making sure you installed the latest version available.) this does mean if your computer is off line you'll not be able to progress any further. Its rare these days for a computer to NOT have internet access, but I know of some people who purchase system security software to look after their machine in case files they are given contain viruses; the way in which this product seems to work is that without an internet connection, you'll get no where.

Putting that aside however, the installation wizard was easy enough to follow and simple to get through. Most of the time was spent waiting for the product to download in its entirety before appearing on your system. As you can imagine, installation times will vary by a huge amount as it relies on your internet connections download speeds being of a good rating. I installed over an 8Mbps line and it wasn't exactly fast.

Once installed you'll be best off restarting your computer - even if the wizard doesn't recommend you do so. It's always a good idea to restart your machine after installing internet security software as it's a package that usually buries deep down inside your operating system.

Activation
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As the norm these days with a lot of commercial software, you'll need to activate the product before being able to use it on a more permanent basis. You are given a 30 day grace period from the day of installation in which to do this. Activation involves clicking an Activate button, (usually surrounded by a red background in order to make it easier to see), giving your computer a name in which to remember it by and then waiting a moment or so. This is usually all it takes to activate OneCare and from here on in your copy will run without that annoying 'Activate me' banner.

Something that annoyed me with OneCare was that although Activation is a fairly simple thing to carry through, my system status was 'Red' all the time until I had activated. Red in OneCare means 'At Risk'. How being unactivated puts me at risk I have no idea.

Licensing
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This is one of OneCare's stronger points, in that one retail copy can be used to protect up to three Windows XP or Windows Vista machines. From what I can see however is that should you activate Machine 1 on, say, 1st January then you'll have until this time next year before you need to renew. If you install it on Machine 2 three months later, your license WONT last until a year on from here. The license expiration data is grabbed from when you first installed it on the first machine. In theory then, should you install OneCare on a second or third machine one day until license expiration, then you'll only get one day of protection on those machines. Renewing updates protection for all machines under that license.

Red, Yellow and Green
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OneCare has it's own traffic lighting system which is supposed to aid you in identifying your products status with a quick glance of your system tray, and it works well. Green means your system is protected at its possible best and that OneCare doesn't require any attention.

Should the icon change to yellow, then you are advised to open OneCare and see what needs to be addressed. OneCare's box refers to yellow being 'Fair' and that although you should take a look into the issue, immediate action is not required.

Then you have the red status; the 'all hands on deck' alert which is shown when OneCare really needs you to pay it some attention. Unlike Yellow, Red signifies a real problem and so it's best to take a look as soon as you can.

OneCare's Paranoia
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This little section is a little unprofessional I suppose, but I thought I'd touch upon the products paranoia, as many internet security suites can alert you about things and say you're in deep trouble when in reality all it's found is something tiny like a cookie or something.

OneCare is not too bad in the paranoia stakes, but it does change your status to red for something silly such as Automatic Updates. I choose to have these turned off from Automatic as I like to manage it myself. Unfortunately doing this turns OneCare into a permanent state of red. I like to see my system as green and doing OK; with my preferred Automatic Update setting in place I'm always told I'm at risk. There's no way to ask OneCare to ignore this issue so I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place with this one.

Don't have Internet Explorer 7? Well believe it or not, OneCare will tell you that you're at risk and go red again should it not detect this on your system. Personally I do have IE7 on my machine but I always use Firefox so say I didn't update my Internet Explorer... how am I at risk from a program I never use? It seems to me that OneCare is trying to push Microsoft product updates on you and I reckon for the most part it will work - many consumers will either be lulled into a false sense of security OR will update simply to change their status back to green.

"The OneCare Advantage"
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The packaging for Windows Live OneCare goes on about 'The OneCare Advantage'. So what is this? OneCare offers free, unlimited phone support, email support and chat support. I've experiened two of these three methods first hand and I cannot say that support was the best even at the best of times. I once sent in a support ticket via email and although they were quick to respond, the solutions they provided didn't help me at all. Secondly my phone call had me passed all over the place before getting me anywhere near a solution. By the way, should you call for support make sure your product key is to hand - they demand to know this before offering any support. They don't for email support strangely enough...

Another aspect of the 'OneCare Advantage' is automatic updates for both the program and new features "as long as you keep your subscription active". I don't see this as an 'advantage' over other similar offeirngs that provide you with updates as long as you keep feeding them money. Still, automatic updates (although a common feature) is not one to be sniffed at as many people forget to check for new versions; OneCare will automatically do it for you.

OneCare's User Interface (Navigating the product)
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Something I look for when getting new Internet Security software is a good user interface because I mean, although it's not something you'll be looking at every day, having the ability to fly around the program, getting the things done that you need and then getting out is important to me - and a nice UI goes to boost it.

A blue banner is present along the top which stipulates the product name on the left and a help button on the right. Just below this on the right is a horizontal bar which informs you of the products status - the traffic light system I touched upon earlier in this review. Below this is where any alert messages will appear, (for example 'Check for Updates', 'Run a Scan', Run System TuneUp' etc.)

Product information, status and so on is listed below this in the remainder of the window. On the left side is a vertical bar containing some menu options and some tasks you can carry out. Accessing product options and the firewall rules is done by clicking a link from here too.

The Anti-Virus Scanner
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In a nutshell, the anti-virus scanner is good and thorough and thankfully it's awarded a Check Mark from West Coast Labs and is also ICSA Labs Certified which means it's been independently tested and proved to be good. However, something I noticed on the packaging in tiny writing is that the West Coast Labs award was for use under XP only. What does that mean? It's not as good under Vista? o_O

Configurability? There's hardly anything you can configure with OneCare's Anti Virus. It's good, but I like to have some control over what my security products do.

The FireWall
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In one word? Good! The OneCare is very good, but nothing really worth writing home about. It protects you against all the most important security issues and with some potentially nasty products on your system trying to 'phone home'. As is the normal these days with firewalls, you'll have a number of well known products automatically allowed through the Firewall, (Internet Explorer being one of these surprise surprise!), with the rest producing a large Windows Live OneCare Alert asking you what you'd like to do if the program is new or not recognised.

You have a lot more to configure with OneCare's Firewall then you do with the Anti-Virus component and I'm great full for this. A nice added touch for many users with this product is the ability to open up the necessary ports for certain things... without having to know anything about port numbers or technical jargon. A lot of firewalls block things such as sharing files and folders over a network and to make it work again you either allow TCP and UDP ports in the firewall, (which you need to know), or you turn the firewall off... defeating its purpose. OneCare gives you a list of common tasks - one being the sharing of files - which you can tick or un-tick as you wish. Doing so assigns the relevant permissions to the firewall and miraculously things start to work!

Performance Plus / System Tune Up
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If one term was enough to confuse you, then two terms referring to the same thing may be more than you need. The OneCare main window refers to the automated system maintenance tool as Performance Plus... but everywhere else it's called 'System Tune Up'. In theory the whole idea of the System Tune Up is a good idea and it does work well. A regularly scheduled set of automated tasks which runs a virus scan, de-fragments your hard drive, cleans everything up... useful eh? :) Unfortunately when this is running it can really slow your machine down, so thankfully you can delay the running of the tune up to a time that suits you better. Additionally if a Tune Up is already running you can cancel and begin again later... over night for example.

Backup and Restore.
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This is one of OneCares double edged swords. In practice the whole idea of having an integrated file backup utility sounds amazing... and it should do. The way in which OneCare handles data backups is rather good. Unfortunately it wraps all your backups in a file format of its own so you cannot just insert a backup disk and grab a file you want. Inserting a OneCare backup disk brings up a dialogue box informing you it was made with OneCare and that you'll need to install it to grab your files again. Not that I've got this far, (as my license is still running), but what happens if your license expires, you don't want to renew but you want to grab a file from a backup? I'm unsure as to whether the program will continue to run without a subscription and that the only things that stop are the automatic updates... or whether the entire product stops completely.

Uninstallation
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Uninstalling OneCare is a simple affair, doesn't take too long and again I'd recommend a restart straight afterwards; especially should you be looking to install some different protection software.

Final Thoughts
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OneCare in the complete package that it is, IS DECENT! But to be honest there are a number of things that, for me anyway, stand in the way of it getting 5 stars. Telling me I'm 'At Risk' simply because I want to manage Windows Updates in my own way or because I refuse to update Internet Explorer is a little silly - Being given the option to ignore these problems would be a much welcome feature. The lack of configurable options for the Anti-Virus is another niggle of mine as I like to configure things to work just how I like. Saying that, the Anti-Virus is good, as is the firewall - the Tune Up works really well, (although it can slow your machine down a bit when running), and the inclusion of a backup utility earns it a few points on the chart.

So who do I recommend it to? First time computer users, yes! Absolutely! Anyone who has a decent bit of experience may like the holding-of-hands approach but many wont. If you're an expert or IT Professional, like myself, then this product really isn't for you. I bought it for the reasons I outlined at the top of this review and although it hits all three, the over-simplified manner of working was a little too much for me. As a result I do not use it on my main machine now, but it is still running quite happily on my fiancees Windows XP machine and does its job very well. I'm quite happy to recommend it but don't expect it to be the best in the market. We should probably remember that this is the first version of OneCare, where rivals Symantec and McAfee for example, have had years and years to perfect their product. On the other hand... who knows Windows better than Microsoft? You'd think their product may have gone one better in a number of ways with this better understanding of the OS. 

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