December 3rd, 2005
Windows OneCare Live Public Beta: Should You Sign Up?
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
I’ve been in the Managed (invited) Beta for the Microsoft OneCare Live program for some time. This week the Microsoft opened the beta to the public. The question is: should you sign up?
Let’s not even discuss the merits of using an antivirus program from the software company that arguably has the most security holes discovered 
(but a lot of this is simply the ubiquitousness of Windows) or if you want to trust your system to a beta virus scanner. What do I personally think about OneCare Live since I have started using it?
Well, if you look at the bitmap above, the “1″ symbol is the icon you see in your System Tray, next to the time. If OneCare feels there’s something risky about your configuration, it will turn the icon yellow or red. Green is what you shoot for.
Since the beginning of the beta, if you turn the OneCare Livefirewall off, the icon turns red. Personally, I have a router, so I see no need to run extra software … but if I want a green icon, I must turn it on.
Also, if you don’t have System Updates set to download and automatically install, it will also turn the icon red. Once again, I prefer to have the updates downloaded, but not installed, instead opting for the update feature to alert me (I want to see what is going to be installed), but if I want a green icon, I must set it “Microsoft’s way”.
There are Tune-Up and Backup / Restore functions to the program, but I have standalone programs I’ve used for quite some time that I feel are superior to OneCare Live’s current functionality.
Scanning is very slow compared to other programs I have used (as with many Microsoft programs, I expect the first release to be “just OK”, and improve greatly as time goes on); additionally, it does not display a scrollable list of files that have been scanned as other programs do. I prefer a list and there’s no way to enable it (yet).
Finally, if I look at the resource usage of OneCare Live it’s very “heavy” compared to my normal program … or frankly any program I’ve tried. It uses a lot of memory. CPU usage doesn’t seem bad, but wow does it use a lot of RAM.
You can find more info about choosing an antivirus program here.
We Say: As always, this is my opinion and your mileage will vary … it’s obvious that OneCare Live is designed to fit the needs of the vast majority of people, who really don’t know much about Windows or computers and just want something that runs. There aren’t very many settings to configure, and it pretty much forces you into the options that it feels are “proper” (which I tend to disagree with) if you want the green icon to appear.
As I said, the first release of a Microsoft program is usually “just OK”. I would probably wait until v2.0 to sign up, if I were to sign up. For many people, the simplicity will be just fine. However, I prefer a lot more configurability, as well as a “lighter” program, and that’s why, after installing the latest beta to see if they had made any significant changes, I removed it from my system and went back to my regular antivirus program.
David Johnston says:
Thanks for the review. I’m definitely going to stay away from this Beta. It’s not that I think it’s necessarily bad. It just doesn’t do anything that I find I’m lacking otherwise and it seems to take over your PC to a degree while it’s at it (must…have…green…icon).
December 3rd, 2005 at 1:16 pm
Eric N. says:
I looked into this, and read through the EULA (as I tend to do now) and noticed things about being billed, or submitting a credit card account. I was afraid that I would be billed for some sort of Beta program. Perhaps I just mis-understood what the One Live Anti-Virus system, but I expected it to be free, and easy to install.
I’m staying away: I too have a router filtering as many malicious ports as I can, and I run AVG free AntiVirus, as well as Microsoft Anti-Spyware, and a host of other software to keep my computer in top form. However, because of these questions and my concern as to not completely understanding the implications of their software I’m choosing to pass on this new service from Microsoft.
Thanks for the link.
December 3rd, 2005 at 2:00 pm
Pete says:
I don’t think that the ubiquity of Windows is what leads to exploits- it’s the underpoining of the OS. Apache is ubiquitous in the server space, but it has less exploits than MS products.
That having been said, I trust MS with my Credit Card info about as far as I can kick an elephant.
December 3rd, 2005 at 5:26 pm
Another Michael says:
I of course will stay away from this as well as I run far too much stuff as it is and my current securtiy setup is definately adequate for my needs (firefox + Avast + router). However I would like to point out to Pete that Apache really only has to get one thing right… that’s to serve up webpages without fault.
Windows on the other hand is a completely different beast. It has to handle a multitude of programs(maybe even including apache) and do so while making it appealing to end users as well as providing ways for more complex situations for developers and business users. The variations on such a thing are far from trivial.
December 3rd, 2005 at 7:43 pm
Jim McGroarty says:
Why would anyone trust Microsoft to come up with good antivirus software. It will probably get through holes in their operating system. They generally avoid plugging holes in their OS for months. I don’t trust their firewall and will not trust their antivirus software. I use their antispyware software but I also use several others. I also don’t trust McAffee for firewall. McAfee’s exerpertise is antivirus and I use two to make sure. Zonealarm’s thing is the firewall and they seem to do an excellent job.
December 3rd, 2005 at 8:27 pm
Troy says:
If you think this software is being written for techies, you’re way off. This is for people that buy a computer and hook it up to the Internet with no idea about the security risks. I am a long time beta tester for Microsoft products and One Care was presented as a great product for non-techies. One place that has firewall, anti-virus, updates, backups, and eventually anti-spyware protection.
December 4th, 2005 at 6:51 pm
Mary says:
I personally have stayed away from all Microsoft ’security’ software since the whole Microsoft Anti-Spyware / Clara shit… Sygate Personal Firewall Pro, Symantec Anti-Virus Client 10.0 Corporate and Ad-Aware SE Professional 1.0 does a perfect job… And Firefox and Thunderbird for web and email, thank you! And no Microsoft smartphones either! Sorry…ranting again.
December 11th, 2005 at 11:53 am