Windows Live One Care

The beta is now available. It has a 180 day trial period.

"Vito Francavilla" wrote:

> One Care now is not Compatible with Vista. It is expected a version for Vista
> very near from now
>
> "Oscette" wrote:
>

> > I purchased Windows Live One Care from Staples about 2 months ago. Yesterday
> > I got the RC1 from MS. After I installed it, it told me I couln't load One
> > Care because I didn't have XP SP2 files. What do I do? I just bought it.

Hi there I am fairly new to computers so sorry if I sound more than a little
thick! I am using the One Care security package than was designed to go with
Vista and I am being confused by those around me that do not have Vista. My
question is... does this or does this not fully protect my computer? Others
who have XP are saying that I need to install seperate security bits and to
run manual security checks as spyware/malware can still get into the
computer. Any advice or help would be gratefully received. Thanks.

Pat, nothing fully protects your computer. Well, except for you, that is.

That's actually a really important point. Your behavior and your actions are
FAR more important to the security and privacy of your information than any
bits you have installed on your computer. You have to have a healthy sense of
paranoia and not trust everything you see. If a bank, or eBay, or PayPal, or
whatever, sends you an e-mail that says you need to update your account it is
a fake. Don't do it. If you go to a web site and it says you need to install
software to view the site, you need to question whether you really trust that
site to deploy software to your system, under the understanding that anything
that it deploys will have complete and unrestricted access to your computer
and everything on it.

That all being said, there is software that will provide limited protection.
Generally speaking, such software falls into two categories: malware
protection and firewalls. Windows includes an excellent firewall and there is
no need to get a third-party one. Malware protection is only partially
included. Windows Defender is an anti-spyware program. In other words, it is
designed to prevent infections of known software that spies on your actions
and transmits your data to others. It does a fair job at that but it does not
protect against more traditional viruses and worms that specialize in
altering how your computer operates. For that you need an anti-virus program.
My recommendation is to get a plain anti-virus program and not one of the
suites that also have firewalls, security centers and what not. I tend to use
AVG's free edition:
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/download-...virus/us/crp/0. It is low
overhead, has good detection rates, and does not replace good built-in
functionality with poor third-party functionality like many of the suites.

Do not every forget, however, that you are ultimately the defender of your
own data. No software will ever be able to change that. Software cannot
discern intent and therefore cannot judge whether your sending your checkbook
file to a server in Russia is a good idea or not. Only you can do that. You
really owe it to yourself to learn a little about security. I do not agree
with everything that Mike Rothman has to say (for instance, Firefox is no
safer than IE) but his "Security Mike's Guide to Internet Security"
(https://www.securitymike.com/) is a reasonable start if you are new to this.
Microsoft's Home User security portal (http://www.microsoft.com/protect) is
also good, but fails to point out the critical fact that you are responsible
for your own security in my opinion. There are also a bunch of security
blogs, including mine (http://msinfluentials.com/blogs/jesper) but most of
those are probably a bit technical for a beginner.

Hopefully this helps as a starting point. Let me know if you have more
questions.

---
Your question may already be answered in Windows Vista Security:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047...otectyourwi-20


"Pat" wrote:

> Hi there I am fairly new to computers so sorry if I sound more than a little
> thick! I am using the One Care security package than was designed to go with
> Vista and I am being confused by those around me that do not have Vista. My
> question is... does this or does this not fully protect my computer? Others
> who have XP are saying that I need to install seperate security bits and to
> run manual security checks as spyware/malware can still get into the
> computer. Any advice or help would be gratefully received. Thanks.

Pat <Pat@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Hi there I am fairly new to computers so sorry if I sound more than a little
>thick! I am using the One Care security package than was designed to go with
>Vista and I am being confused by those around me that do not have Vista. My
>question is... does this or does this not fully protect my computer? Others
>who have XP are saying that I need to install seperate security bits and to
>run manual security checks as spyware/malware can still get into the
>computer. Any advice or help would be gratefully received. Thanks.

No security package is 100% protection. However, Windows Live OneCare is a full
security package in that it provides antivirus, antispyware, a 2 way firewall
and other features - http://onecare.live.com
Never run multiple "real time" protection programs, but there's nothing wrong
with using other antispyware programs periodically to pick up things OneCare may
have missed. If you are happy with OneCare, are not experiencing any problems
with it, and practice general safe computing, you are protected.
-steve
--
Stephen Boots
MVP Windows Live
Windows Live OneCare Forum Moderator
sboots@mvps.org

Stephen, does OC scan for rootkits? I cannot find yea or nay on this
subject.

"midway40" <midway40@home.com> wrote:

>Stephen, does OC scan for rootkits? I cannot find yea or nay on this
>subject.

Technically, you can't scan for root kits, though programs like Root Kit
Revealer can detect the possible presence of a Root Kit by comparing memory to
the registry on disk.
So, no, OneCare does not look for Root Kits in this manner.
-steve

--
Stephen Boots
MVP Windows Live
Windows Live OneCare Forum Moderator
sboots@mvps.org

Thanks for the info, Stephen

"StephenB" wrote:

> "midway40" <midway40@home.com> wrote:
>

> >Stephen, does OC scan for rootkits? I cannot find yea or nay on this
> >subject.

>
> Technically, you can't scan for root kits, though programs like Root Kit
> Revealer can detect the possible presence of a Root Kit by comparing memory to
> the registry on disk.
> So, no, OneCare does not look for Root Kits in this manner.
> -steve
>
> --
> Stephen Boots
> MVP Windows Live
> Windows Live OneCare Forum Moderator
> sboots@mvps.org
>