OneCare Has Its Place
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Yes, I confess! I am using and have used Windows Live OneCare since its Beta days. Granted it may not be at the top of the list for anti-virus, firewall and back-up software, but let me share when, and for whom, it may be a good choice.
Many of my clients are senior citizens or like someone living right here in this house with me. These people have absolutely no interest in the hows and whys of computer functions or the steps necessary to keep things running smoothly. When a problem pops up, they have one word to fix things and that word is ‘Connie.’
These users want to write emails, receive emails and jokes, get out on the Net, and look around much like going to the mall and sometimes to research something of interest. The tower portion of their computer is like a shoebox, a place to store pictures and other items of interest. When they refer to the computer it is the screen, keyboard, and a mouse or trackball. One of the most difficult things for me is to get folks to update software, run scans, clean out folders, and back up now and then.
Windows Live OneCare has gone a long way in solving this dilemma for me. I set it up to perform certain functions at certain times and the user has to do very little to keep things tuned up and virus free. They are not power users and as far as I know they don’t go to Web sites that make them exceptionally vulnerable to ‘bad things.’ Rarely do they have very much personal or financial information stored on their hard drives.
Yes, there are better anti-virus programs. There are better firewalls and yes, better backup solutions. For my computers I use some of these, particularly for my backups. If I install them on the computers of some of my clients they will never be used and thereby leave them unprotected and with a very cluttered hard drive. Windows Live OneCare keeps these users safe and secure without them having to get frustrated trying to learn and remember to use, more robust software. It’s not perfect, but it is a solution for many users.
[tags]windows, live, onecare, antivirus, firewall, backup, phishing[/tags]
2 Comments
Ben Oddo
April 18th, 2007
at 6:44am
Never would I allow my PC or any of my family ’s PC’s or friends’ PC’s for that matter, to rely on One Care to protect themselves from malware and viruses.
I have two reasons for making this statement:
1. Conflict of Interest - It has been alleged that Microsoft is aiming to produce the most secure operating system. Since Windows XP’s introduction, Microsoft has been boasting about the security of the O/S. We all know how empty those boasts have been. Now Microsoft is offering a subscription service to protect PC’s from attack. So if Microsoft’s objective to produce the most secure O/S, then there would be no need for One Care would there? The more money being made to protect PC’s from online threats, the less incentive Microsoft has to attain that goal of a secure O/S.
2. Microsoft’s proven predatory business practices - Anyone with the least amount of interest in PC technology would have at least heard of the multitude of lawsuits against Microsoft and the US and EU judgments against Microsoft’s predatory business practices. Microsoft has killed off Lotus, Corel, and a host of other software publishers and has denied the user community the richness of diversity and competition that is needed to improve the software products we all use. Is Symantec, CA and others in Microsoft’s cross-hairs? With One Care, they are targeted for a head-shot. Windows is not open source. The best anyone outside of Microsoft can do to protect you the user, is to rely on whatever technical information Microsoft wishes to divulge to anti-malware authors. There is nothing to prevent Microsoft from withholding information it discovers about a new potential threat. Microsoft can then issue the updates necessary to protect its One Care subscribers only, leaving everyone else vulnerable. Or consider a more sinister scenario. Microsoft can covertly release into the wild a virus or threat that can only be corrected by One Care.
Do I trust Microsoft to protect me from Microsoft? No way. Perhaps if Widows were to become open source then might I consider One Care. But we all know that is never going to happen.
marc klink
April 18th, 2007
at 7:42am
I personally would never consider MS for antivirus, firewall, or antimalware on any of my machines or those I administer because I see it as rewarding MS month after month for poorly written OS’s and other programs.