As a regular computer user, I've come across different virus-scanning software programs that helped me keep my computer and my data safe. Among them were McAfee Virusscan 5, Norton AV, Norman AV (I thought they were the same), and McAfee Virus-scan 8 and 10. I thought I was in for the best security protection when Windows Live OneCare came out, and decided to subscribe to its services in order to give it a shot. I was like, "Hey, it's coming from the guys who made Windows, so I'm sure they know whatever hits it and whatnot." Boy, was I proven wrong.
Let's just take a look at what this software really is (1). Overall, it appears to be a copy of McAfee Security Suite, which comes loaded with an anti-virus, a firewall, an anti-spyware module, spamkiller, etc. Windows Live OneCare, however, comes with an anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, backup utility, disk cleanup, disk defragmenter, an anti-phishing filter, and... that's about it. The beta version itself was seriously bugged (2). Moreover, it doesn't support Opera and Firefox (not that I use them or anything), and doesn't offer the same amount of reliable protection that McAfee and Norton would, of which the former, in my opinion, is the better (3). Also, as stated before, many of its features, such as automatic updates, backups, anti-spyware, disk defragmentation, disk cleanup, etc. can be found on Windows or downloaded from Microsoft.com (4).
Well, that's what a handful of computer users and reviewers have said about this suite. From my experience, I had McAfee Virus-scan 8.0i w/anti-spyware module, Windows Defender, and Lavasoft Ad-aware 2007. My computer was running fine, and then I decided to buy a year-long subscription of Windows Live OneCare. After installing it, etc., I already noticed that my laptop was slowing down. This was because the engine was not only running real-time on-access virus scanning, but it was also running a spyware scan and a firewall. My computer's performance slowed down considerably, and my Internet Explorer was bugged within a week's time. I updated my definitions almost daily: every time I was working on my university assignments, I made sure to run its update checker. It was annoying and unnerving that I still received such problems.
After four months, I decided to pull the plug on OneCare on my system, and re-initiated my previous security software.
Bottom line: I'll stick to McAfee and whatever else I have for now. I know this might be abrupt of me as my laptop isn't really that high-end yet, and I'm still running Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2. OneCare doesn't really care about XP for me at least, but I'm pretty sure it would run smoothly on Vista. I hear the same thing can be said for Grisoft's AVG Anti-virus (6). But until I get a new, hopefully high-end, laptop with Windows Vista (Home Premium most likely), I'm shelving OneCare for now. I don't recommend OneCare for PC users who have performance issues.
Let's just take a look at what this software really is (1). Overall, it appears to be a copy of McAfee Security Suite, which comes loaded with an anti-virus, a firewall, an anti-spyware module, spamkiller, etc. Windows Live OneCare, however, comes with an anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, backup utility, disk cleanup, disk defragmenter, an anti-phishing filter, and... that's about it. The beta version itself was seriously bugged (2). Moreover, it doesn't support Opera and Firefox (not that I use them or anything), and doesn't offer the same amount of reliable protection that McAfee and Norton would, of which the former, in my opinion, is the better (3). Also, as stated before, many of its features, such as automatic updates, backups, anti-spyware, disk defragmentation, disk cleanup, etc. can be found on Windows or downloaded from Microsoft.com (4).
Well, that's what a handful of computer users and reviewers have said about this suite. From my experience, I had McAfee Virus-scan 8.0i w/anti-spyware module, Windows Defender, and Lavasoft Ad-aware 2007. My computer was running fine, and then I decided to buy a year-long subscription of Windows Live OneCare. After installing it, etc., I already noticed that my laptop was slowing down. This was because the engine was not only running real-time on-access virus scanning, but it was also running a spyware scan and a firewall. My computer's performance slowed down considerably, and my Internet Explorer was bugged within a week's time. I updated my definitions almost daily: every time I was working on my university assignments, I made sure to run its update checker. It was annoying and unnerving that I still received such problems.
After four months, I decided to pull the plug on OneCare on my system, and re-initiated my previous security software.
Bottom line: I'll stick to McAfee and whatever else I have for now. I know this might be abrupt of me as my laptop isn't really that high-end yet, and I'm still running Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2. OneCare doesn't really care about XP for me at least, but I'm pretty sure it would run smoothly on Vista. I hear the same thing can be said for Grisoft's AVG Anti-virus (6). But until I get a new, hopefully high-end, laptop with Windows Vista (Home Premium most likely), I'm shelving OneCare for now. I don't recommend OneCare for PC users who have performance issues.
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