One-stop Protection against Malware

Normally Windows users install individual software on their machines to
tackle viruses, hacking and phishing attacks. But that is not enough and you
need to constantly update these software to keep your system fully protected.
Configuring and maintaining individual threat management software is a pain.
Microsoft has brought a solution called Windows Live OneCare, which has
integrated antivirus, antispyware and Windows firewall. It gives you a single
console for managing antivirus, spyware, firewall and performance tuning. In
addition, you can also take backup of your system. You can download a 90 day
trial copy of this software from www.windowsonecare.com/purchase.

This software runs quietly as a background process on your machine. The user
does not have to worry about interruptions by spyware, viruses, phishing scams,
hackers or other unwanted intruders. Plus, it also offers you tools for taking
backups and cleaning of all temp files for speeding up the system performance.

Once installed, it checks your system and automatically configures all threat
management elements on your system. You get an icon 'One' on the system
tray. If the icon appears green, your system status is 'OK.' If it icon
appears yellow, ('Fair' status), it means you need to take some action such as
scheduling or running a tune-up or backup, or downloading a non-critical update.
A yellow icon means there is no immediate threat to your system.

But if the same icon appears red, it means your computer is 'At Risk.'
This can happen, for example, when Windows Live OneCare is unable to update
antivirus with the latest virus definitions due to a lost Internet connection,
or if the Windows Live OneCare Firewall is turned off. You can configure each
tool from its interface just by a button or link given inside its interface. For
example, if you suspect any virus or spyware in your machine, go to the 'Protection
Plus' option and click 'Scan for virus and spyware.' This will immediately
start the virus and spyware scanning process. Windows Live OneCare runs in the
background and takes only 1,888 K memory.

You can see the current status of all threat management tools running on your system

It also checks for Windows updates automatically and patches your system
there and then. For users' convenience and security, the tool has very limited
configuration options for the user to playing around with. And these are easy to
configure for a novice. The tool also supports third party anti-virus and
spyware and updates them regularly. As an anti-phishing measure, it keeps
real-time eye on Web pages that you access and if it finds any suspicious
activity, it alerts you immediately.

Overall, a good piece of software that provides threat management under a
single umbrella.