Windows Live OneCare 2.0 (discontinued)

Review: OneCare is a comprehensive suite of malware protection, optimization and backup. Comparable to higher priced Norton, McAfee, and ZoneAlarm which I find to use far more system resources.
I tried McAfee and ZoneAlarm, but they slowed down my computer too much, so I tried the newer version of OneCare. My computer was fast again!
Unlike a lot of other security suites, it actually works well with Vista.

OneCare was easy to set up and I could back all my computers up to a central location.
There were very few "nag" screens, and everything just worked as soon as I installed it.
It even disabled Windows Firewall and Defender, so there would be no conflicts.

The first two nights it optimized and ran the virus scan. I saw no problems whatsoever, it even found a worm in some old files of mine on a storage hard drive and it totally cleaned it. (I've just switched from McAfee, so it was surprising that McAfee never found that worm!)

A downside is that there isn't too much to customize, especially regarding the automatic tune up.
It also doesn't complete defragmentation. Instead, it stops after a certain amount of time. No way to change that.
It also alerts you when other computers don't have updates installed, which is a pain, because you can't install them remotely.

This software was designed to "set it and forget it," so if you are looking to totally customize it, try something else. However, I don't see what else you would want to change, it doesn't cause any interference and I even ran uTorrent without any trouble from the firewall.

It does cost like $50, which is about average. There are some free products out there, but they only provide virus protection, and it's worth the extra money to not have to worry about security or backup. It's nice to have everything together (instead of having antivirus client, windows defender, windows firewall, and windows backup running separately.)

Review: Hey,
I'm not a pro writer, but I have to give Microsoft it's due... 2.0 has some very easy to use features.
I'm a tech nerd and beta test all the products (back up and antivirus)
They just made if very easy so I don't have to spend time figuring it out.

Review: I have been using this program since it started with Windows Defender. Cannot understand why people hate it. I have used it in XP and when I upgraded to Vista, I brought it along too. It works great for me. Please let me know when version 2.0 comes out. I will be the first to order it.