Microsoft Windows Live OneCare is a one-stop shop for home office computer protection. It contains antivirus and anti-spyware tools, backup and restore services, tools for managing networked PCs, online backup, and more.
For about $50 a year for three computers, Microsoft Windows Live OneCare offers antivirus, anti-spyware, and anti-malware protection, a souped-up firewall, tools and services for keeping your PC healthy, and more. It even provides monthly reports so you can see exactly how it is working to protect you and your network.
- Protection from Malware – Each protected system is continuously monitored for any suspicious malware activity. Additionally, schedule scans check the data on your hard drive for infections reguraly. Anything that is suspicious is quarantined. There’s also a firewall that is bi-directional. This firewall scans data that goes out of your system as well as into it. All of these things together work to keep your PCs safe.
- PC performance – OneCare offers a tune up feature where you can remove unnecessary files, defragment the hard drive, run a virus and spyware scan, perform a backup, and get automatic updates. There’s also a start-time optimizer that lists all of the applications that are configured to automatically run each time your system boots, and it lets you choose what to exclude.
- Backup and restore – Here you can create a backup plan, and after that, OneCare Backup will run regularly according to the schedule you made.
- Online Photo Backup – For an extra $50 a year you can opt for 10 GB of online storage. That’s pretty expensive but if you have the money to burn, why not keep it in the Microsoft family, eh?
- Monthly reports - Windows Live OneCare generates all-inclusive monthly reports that offer an overview of the health of your network.
- Automatic printer sharing – Users can share printers easily with the automatic printer sharing feature.
* Incorporation of other Microsoft Windows Live Services – since Windows Live OneCare is part of the new Windows Live initiative, you can be sure that all of these services will be compatible and play well with each other. Another nice reason to keep it all in the Microsoft family!
