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There comes a time in every computer user's life when the machine in use is Nailed by some sort of Virus, Worm, Trojan, Malware and/or Spyware. Countless computerists take extraordinary steps to protect themselves from these threats but rarely if ever, pay attention to exactly what's going on.

Most users install their protection software and rely on "blind faith" in hopes the software publisher will ensure timely updates and top notch protection from known and newly discovered threats. Blind faith is NOT the way to go.

For the past year, we've been testing the BIG three on various machines in our offices. The big three being McAfee, Norton and MS Live OneCare. Sure, there are others "out there" but let's face it.. the big three have the lion's share of the market so, most users are involved with them.

Let's look at McAfee first since they're usually force fed to users via their Internet Service Providers (ISP). You would think that the ISPs handing out this software free to their subscribers (subs) would pay attention to more than just the monthly collections. They, like most of their subs leave the Protection up the Software Publisher. In this case McAfee. The BIG question is what do they use for their own machines? McAfee rates a 4 out of a possible 10 due to its lack of adequately protecting all email flow and content.

Norton, another 4 out of a possible 10, is an excellent package but its highly intrusive. By that I mean it gets into "every area known to mankind" on your system. Export your registry before you install Norton and then after you've installed Norton, export it again and check size... All I'll do is ask why? The speed at which Norton checks email is painfully slow. Again why? In some cases, the user is obliged to deal with Norton accessory software to gain fixes. Why? Because, in our opinion, Norton is kludged together. The fun part begins when a normal user tries uninstalling Norton! Have fun.... They have a free program available on their site to do the job since the uninstall routines are grossly inefficient.

Now comes the "Beast" - Windows Live One Care... "The new kid on the block".
Windows Live One Care simply put; FAILS! It fell off the negative side of the scale. It FAILS miserably.

Gates should only have to deal with this beast. Nightmare one began when they started shooting updates to this thing via auto-update. Initially it was a disaster. Then seemingly, it was fixed. Nightmare two came along with OneCare v2. A large segment of the userbase was totally and completely "fudged". Left UNPROTECTED due to autoupdate software installation errors.

That means the users received the updated software via updates but when it installed OneCare produced copious errors calling for reboots upon reboots. Thus causing hours of user grief trying to retain some semblance of protection. To this very day, there is no "fix" for this joke. Those systems in which OneCare failed to install are destined to need a "clean" install of the OS and another try. That is a very bad joke. Between using their cleaner software to remove all remaining vestiges of OneCare and then Installing again and again.. It became an adventure in repetitive torture. Don't believe me? Go read the OneCare Forums.

UPDATE: August 2008

It appears that Live OneCare's newest update patch, version 2.5 has struck as update version 2.0 did. Why am I not surprised. Seems a new or so OneCare surmised, Trojan was found. What does OneCare do?? It jumps up and want to clean the Trojan by deleting the files.. Wunnerful!! Now comes the very, very sad part. The files it wants to delete are system files. So once you OK OneCare to "clean" the files they are in fact deleted! Then OneCare in its marvelously intuitive manner states insert your CD so the proper files can be restored. Brilliant!! Well, not really... you see, most of the systems out there have service packs installed. As a result the CD is no longer compatible with many systems. Especially XP systems with Service Pack 3 installed. The bottom line is a total disaster is inflicted upon those machines affected. I might add, there are thousands. They get a BLACK SCREEN and a WHITE MOUSE POINTER. That's it!! Nothing more, nothing less ...even in safe mode. The last time it occurred, OneCare was trying to nail nVidia network driver software - this time it was another imaginary culprit called Service Pack whatever.

Unfortunately, those affected, must CLEAN install, format the C Drive and reinstall Windows. Then do ALL the updates all over again.

Microsoft should get out of the Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam, Anti-Aunty and Anti-User business and concentrate primarily on Operating Systems. Windows Live OneCare is obviously a disaster just waiting to happen. Again and Again.

TRUE PROTECTION 100% of the time your machine is up and running.

Grisoft SOFTWARE
Awarded
STReport's Editor's Choice 2008

2008

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