Microsoft Discontinuing OneCare

MShaft giving their anti virus out for free. They are a little late and a little to bloated! No Thanks

per the release "will be architected for a smaller footprint that will use fewer computing resources, making it ideal for low-bandwidth scenarios or less powerful PCs"

Nevermind the hater they don't bothe with things like FACTS. just find excuses to hate. I never have understood the hater attitude people have about stuff.

Whatever Pal? Avast! is a hell of alot better and uses less system resources. MShaft should stick to what it is good at and anti-virus software is not one of them! Read some reviews and get your head out of the clouds!

Yeah I would think they are trying to make it light like they did with Win 7. I think they are doing a good thing.

How much you want to bet it wont be compatible with Windows 7?
Then the MS execs will say, Win7 is so superior it doesnt need an AV

Just like OneCare wasnt compatible with their flagship release of Vista 64.

The sucks. I've been using OneCare for a good two years now and I have to say its the most non-envasive security program I have ever used. I was using Zone Alarm before so may have to go back to it. I hope they finally worked out their compatibility issues with Vista because there is no way in hell I'll ever install Norton anything I own.

Never say never. I also vowed to ignore Norton since around 2000/2001, but from what I read, NIS 2009 is a superior product. I have yet to try it, just have read some comments here in the Security forum.

Trust me, I've been free of Norton since sometime in the late 90s. I trust Zone Alarm but they ticked me off with their slow response to Vista. I'd have to see Norton in action on someone else's machine and it would have to be an idential model to mine before I'd ever consider Norton again.

I agree. I just dumped Trend Micro for OneCare. TM was fracked up and was a major drag on system resources. OneCare seems to be a great product that doesn't impact system performance. I also ditched Norton and McAfee years ago and will never go back.

I've never understood why some idiots paid Micro$oft an extortion fee to protect themselves from that OS. LOL!

If they truly wanted protection, better to go with a 3rd party vendor that takes security seriously. Hell, some even offer that software for free!!!

The only problem I ever had with OneCare is that, if Microsoft is offering it, why isn't it integrated into the OS like IE is? It should be a standard component of the OS installation, not some addon that takes up resources separately. Also it didn't do nearly as good a job as others like AVG - yet Microsoft should be the best at making an antivirus. That's of course assuming the rumors are NOT true (that Microsoft actually stole the Windows code and silenced the original creator). If they know their code back and forth, why would they be unable to stop things from happening better than others?

I guess you can't sell everything.. leave it up to the more known brands to do stuff like this

I'm actually pretty interested in this. The release says the product will be engineered to not be resource intensive. It also really only focuses on consumers, is it free for business too?

OneCare gave me nothing but networking problems. I never made it past the trial period.

Same here. I tried out their beta as a tester and I had to restore my PC from scratch because it bollixed up the registry so badly. The uninstall left a mess all over the system.

No wonder I had been seeing such deals on OneCare lately. Think I saw it on NewEgg for $9.99 and I would venture a guess that it could be had for less if I shopped around.

Hopefully this will lead to a huge drop in botnet populations.

I'm agreeing with a lot of their decisions lately, even as a Mac guy.

If they can get Windows Update to automatically detect if a user has an antivirus installed, and then recommended their new security suite as an recommended download in cases where no other AV is present, Microsoft could have a huge impact on malware and botnets.

Microsoft is in a unique position to get this software on as many machines as possible with as little user knowledge required as possible, something that wasn't possible with a non-free product like OneCare.

If Microsoft can get detection up to snuff (at least as good as some of the Free AVs), while reducing the performance impact versus their OneCare suite, I say they have a winner!

Help a guy out here who doesn't understand too many technical aspects of the OS. I'm assuming the reason that companies like Avira and Avast, who both offer free products and excellent detection, succeed so well is because it is essentially all that they do. Microsoft is busy developing hundreds of titles of software, including its line of OSs.

However, to me, it stands to reason that companies like Avira and Avast shouldn't be able to make a product better than what MS could do, considering MS developed the actual OS of which the viruses/trojans/etc infect.

So, if MS can put some effort and $ into developing a proper package - and obviously OneCare wasn't it - in theory, it should be superior to any third party product. Or do I have that all wrong?

MicroSoft used to develop free AV (MS-DOS 4,5, & 6)...
Natural protection should be built into the OS and no company should be able to do it better then MS since they do develop the OS (as you mentioned yourself). Should be a lot easier for them to integrate as well.

I fully support MS's decision on this matter.

It should be far superior. If written into the Kernel itself, and of course also into the core explorer it should work very well and find virii upon initial boot and blast them away from HDD before the computer is technically running.

As it stands, in my opinion ALL anti-virus programs currently written are garbage. I detest them all.

I do not run AV on any of my PCs.. I don't need too.
I am better at AV removal & protection then the AV programs anyway. I have not ever been infected with a virus I didn't create on any of my PCs to date.

I've manually removed virii that are considered "almost impossible" to get rid of with ease (from friends & family's computers). Mind you, it can sometimes take hours to do so...its not difficult though.

At the end of the day, protection built into the OS should be way more effective then any AV program you can currently get.

When it comes to protection it should also be noted that virii are no longer the major problem... it's now spy/mal-ware and rootkits that are the major issue.

They cause your system to run crazy. If MS can develop a watchdog that looks for rogue DLL's and other such libraries that are causing constant high load on the machine, it should help eliminate the ones that cause computers to run in a very diminished state.

They'd also need to develop something that actively monitors all inbound and outbound traffic.

Look at every application and when something makes an outbound connection on a non-standard port it should alert the user. For the ones that actually use standard ports it should look at the application making the request.. if its not a recognized program again, alert the user and block it.

Anyway now I am getting OT> sorry.

I look forward to this and hope it is successful.
If coded properly, it will cause AV companies to cease operations, and since they price gouge, that's a good thing (even though they are most likely going to try to stop MS which is completely stupid... all they care about is money though.)

If you took the time to read this, thanks LOL
Steve

Well said. Not that you did, but I wouldn't encourage people to run their system without an antivirus software. But, I see where you're coming from.

Hopefully MS can do what they need to do. Ideally, it should have been done right from the get go, but no use being Monday morning quarterback.

OneCare was a decent suite, though I have since switched to AVG on my various systems. When their new free AV suite comes out, you can bet I'll install it. Windows Defender Plus maybe? They do already have an anti-spyware suite that's reasonably powerful...

OHH Sorry - Yes for all novice computer users I strongly recommend Avast or AVG. I have not used Avira so I can not suggest it.

Steve

What OneCare did do, no matter how much market share it achieved, was to force Norton and McAfee to offer a competing product at a competing price point.

Now if Norton and McAfee will offer a "free for home users" version to compete with 'Morro' and AVG, the world will be a lot safer.

I fully support MS on this, but I think they're 10 years late. And charging for OneCare? What an insult. They sell you an operating system that is vulnerable, then they want to sell you something to protect it? Bullshit. That's like an auto maker charging to fix a recall. Hell, even Wal-mart will exchange a defective product for a working one.

MS should have done this a decade ago. At least they're finally getting around to it.

Ive use OneCare on 3 machines when it first came out and didnt have any problems with it. Ran fine, but my preferred solution has been Kaspersky for awhile now, so when the OC license expired I just switched back. It wasnt resource intensive, but then again I have a pretty higher end computer (4gb, quad-core 2.4). That being said, this is one of those things I would recommend for users who arent that computer savvy, where all the updates can be tied into windows update, and the user really doesnt have to know whats going on

The OneCare site says current subscribers will be able to opt-in when the new product becomes available. This is good news for me since I'm running OneCare on both my boxes.

I wonder though, if the MS product is "given away" how that will impact on the AV/Firewall market?

Attach it to the new Windows 7 for example and I can hear the anti-trust lawyer warming up thier PC's as we speak

NefCanuck

As long as you can install it without tanking the OS (with a visible and easy way to do it, e.g. desktop icon), and then install the AV suite of your choice, I doubt the Justice Department will have much of a problem with it. They'll be more concerned with making MS give people visible notice that they can use another program.

This is a good move for MS. I like the backup features of OneCare, but we run Forefront Client Security (very lightweight OneCare with no backup capabilities) and it's a great little product. They have a native Vista 64 client too.

The irony of M$ selling a "security suite" that wouldn't even be needed if it weren't for the horrible security of the OS itself.

If you have Cox HSI, get the free McAfee, it has a really small footprint and isn't invasive at all when scanning. Just don't install any of that other bloatware like the personal firewall.

OC is not a bad product but MS once again showed how they honor customerss. Till now I received no information from MS about OC termination.
I do not know what to do if my subscription expires before they release free product. Buying new OC subscription for whole year does not seem to make sense. I guees another reinstallation of Windows is on the horizon....

I got a 100% rebate on my purchase of One Care. I liked the multiple machine features, Defender and an antivirus.

But oh my - the forced no-you-can-not-opt-out reboots and saving me from the dangers of sharing my printer drove me nuts. Add the mystery background updates and scans slowing down the machine. With 6 months left on my 'free' subscription I abandoned it.

Might be good for beginners. I don't need any hand holding to update my viri signatures or update my backups.

Actually I like it. Have been using it for about two years and have active subscription until August 2009. At first my reaction was - no way I'm paying MS more money but they had great deals on it and I was able to get almost 3 years of protection for about $10.

Never had a single issue with it too but I never did try the backup feature.

Why?

This is a waste of time. A few free, independent utilities are better than anything Microsoft could put out at this point.

was a waste of money when it came out, and still is a waste of money, now it'll be a way for adware and spyware to get into your system since they'll have to pay for it somehow.