Windows Live OneCare Team Blog

Windows Live OneCare Support Experience Update!

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 01:00:05 GMT

Hello OneCare customers,

If you’ve used our Help and Support in the past, you may have noticed some changes last week. Along with the latest release of OneCare, we’ve made some changes to our online flow for getting help and contacting support. If you’re using the OneCare client click on “Get Help with Windows Live OneCare.” If you have already been auto-upgraded to the new version of OneCare 2.0, then you will notice that we now have some easy to run repairs on your PC. We’ll be updating these repairs on a regular basis in the coming months and hope that they will serve to solve common issues with your PC.

To see our online help topics click on “Visit Online Help Center,” or the “Go Online” button.

In addition, based on all your feedback, we’ve modified the on-line support and help experience to help make it easier for you to find the information you’re looking for:

Step 1) Once you get to our online help topics you will notice our Instant Help tool in the middle of the page. You can enter a question and get a response, or you can also use our more traditional search in the upper left hand corner of the window. If you find the answer you’re looking for, great!

If not, for further assistance you will need to click on “Get more help” in the bottom right hand corner of the window, followed by clicking on “Get Support”

Step 2) To make sure we put in touch with the right agents to respond to your questions, you will need to fill out a short form regarding the nature of your issue.

Step 3) Next, you will need to provide your Windows Live ID or Product ID used to purchase and activate OneCare. These field(s) should be pre-populated if you are an existing subscriber and have the latest version of OneCare installed and activated. If you are using the product as a free trial or have not been able to install or activate the product you will need to select the “I have a trial/beta version of OneCare” radio button and continue.

Step 4) Finally, you will arrive at a form that displays your support options and allows you to create a support incident. Additionally, you will have the option to upload “Diagnostics” that can be used by the support agents to analyze the problem on your PC. If you are an existing OneCare customer and have installed and activated your client you should see all your support options, including phone. For free trial or beta users or those who have not yet activated their OneCare subscription, you will only have access email support until you purchase or active your service.

P.S. Curious about how to find your Windows Live Id and Product ID for OneCare?

To find your Product ID or Windows Live ID open the OneCare Client, click on the Help drop down in the right hand corner of the main screen and select “About Windows Live OneCare.” If you have activated the client you should see your Windows Live ID member name and the Product ID.

That’s it. By going through our new help flow you will have continued access to automated repairs for your PC, the most current help topics, and tracking of your support incidents with your OneCare subscription so that OneCare support professionals can have access to your support history. As always we love to hear your feedback, so please let us know how this new experience works for you!

Best Regards,

Marisela Cerda

Windows Live OneCare Support Experience Program Manager and Guest Blogger

Windows Live OneCare Adds New Features

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 01:59:37 GMT

We’ve just released significant enhancements to the Windows Live OneCare service, designed to help you to more easily care for all of the PCs covered by your subscription.

Here are just a few of the new features that you’ll see:

· The new OneCare Circle provides a single view that you can use to monitor the security and maintenance of your networked PCs. The OneCare circle also enables one-click actions to resolve issues among computers within a home PC network

· Printer sharing support helps you easily share the printers that are connected to your networked PCs —now the whole family can use the same printer.

· Speedier PC start times via removal of rarely used applications from the Start menu. Look for this on the enhanced Monthly Report.

· Configuration monitoring that makes fixes and recommendations designed to help you get the most out of your computing experience.

These enhancements and more will be automatically delivered to all subscribers over the next several weeks. Windows Live OneCare will tell you when the update is starting and ask you to restart when it’s complete. Then you’ll be ready to start enjoying all of the new features that are now included in OneCare.

If you’d like to learn more about this update or would like to try Windows Live OneCare for 90 days, please visit http://onecare.live.com.

Understanding OneCare's integration with Microsoft Update

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 01:10:00 GMT

We have recently been hearing some concerns that Windows Live OneCare has changed settings in Windows Update to allow for automatic installation of important updates, and that some PCs are rebooting as a result.

In the first OneCare boot experience we have gone to great lengths to disclose that OneCare may automatically effect changes to user settings in order to help best protect the user. When you first install Windows Live OneCare, setup informs you that if you choose to proceed your computer settings will be changed to automatically download and install important updates from Microsoft Update (a Microsoft service that provides software updates for Windows components and other Microsoft programs). You may still choose whether or not to install recommended and optional updates.

OneCare is built for people who don't want to worry about protecting and maintaining their PC. This behavior is by design and is not unique to the latest version of OneCare. It helps ensure that your computer continues to receive important updates as soon as possible after they are released. As extra protection, Windows Live OneCare also checks your computer for missing software updates during Tune-up. If any missing updates are found, or if your computer's Automatic Updates settings get changed, you receive an “Action to Take”, helping you to correct the problem.

We are evaluating user feedback and will be revisiting how we communicate the installation details of Windows Live OneCare as we are continually working to improve that experience. Windows Live OneCare simplifies PC care, making it easy to manage performance, backup and security for your home or small office PCs. In addition, OneCare was built with privacy in mind, and Microsoft takes that very seriously – every new feature or setting change is reviewed and approved by Microsoft’s privacy experts.

As always, we appreciate your feedback.
The Windows Live OneCare team

Download the OneCare Beta (v2.0) and let us know what you think!

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:41:15 GMT

After months of listening to customer feedback on Windows Live OneCare (v1.5) and designing and testing new features and services for the product, we’re proud to unveil the first public beta release of the next version, Windows Live OneCare (2.0). Windows Live OneCare 2.0 automatically manages an even greater number of security and maintenance tasks so users can spend more time using their PCs and less time maintaining them. Sign up at http://get.live.com/betas/onecare_betas!

In the new version, our aim was to help consumers better manage their home environment. Our research has shown that most homes now have approximately 2.5 computers. This means that in addition to securing and maintaining multiple PCs, consumers now need to do the extra work associated with connecting devices and securing networks. To ease this burden, we added to OneCare features such as multi-PC and home network management as well as printer sharing to help address the modern home environment.

This new version also establishes a foundation to better address the needs of small businesses. Many small businesses need to protect and maintain a number of PCs but may not have the resources for extensive onsite IT support. To help solve this problem, we added centralized backup to OneCare so local back up on a small business network is a simple step instead of a time consuming hassle.

Here’s a quick overview of the new features we’ve added to OneCare version 2.0 to help keep users’ PCs and networks safe, reliable and performing well:

Multi-PC and home network management. Helps ease management of multiple-PC environments by providing a single navigation bar for monitoring the security and maintenance of networked computers. Also enables one-click actions to resolve issues among computers within a home PC network.
Printer sharing support. Makes it easy to connect printers to local networks so all users in the vicinity can use the same printer.
Start-time optimizer. Speeds PC boot time by removing rarely used applications from start-up menu. This helps to address one of the noticeable areas of frustration for PC users as time goes on.
Proactive fixes and recommendations. OneCare constantly monitors the specific configuration of the user’s system and makes proactive fixes and recommendations to improve the computing experience.
Monthly reports. Provides a summary in the Windows Live OneCare dialogue box of key activities and recommended actions for all PCs in a local network.
Centralized backup. Enables users to centrally configure and monitor backups for all PCs covered under the same OneCare subscription, with the data from all PCs backed up to a central location.
Online photo backup. Keeps precious photos safe from theft or accidental loss by backing them up to a secure, offsite location in Windows Live (available at an extra cost once v2.0 is out of beta).

On behalf of the entire OneCare team, I’d like to offer a special thanks to the thousands of users who have sent us their thoughts and feedback on Windows Live OneCare. Our goal with Windows Live OneCare is to make users life easier, at least the PC and home network management part of it. Take a look at version Windows Live OneCare beta (2.0) and let us know what you think.

Thanks for your continued feedback,
Gina (OneCare guest blogger)

OneCare Receives VB100 Award (again!)

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:52:19 GMT

We’re pleased to report that Windows Live OneCare just received the VB100 award from Virus Bulletin. This award comes on the heels of OneCare’s recent re-certification from West Coast Labs and the ICSA Labs. Together, these accolades are a strong endorsement of OneCare’s powerful anti-malware tools and mean that OneCare protects customers from known threats on the market today.

We’ll continue our ongoing work to keep PCs safe and secure. In the meantime, we’re honored that top testing bodies endorse the powerful protection that OneCare provides as a part of an all-in-one PC care offering.

Thanks for your continued feedback,
Gina (OneCare guest blogger)

OneCare Activation

Fri, 25 May 2007 16:38:45 GMT

Our customers have a lot of questions about OneCare activation and want to know exactly what it is all about. We commonly hear feedback from customers who say that activation is only for the purposes of adding a second PC, but it is much more than that.

So why do customers need to activate in the first place? You may have noticed that OneCare is not a traditional software package, it is a subscription based service. One way to think about it is to compare it to your cell phone service, where you pay a fee for a period, receive updates to your service during that period and have a phone number associated with your service. Similarly, it is necessary for OneCare customers to have a Windows Live ID account so that we can provide them with the proper level of service. Getting a Windows Live ID means you have one simple way to interact with your OneCare account whether that means Activating a 2^nd PC or getting support. No one needs to remember nasty things like 25 digit product keys that are easily misplaced or forgotten. The three main reasons that we need customers to activate their OneCare service are:

· For verification that they want to begin their OneCare service and to the start the subscription.
· To ensure that all continuous servicing happens including daily malware signature updates, weekly firewall policies, and updates with new features and enhancements
· Finally, to allows our support teams to provide you with better support and the right level of support. For instance, one of the benefits of a paid OneCare subscription is phone support.

The fourth reason we need customers to activate is so that they can install OneCare on more than one computer. I have a laptop that I use for school and a computer at home that both run OneCare using the same subscription. Once a customer activates OneCare on a computer they can then install and activate OneCare on up to 2 other computers simply by typing in the Windows Live ID associated with their subscription.

So how exactly does activation work? After installing OneCare, either a free trial version or a paid version you will find an action item in the main interface that asks you to “Activate your OneCare Subscription.” In the message box you will also notice that we provide the number of days until your free trial expires. It usually says something like “Your OneCare trial will expire in 90 days.” If you do not activate your client in that time period the client will turn red after 75 days as a reminder that you need to activate. To activate you just need to click on the “Activate” button. You will then be asked to name your computer. Next, you will be asked to provide a Windows Live ID. If you do not already have one then you can create one on the spot. Finally, if you purchased the product in a retail store you will need to provide your Product Key, this is a 15 character code that is provided to you with your software purchase that you will need to type in. Once you are finished you should close the browser and remember to click “Finish” in the OneCare client.

If you create a new Windows Live ID don’t forget to write it down. It will come in handy when you try to activate OneCare on a second or third computer or if you need to reinstall the product on your main PC.

I hope this information has been helpful. If you have more questions about OneCare activation, you can always ask a question at our OneCare Activation Forum.

All the best,

Marisela

Windows Live OneCare Program Manager and Guest Team Blogger

OneCare: Re-Certified!

Fri, 18 May 2007 21:35:52 GMT

We’re happy to report that the top independent certification authorities in the security industry, West Coast Labs and the ICSA, just re-certified OneCare. These ongoing certifications are an important validation of our work and mean that OneCare’s anti-malware tools are strong enough to protect customers from known threats in the market today.

For those of you that don’t follow the security industry closely, one of the reasons certification from West Coast Labs and the ICSA is considered significant is that their testing methodologies reflect malware threats “out in the wild.” Testing in this manner provides an accurate indication of how security products perform against real world threats. We’re pleased OneCare passed these rigorous tests and will continue our work to keep your PCs safe and secure.

For additional information on Microsoft’s anti-malware efforts in general, Security Research and Response GM Vinny Gullotto recently posted a summary on the anti-malware engineering team blog. Check it out.

Thanks for your continued feedback,
Gina (OneCare guest blogger)

OneCare Makes "Update Tuesdays" Easy

Tue, 08 May 2007 23:19:02 GMT

Today is “Update Tuesday”, the second Tuesday of each month when Microsoft regularly releases software updates to help address vulnerabilities in Microsoft products and alerts PC users to steps they should take to update the security on their PCs. As part of this routine, monthly security update cycle, Microsoft released seven security bulletins today. You can check out a full list of the vulnerabilities that were addressed by heading to the Microsoft’s Security Response Center’s blog at: http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/

Why is this important? Many OneCare customers may not have heard of Update Tuesday for one simple reason: aside from a few instances, OneCare and Windows take care of downloading all the new updates to your PC automatically, saving you time and energy. In keeping with the OneCare philosophy, you do not need to take any action to ensure these updates are installed to your PC as OneCare configures your Windows PC so you’re automatically protected. All you need to do is make sure you are connected to the internet and you are good to go!

These security updates are part of the normal process Microsoft takes to help make sure your system stays safe and secure. OneCare will continue handle this and other tasks like disk defragmentation and automatic file backup so you never need to worry about it.

Thanks for your continued feedback,
Gina (OneCare guest blogger)

Update from OneCare

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 01:54:57 GMT

It’s been awhile since we’ve posted – time just flies when you’re working on OneCare!

OneCare Launched Around the World
Okay, some updates since the last time we posted. Thanks to all of you, the international launch of OneCare v1.5 has been a solid success. Customers around the world are now using the service and telling us how much they like the simplicity, ease-of-use and great price of OneCare. And for those of you that don’t already have OneCare in your countries, we hear you and appreciate your patience – rest assured we are looking at continuing to expand the service to new markets.

Since the launch, we’ve also heard some great suggestions around functionality improvements and features. As you know, OneCare is an evolving service and we’re taking those suggestions to heart as we look toward future releases. And, as always, as new functionality and updates to the service are available, you – as existing OneCare customers – will automatically get those new things when they are available as a part of your service subscription.

OneCare’s Dedication to Our Customers
I wanted to address the recent reports of the anti-malware protection in OneCare performing poorly in test results from various anti-virus testing organizations. The team at Microsoft that runs the anti-malware engine that is part of the OneCare service has also posted today some specific thoughts on the issue here http://blogs.technet.com/antimalware/, but I wanted to share some thoughts on behalf of the OneCare team.

OneCare is tested by numerous organizations around the world and is certified anti-virus protection by two of the industry’s leading independent certification authorities: International Computer Security Association (ICSA) Labs and West Coast Labs. These labs are widely recognized as key authorities within the industry for research, intelligence, and certification testing of anti-malware products. Both ICSA and West Coast Labs employ testing methodologies that reflect malware threats that are “out in the wild” and we believe these tests serve as important measures of OneCare’s performance against real world threats. Beyond these particular certification authorities, though, we are also definitely looking closely at the methodology and results of other recently reported tests from other organizations around the globe for any insights that may help our ongoing work to enhance OneCare and to help ensure the most effective level of protection and service that we can provide our customers.

It is important for OneCare customers to know that we remain committed to the security and maintenance of their PCs. As you know, OneCare provides PC care and security using a holistic and layered approach, focusing on multi-layer and multi-point protection. This means that in addition to integrated anti-virus and antispyware real-time checks of all executed files and regular complete scans, OneCare also helps protect your PC with a two-way managed firewall to stop unwanted network traffic. OneCare also ensures that your data is backed up properly so that in the event of computer failure due to malware issues or other unexpected circumstances, data can be restored quickly and easily. And OneCare works to help ensure that you are getting the benefits of anti-phishing technology in Internet Explorer 7 to help protect from suspicious websites when browsing the Internet. OneCare will continue to treat the care of your PC in a holistic way and will work to continue making PC care and maintenance a simple and hassle-free experience for our customers.

We truly appreciate your business and are committed to earning it every day. If you have questions, concerns or comments, please continue to reach out and let us know.

All the best,
Gina Narkunas, Lead Product Manager and OneCare team guest blogger

P.S. OneCare and .PST and .DBX Bug -- Fixed
In the last few days, there has been a lot of confusion about a bug we had in the service that was causing Windows Live OneCare to erroneously quarantine some customers’ Outlook .pst and Outlook Express .dbx files when infections were found within the .pst and .dbx files. We released a new anti-malware engine to all customers on Sunday (March 11) that fixed the issue and anyone whose PCs have been connected to the Internet should have automatically gotten this fix. Overall, we know that only a very small number of customers had files that were ultimately affected by this issue, and we apologize for any inconvenience this caused.

Again, no action is necessary to get the fix – OneCare will self-update for it – but if anyone still wants to manually confirm that they have received the most recent anti-malware engine, you can do so via the following steps:

1.            Click “Change OneCare Settings” in the Main OneCare user interface
2.            Click the “Logging” Tab
3.            Click the “Create support log” button
4.            Scroll down to the “Virus and Spyware Versions:” section and check your AM Engine version number. If the text says the numbers “2306” after the 1.1. number – such as AM Engine:(1.1.2306.0) – your engine has been updated already. If a number smaller than “2306” appears, your engine may still need updating. To update, ensure your computer is connected to the Internet, then click the “Check for updates” link in the main OneCare user interface and OneCare will download and install the fix.

For customers whose Outlook .pst and Outlook Express .dbx files had been quarantined prior to this fix and engine update, you should take the following steps to recover your email:

1.            Close Outlook or Outlook Express
2.            Click Change OneCare Settings in the Main OneCare user interface
3.            Click on the Viruses & Spyware Tab
4.            And then click on the Quarantine button and then select the .pst or .dbx file and then click on Restore.

Recent reports about this bug conveyed that OneCare actually deleted Outlook files, which is not accurate and has caused some confusion in the community. It is important to clarify that although in certain cases OneCare might automatically delete a piece of malware, OneCare does not delete archive files such as .pst or .dbx files, nor does the design of the service allow users to set OneCare to automatically delete such files when quarantined. To delete whole archive files, such as those .pst and .dbx files that were erroneously being quarantined by OneCare prior to the fix issued this weekend, the design of the service is such that it would require someone manually deleting these files from the quarantine dialog in order for them to actually be deleted. And if a customer is facing a rare situation where their full .pst or .dbx files had somehow been manually deleted, they may be able to use the backup and restore functionality offered by OneCare to restore files from the last time they were backed up. We have also seen some instances where customers attempted to do a system restore after their .pst or .dbx files were quarantined and then could no longer find the files in their quarantine list – not that the files are deleted, just that they can’t find them. For any customers who are still having problems recovering your lost files – or if you just want to talk to someone to figure out what’s going on – please, please contact our support team… we can help.

Today’s the Day

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:05:18 GMT

What a great day for Microsoft! As you certainly all know, Microsoft launched Windows Vista across the globe today.

Not to be outdone – the OneCare team had an important launch of our own. Today, we launched the next generation of Windows Live OneCare. Customers from around the world (Australia, Austria, Belgium Canada France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States) now have access to the same PC Care solution customers in the U.S. have come to love. So, if you plan on upgrading to Vista and you're looking to provide an extra layer of hands-free maintenance and security, check out a copy of Windows Live OneCare and give it a try.

As a reminder to all our current subscribers, the latest updates to OneCare will be rolled out to you automatically – OneCare style. No need to go out and purchase new software!

As always, thanks for all your support. Your feedback and insight shaped several of the new features in this latest release, and certainly helped us improve the stability and performance. We look forward to hearing more of your feedback about the latest version.

Best,

Yoav

OneCare Beta Testers Rewarded

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 06:31:45 GMT

We've been talking about our next major release for a long time, and now we are finally making it official. Today we announced that Windows Live OneCare v1.5 will be rolling out to customers in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States on January 30th.

While we're excited to be rolling out this major upgrade to OneCare customers around the world, we know it would never have been possible without our beta testers. Some of you original beta testers may remember the special offer we extended to OneCare v1 beta testers in the Spring of 2006. Well, we're doing it again. If you participated in the beta process over the past few months, you can expect a special offer via email in the next few days. Beta customers who tested OneCare v1.5 that take advantage of this offer will receive a year's service for up to 60% off the regular price. It's just our way of saying thank you for helping ensure the latest version of OneCare is up to the high standards of quality and protection our customers have come to expect.

Not a beta tester? No worries - when OneCare v1.5 rolls out on the 30th - we anticipate many retailers will offer rebates and in-store promotions as well. We want everyone to give OneCare v1.5 a try.

Just a quick reminder that if you are already a OneCare subscriber (or have an active free trial), you will automatically be upgraded in the next few days. And if you are a current subscriber, but decided to join the v1.5 beta anyway, you'll need to uninstall the beta and reinstall OneCare from http://onecare.live.com. By reinstalling the product, and reactivating the service with your existing subscription (by entering in your LiveID when "adding a PC to existing subscription") you will automatically receive OneCare v1.5 and won't need to purchase a new subscription. Also note that the process of uninstalling the beta and installing the upgrade will not count against your 3 PC subscription limit.

Thanks again for all your help and enjoy the discounted service.

Best,

Yoav

Vista and OneCare v1.5 – Defense in Depth

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 16:45:58 GMT

I just wanted to write a quick post today to alert you to some of the activity revolving around Vista's release. By now you've probably noticed the news around Vista's upcoming launch is reaching a fever pitch (see press release here). The launch of Vista is a remarkable accomplishment and we're proud that our next generation of OneCare will be rolling out to customers at the same time.

The Vista compatible version of OneCare will be available for customers in 17 countries, starting January 30^th. Meeting this deadline to ensure Vista compatibility was no small feat - and while we've been working hard - it would never have been possible without the help of our beta testers. Beta tester feedback and input has been invaluable in ensuring that OneCare continues to provide the easy, all-in-one experience our customers have come to expect, on the Vista OS. Your valuable assistance in testing the OneCare v1.5 beta has been recognized and will not go without reward … more on that in the coming weeks.

Best,

Yoav

Explaining the OneCare and Defender relationship

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 21:21:36 GMT

As most readers of this blog know by now, the OneCare team feels pretty strongly about comprehensive PC care. Our goal is to make it easy for users to "outsource" the management of your PCs. We want to make sure your protection, performance and backup all work smoothly, and don't require a lot of intervention – particularly if you won't want to be managing these things on a regular basis. Because after all, wouldn't you rather be surfing the Web, communicating with friends or being productive, rather than managing applications allowed through your firewall, or manually backing up data on a periodic basis?

For most of our customers, the answer is yes – they are happy to let us take care of their PC. Which is why we made sure to include spyware protection in our initial release of Windows Live OneCare. In v1 we provided a link to the beta release of Windows Defender. Although it required a separate installation, it was a good interim solution to help provide adequate protection. In preparing for our next major release, v1.5 – due out at the end of this month - we resolved to make the experience between these two technologies better. Indeed, in v1.5 we now have a single "engine," to scan and handle viruses and spyware. This benefits our customers in two distinct ways: first, you no longer need to distinguish between virus and spyware protection, it's all part of the same technology. This is consistent with our mission of keeping it simple – most users have told us they aren't interested in learning the fine distinctions between threat categories. They simply want to be protected, so that's what we are providing.

Second, having an integrated engine for virus and spyware allows Windows Live OneCare to provide deeper, and therefore better protection than having the two stand-alone applications. Here's what I mean. The engine that works in real time, to scan any file opened or accessed, must operate at a fairly low level in the operating system. Basically, it means that a combined engine (which relies on the same mini-filter driver) can catch BOTH viruses and spyware as early as possible, making an integrated engine more efficient and safer for our users.

Overall, we're pleased with the progress we've made in this area, and believe it will be better for our customers – that's the ultimate goal. However, we have noticed some comments on the blog and in our forums which suggest there is some confusion regarding the actual integration, and relationship, of the two technologies.

Let me try and clarify - if Windows Defender is installed on a machine and then OneCare v1.5 is installed afterward, by default the installation will disable Windows Defender. Windows Defender will then display a dialog indicating that it has been disabled, and asking if the user wants to turn it on again. When you are installing OneCare v1.5 you should close this dialog without re-enabling Defender. OneCare intentionally disables Defender because it can cause system instability to have both running at the same time, and since OneCare is a superset of Defender, there is no reason you would need both of them running.

A number of folks have also asked why OneCare disables Windows Defender rather than simply removing it. Two reasons: First, Windows Defender is part of the Windows Vista operating system and cannot be uninstalled, it can only be disabled. Second, if for any reason a user uninstalls OneCare, we will automatically turn Windows Defender back on to help keep users protected against spyware.

There is one last issue which some of you may have experienced. If Windows Defender was installed on your machine and now appears to be "missing," it may be due to the fact that the final Beta version of Windows Defender recently expired, on December 31, 2006. If you installed OneCare v1.5 (the beta) on a Windows XP machine with Windows Defender Beta 2 previously installed, OneCare automatically disabled the Beta version of Defender. If you try and install the latest version of Windows Defender, you will see a dialog indicating that you do not need to install both products, "OneCare has been found…"

I hope that clarifies the main issues – if you have more detailed questions or want to know more technical information, I suggest trying the Forum. And please keep the comments and questions coming. I'll be adding posts on some of the other common questions/issues posted on the blog in the coming weeks.

Thanks,

Yoav

Windows Live OneCare (v1.5) is released to manufacturing

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 01:29:22 GMT

Welcome back to all those that were on vacation, and a happy new year. As you may have noticed from relative inactivity in my blogging, it’s been quite a hectic time here on the product development team. We’ve been hard at work on our next release, and I am pleased to let you know that we hit an important milestone right before the end of the year. That is, our development and test work is done on the next major release of OneCare, and as we announced about a month ago, it will indeed be available – both at retail and on the Web - at the end of January. There may be some slight variations by country, but for the most part, you should be able to download or buy in just a few weeks. And for those of you who already subscribe, you need to do – nothing. You’ll automatically receive this major upgrade, just as you receive minor upgrades throughout the year, as part of your OneCare subscription.

For all you beta testers, we greatly appreciate the feedback you’ve provided. This release was particularly challenging with respect to the testing, since we had to make sure it worked well on a new OS (Windows Vista), and on many new language platforms. Although we have a great test team spread around the world, there is no feedback like user feedback, and we got plenty of it. I am also pleased to know that all of you who wanted to install OneCare on your non-English PCs will be able to purchase OneCare officially in your markets. While we don’t cover the whole world, we are looking forward to creating long-lasting relationships with customers in nearly 20 countries (and counting).

A few other house-keeping things to mention. There have been a number of good questions on the blog about OneCare – some regarding specific features, and others regarding help and support issues. I know it can be very frustrating when things don’t work as you expect. However, I would strongly encourage any user with problems or issues using OneCare to go to our Help Center (http://www.windowsonecare.com/support/Default.aspx). We have a great tool for instant support that is continuously fine-tuned to answer users’ most frequent questions, and it also has compiled a large database of issues that can help you quickly solve your problem. Generally, this is the fastest way to get an issue resolved. But, if you can’t get a good answer, or still need support, you can always contact the OneCare support team. As we’ve mentioned many times, part of our mission is to provide great service – both when using the product and interacting with us – so we frequently poll customers on their level of satisfaction. It is encouraging that a very high percentage of our customers are highly satisfied with their support experience, either using the online tools or interacting with support agents. So, please be assured we can help you with OneCare problems you may have.

I also want to note, for those that are a bit more technically inclined, we have a very active and extremely well-informed set of users that post questions and answers to our forums. If you have a specific question, and are comfortable reading through and acting on self-help info on the Web, this is your place to go: http://forums.microsoft.com/windowsonecare/default.aspx?siteid=2. I’d also like to thank our most prolific MVP – Stephen Boots – who consistently posts thoughtful, informed, and helpful comments to the forums. Thanks Stephen, and all the other MVPs that do such a great job answering questions and moderating the forums.

At this point, you may be wondering why we have multiple sites for user feedback, and how we use them. It is important to note that the blog is a great forum for us to report on developments, latest news, common questions, etc. It isn’t the best place for frequent back and forth dialogue, which is why you don’t see many direct responses to comments on the blog. Please know that we read every comment on the blog, but won’t likely be responding to most of them. The forum, however, is a great place for give and take. As I mentioned, there is a very active community of users that are both passionate and knowledgeable about our product, and they probably do as good a job as we do in responding to questions, and providing help on a range of issues. To be clear, these are not Microsoft employees, and this is not an official support channel, but it has been ranked one of the most active (and effective) forums on Microsoft.com. We monitor all the forum postings, and are consistently pleased with the quality of content there. So, if you’ve got a unique technical problem that requires support, please go to the help center. If you’d like to make a general comment on OneCare – or say something specifically to me or other guest bloggers – please post your comment on the blog. If you are looking for community assistance on a topic area, or want advice from someone that may have a targeted answer to your question, please try the forum.

Thanks for your comments across all the different channels – we really do appreciate it. And in the interest of responding to blog feedback, I will be posting a general “round-up” in the next week or two to address some of the more common questions and comments on the blog. Also look for some additional postings as we head toward availability of our next major release (v1.5) at the end of January.

Kind regards,

Yoav

OneCare Updated with Anti-phishing Technology Activation

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 17:21:59 GMT

We have some more good news to share. As you know, our team is constantly working to evolve the OneCare product and service to ensure you get the most up-to-date features that help protect and maintain your PC. I am pleased to share that we are releasing new functionality in OneCare to help better protect users from the threat of phishing scams online.

Beginning today, OneCare will now assist with the activation of phishing protection with IE7’s Microsoft Phishing Filter. The filter was designed to help protect customers from the threat of ‘phishing’ – as most of you know by now - a form of online fraud which mimics legitimate, trusted sites in order to trick people into sharing personal or sensitive information which is later sold, or used for ID theft purposes, etc. Microsoft Phishing Filter helps protect people from sharing personal information with bogus websites by warning customers when a site looks suspicious, and blocks people from unwittingly sharing personal information with known, reported phishing sites.

As you may recall, we mentioned this anti-phishing technology in the blog in August when we introduced OneCare Advisor. Since then, it has received very positive feedback from users, and we think it’s one of the best phishing filters available. We have also tried to independently verify our filter’s effectiveness - you can read a recent study by 3Sharpe that highlights our fairly unique approach to anti-phishing protection at: http://www.jeffersonwells.com/client_audit_reports/main.htm.

Now, what do you, as OneCare customers, need to do to make sure you have these phish-fighting capabilities? Very little. In keeping with OneCare’s worry-free service, you will automatically receive the IE7 anti-phishing technology. So if you haven’t already turned it on, when OneCare prompts you to turn on the Microsoft Phishing Filter over the next few days, you can just click yes and you’ll be good to go. From there, OneCare will help ensure Microsoft Phishing Filter automatically monitors suspicious sites as you’re browsing to help keep you and your family protected against phishing scams.

We look forward to your feedback on this update.

Best,

Yoav

Windows Live OneCare (v1.5) and Windows Vista set to Launch Same Day

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 19:27:24 GMT

As you may have heard, Microsoft announced some big news today – the Windows Vista has now been released to manufacturing and the general availability date is set for January 30, 2007! So what does this mean for Windows Live OneCare? Quite a bit. The next generation of Windows Live OneCare (v1.5) will launch globally the same day Windows Vista rolls out to the general public. Because the new version of OneCare was designed with Windows Vista in mind, we think every homeowner and small business owner that purchases Windows Vista for their PC will like OneCare equally as much for its unified antivirus and antispyware filtering capabilities, and more backup options, not to mention the ongoing PC maintenance it provides.

If you’re already a OneCare subscriber, we encourage you to check out Windows Vista when it comes out next year, knowing that OneCare will still be there to help you with your PC care needs. And if you’re one of the lucky few who’s already running the pre-released version of Windows Vista, you can still test v1.5 of Windows Live OneCare by downloading it at http://ideas.live.com/. As the Windows Vista launch date nears, Microsoft will begin providing a special offer to Windows Live OneCare beta testers. We’ll share more details on the special offer soon.

All the best,

Gina, Lead Product Manager and OneCare team guest blogger

Windows Live OneCare Beta Goes Live in Global Markets!

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 16:19:03 GMT

I am extremely happy to announce that we have passed another major OneCare milestone and would like to welcome several new countries to the OneCare service! As we told you back in August, we are expanding OneCare availability to global markets, due in large part to your calls for more international access. The wait is over.

As we continue to evolve the OneCare service, we are testing new features and functionality in beta before releasing enhancements more broadly. Beginning today, we will be making the Windows Live OneCare (v1.5) beta available on http://ideas.live.com and continuing the roll out over the coming weeks. Customers outside the United States now have a chance to try out the OneCare service.

This global roll out of OneCare marks our official welcome to consumers outside the US, who will now have access to our all-in-one PC care service. Building on the comprehensive set of PC care features available in the current version of the service, the next generation of OneCare includes:

Service for 17 international markets
Unified antivirus and anti-spyware filtering capabilities
More back up options with the addition of local network computers and USB-connected storage devices
Support for the Windows Vista operating system

If you live in one of the following countries, Windows Live OneCare is about to change the way you protect and maintain your computer: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, UK, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, and Switzerland.

Remember, to get the fully tested and released version of OneCare here in the US, visit http://onecare.live.com.

As always, we love to hear about your experience and will continue to make enhancements to the service based on your feedback. So keep it coming.

All the best,
Gina Narkunas, Lead Product Manager and OneCare team guest blogger

Windows Live OneCare Family Safety beta now available!

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 15:53:32 GMT

A few weeks ago we announced that in addition to the full PC care subscription service you know and love, we were also beginning to make available other free services from Windows Live OneCare, including the recent international launch of the Windows Live OneCare safety scanner (see blog post here) and OneCare Advisor protection in Windows Live Toolbar (see blog post here). Well, today we have another free service to share with you!

You may remember back in March we announced that we were doing some limited beta testing on parts of a new free, online family safety service we were working on called Windows Live Family Safety Settings. Well, it has been a few months and the service has a new name and new features and is ready to begin broader public testing!! Beginning today, the new and improved Windows Live OneCare Family Safety is available in the US as public beta … go check it out at http://ideas.live.com.

While we are still in the testing and development phase, OneCare Family Safety will offer some great features to help families create a safer and enjoyable online experience, including:

Content filtering. Web filtering will allow customers to choose allow, block or warn settings for a range of content categories, and unique settings can be applied for each member of the household. Parents can review and adjust settings anytime from any Internet-connected PC to help meet the family’s evolving needs, and your family’s settings will be automatically applied to any computer that has the Family Safety software installed.
Expert Guidance. Expert guidance from respected child organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics on age appropriate settings and online activities will provide valuable guidance for parents. For example, users will have access to guidelines on how to help a child use online communications safely or how parents should talk to children about inappropriate Web browsing.
Activity reports. Parents will be able to access activity reports for each user in the family, anytime from any Internet-connected PC, to help them stay informed about how their children are browsing the Web. This kind of information can help facilitate important conversations between parents and children about using the Internet in a way they feel is safe and appropriate.
Contact management. In future versions of the service, parents will be able to create “allow” lists for other Windows Live services their children might use to communicate with others – like instant messaging, for example – to help prevent their children from crossing paths with unknown contacts and instead only communicate with contacts that parents have approved.

As Windows Live OneCare is now chartered to provide simple, powerful protection for Windows Live customers through both free and subscription features and services, the addition of Family Safety to our OneCare ‘family’ of services is an exciting next step as we continue to improve and evolve our services to help our customers be safer and get the most out of their online experience.

The Internet offers fantastic opportunities to explore and learn, and OneCare Family Safety aims to ensure that those opportunities aren’t limited due to questionable content. Microsoft is focused on improving our new OneCare Family Safety service and we hope that you will try it out and offer your thoughts on its features and usability.

And for those of you not in the US, rest assured that we know these things are important to you too… stay tuned for more information about international availability very soon!

To provide us with feedback on your testing experience with OneCare Family Safety, please go to: http://familysafety.spaces.live.com/

Thanks and we are looking forward to hearing from you!

All the best,
Gina (OneCare team guest blogger)

Launching safety scanner, OneCare international beta by end of year

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 16:25:24 GMT

Another quick post to keep you up to date on what's happening in OneCare land. Today, we launched Windows Live OneCare safety scanner internationally. For Windows Live users, this safety scanner is a free, on-demand tool that conducts three different types of scans:

· The Protection Scan checks for and removes things like viruses and malware.

· The Clean-up Scan checks the hard disk for unnecessary files and helps users decide which ones they can safely delete. It also clears the PC’s registry of left over data.

· The Tune-up Scan helps improve the PC’s performance by defragmenting the hard drive.

For those of you that have been using the Windows Live Safety Center beta, Windows Live OneCare safety scanner represents the next generation of the Safety Center service, providing an on-demand tool to enhance the safety of your online experience

As the subscription version of Windows Live OneCare grows in customer popularity (people have really responded well to its all-in-one, simple, and evolving value proposition), it became clear to us that OneCare could better support the Windows Live charter of bringing a consumer’s online world together by taking steps to unite our various safety features and services under one umbrella.

Windows Live OneCare will provide simple, powerful protection for Windows Live customers through both free and subscription features and services, including the subscription version of Windows Live OneCare, OneCare Advisor in Toolbar, and Windows Live OneCare safety scanner. You can get access to all of the OneCare services in addition to other Live services at http://onecare.live.com .

Windows Live OneCare is Going International

Here’s something I’ve been looking forward to announcing for a long time now. Many blog readers noticed in our initial announcement (around February of this past year) that our initial release was to the US only. Well, you spoke loud and clear that there was international demand for OneCare – and we heard you. Over the past few months we’ve been working very hard on the international versions of OneCare, and are now ready to tell you that we’ll have international betas available by the end of the year, if not sooner, in the following markets:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK.

Stay tuned – we’ll be sure to follow up with more details soon.

Thanks for your support,

Yoav

Microsoft's Phishing Filter - updated privacy audit now posted

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 18:40:42 GMT

Hello all

It's been periodic posting over the summer - mostly we've been busy working on our next version of OneCare. There are a lot of exciting things happening - I'm looking forward to sharing more details over the coming weeks on those plans.

In the meantime, I wanted to briefly follow up on my entry from last week. I mentioned that an updated privacy audit of the Microsoft Phishing Filter (which is now available in Windows Live Toolbar’s OneCare Advisor), would post soon – and it did late last week. We’re pleased to share that Jefferson Wells again confirmed Microsoft’s claims regarding how we handle customer data with the service. In case you’re interested in learning more, the report can be found here: http://www.jeffersonwells.com/client_audit_reports/main.htm.

Thanks for all the comments - I'll respond more directly next week.

Yoav

Blog list: Related sites

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 02:00:31 GMT

Related sites

Windows Live
Check out how customizable this site is...

Custom List: Key Links for OneCare

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 19:13:28 GMT

Key Links for OneCare

Windows Live OneCare site
Service website
Frequently asked questions
Answers to the most common questions
Get Windows Live OneCare
Try the free trial or activate your service
System Requirements
Know what you need to get OneCare
OneCare Support
If you run into any problems or issues using OneCare
OneCare Forums
A very active and extremely well-informed set of users that post questions and answers on OneCare - great for the technically inclined and self-helpers