Windows Live OneCare Free Trial Now Available

Microsoft has announced the immediate availability of its Windows Live OneCare security service. The service includes antivirus and antispyware applications, an improved firewall, performance “tune-ups,” and a data backup application.Windows Live OneCare is available for download with a free 90-day trial. One-year subscriptions are US$49.99 and cover up to three PCs. The complete product suite consists of Protection Plus, Performance Plus, and Backup and Restore. Protection Plus is Microsoft’s name for the combined anti-virus application and Windows Defender anti-spyware application. Like other anti-malware applications, Protection Plus requires an Internet connection to regularly check for updated virus definitions. A stateful inspection firewall is also included with Protection Plus. Performance Plus is a centralized application that will automatically take care of system maintenance tasks such as virus scanning, download Windows XP and software updates via Microsoft Windows Update, and will defragment your hard drive on a regular basis. Those are simple, easily performed tasks that are often neglected by a large segment of the PC using population. Last up is Backup and Restore, which will back up selected data (or your entire drive) to DVDs or another hard drive. The first time through, the backup is comprehensive; afterwards, the application just backs up files that have changed since the last backup i.e. incremental backups in the event of a drive failure, your files can then be restored onto any other PC running Windows Live OneCare.