Windows Live OneCare 2.0 Beta available

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Looking at my father's PC I always faced the same problem: I wanted to give him a solution that actually took care of his PC without having me too often involved J. Some time ago, we had some particular solutions:

  • Backup (use the backup in Windows)
  • Anti-Virus (use a third-party product which often brought a lot of functionality I never wanted)
  • Anti-Sypware (hmm, a free-ware that flagged every cookie as spyware)
  • Disk Defragmentation (I was not too happy with it on XP but, well, it worked)
  • Firewall (I used the one in Windows XP SP2 ad did not have outbound-filtering. Before that I used a freeware that prompted for every application that wanted to access the Internet)
  • PC Tuning (he installed a freeware from the Internet - much to my dislike)
  • ...

Now, look at my father: A PC-savvy person but he would never, ever be able to configure the machine that way and finally we ended up with me looking at his PC whenever we were invited for dinner - much to the "pleasure" of my wife L

When we launched Windows Live OneCare, I was then often asked about the AV-capabilities as this seemed to draw the most attention as we entered the AV market with this launch. It was mostly missed that we were actually launching PC-care software with much more in it than just AV and by the way we simply moved the whole industry in a more "care"-approach and away from traditional AV.

Today, we announced the availability of Windows Live OneCare 2.0 Beta, the next generation of PC-care. If you want to get some insights, we published an interview today with Gina Narkunas, lead product manager for Windows Live OneCare about v2.

Just some high-lights:

  • To further redefine and extend the concept of PC care, Microsoft added features to Windows Live OneCare such as multi-PC and home-network management, as well as printer sharing, to help address the modern home environment.
    In addition, this new version establishes a foundation to better address the needs of small businesses that must protect and maintain a number of PCs, but may not have the resources for onsite IT support. To help solve this problem, Microsoft added centralized backup to Windows Live OneCare, so local backup on a small-business network is a simple step instead of a time-consuming hassle.
  • Windows Live OneCare 2.0 will include features that are designed to simplify the management and use of multi-PC environments. For example, the new multi-PC and home network management feature will help ease the management of multiple-PC environments by providing a single navigation bar for monitoring the security and maintenance of networked computers. It will also enable one-click actions to resolve issues among computers within a home PC network.

Cool stuff!! As I said: We
are brining PC care to a new level (did I already mention the free support calls you get?)!

If you want to have a look at the v2 Beta: https://connect.live.com/

Roger