The dynamic nature of the Internet and technology can make the protection, maintenance and optimal performance of PCs a challenge for consumers. Keeping a PC “healthy” today can be daunting and time-consuming for the average user.

To address the need for a more comprehensive PC health solution, Microsoft Corp. today announced plans to deliver Windows® OneCare, a comprehensive and simple-to-use consumer subscription service that will provide automated protection, maintenance and performance tuning as an all-in-one package for Windows-based PCs. Windows OneCare is initially being distributed to Microsoft® employees this week as part of an extensive testing and development process before broad public beta availability scheduled for later this year.

“Windows OneCare is the next major advance in our ongoing efforts to help keep consumers’ Windows-based PCs ‘healthy’ in a way that’s simple and as worry-free as possible for them,” said Ryan Hamlin, general manager of the Technology Care and Safety Group at Microsoft. “We’re designing the service so it will continually update and evolve over time, helping to ensure that our customers will have the most complete and effective protection and safety services in place every time they turn on their PC.”

Microsoft plans to release public beta versions of Windows OneCare to external audiences in the U.S. later this year

View: Nominate yourself for the beta. (Please use "OneCare" as the guest ID)
View: Microsoft OneCare


Windows OneCare is being designed to address core safety concerns such as worms, viruses and spyware, but also to span broader PC health issues: helping protect electronic assets such as digital photos, music, financial data and software; and guarding against performance degradation and system clutter that can result from heavy use. Key capabilities and features of Windows OneCare will include the following:
• Defense against evolving threats. Windows OneCare will provide automatically updated anti-virus, anti-spyware and two-way firewall protection.
• Performance and reliability tools. PC owners will be able to choose to have Windows OneCare automatically carry out periodic maintenance tasks such as disk cleanup, hard-drive defragmentation and file repair. The service also will offer boot-time information and proactive support tools to help improve the customer experience.
• Backup and restore capabilities. Windows OneCare will enable automated backup of files by category on CD and DVD, along with the option to back up all files on the system or only those that have changed since the last time the action was performed. If files are accidentally deleted or corrupted on the PC hard drive, the service is designed to restore saved versions or map them on a new PC.
• Simple, integrated service experience. PC users will have one simple point of reference for checking the overall health of their system. Windows OneCare will automatically notify users of available updates or other recommended actions and enable users to easily act as needed. Otherwise, the service stays quiet and in the background.



There are 19 additional comments
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Quote this comment Reply to this comment #1 Posted by Mystical112 on 13 May 2005 - 07:52
i signed up... lets c if i get in....
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #2 Posted by Rudy on 13 May 2005 - 08:15
sounds good
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #3 Posted by mistical on 13 May 2005 - 09:14
Signed up as well, hope to get in. Does not sound too bad at all.
(3 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #4 Posted by SniperX on 13 May 2005 - 09:56
They have got to be kidding me. You pay money to a company to help make the product they made unsafe, safer and less cluttered? Damn I'm in the wrong business.

I don't see one thing on that list that the average Joe couldn't do for him/herself for free. You'd have to be seriously ill to buy into this one, but I'm never ceased to be amazed at what people will buy into.
Quote this comment #4.1 Posted by Slugsie on 13 May 2005 - 10:37
The problem is that average Jo User doesn't (or doesn't know how to) do most of these things, and doesn't have A/V etc. They are precisely the sort of person that needs an easy to use tool to help them out.

As to paying for it, you can be pretty sure that if MS wasn't shackled by the various Anti-Trust and Monopolies investigations that they would off this free.
Quote this comment #4.2 Posted by SniperX on 13 May 2005 - 10:42
Then instead of catering for the lowest common-demoninator, they should educate their users more. The alternative is, you always have stupid users. Hmmm.

I suppose with MS though, if only 1% of the user-base buy into it, that's a profit.
Quote this comment #4.3 Posted by shao on 13 May 2005 - 12:27
first off, alot of the security is inhereted from previous versions of windows, even going back to the likes of windows95, which was never designed to be an internet-aware operating system. further worsened by the likes of internet explorer, and a million and one third party applications which microsoft has no control over.

granted, the ie /outlook expres security model is flawed, to say the least, and it shouldn't be up to the user to resolve this. but, until longhorn gets here, and until ie7 gets here (which lets face it, many users wont upgrade to either) then a managed service will be good, whether that's from soneone like symantec, panda, mcafee, or microsoft.

if you wanna talk conspiracy theories, talk viruses vs antivirus companies. :-)
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #5 Posted by srwal on 13 May 2005 - 10:06
Seems nice, i'm hoping i get in so i can look forwaed to testing this... I'm network admin, so is there is an enterprise version, it will be a tremendous help
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #6 Posted by b0m8er on 13 May 2005 - 10:42
Just submitted survey. I hope to get picked :p
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #7 Posted by Krudomanic on 13 May 2005 - 11:30
My God another program from Microsoft which if it works as good as Antispyware then It will be good...

I like it...
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #8 Posted by whitedragon on 13 May 2005 - 11:45
Well, I submitted the survey, now to wait & see if I get chosen.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #9 Posted by beardly on 13 May 2005 - 13:18
I threw my survey in. Would be interesting to see what they are planning with this.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #10 Posted by nvizible on 13 May 2005 - 14:01
i did the survey... now lets see

hmm... i'm actually rather intrigued by this. it seems like a rather good idea, especially for the average joe soap who knows nothing!

i like this idea tbh, i'm constantly finding myself bogged down doing more and more coursework, and with the number of hours i spend doing it in indesign or publisher, i really dont have time to do the tweaking i'd like to!
(3 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #11 Posted by divertom15 on 13 May 2005 - 18:49
interesting this code is based on the really old pc satisfaction program that microsoft never developed into a real program. google it and you will find the interface is strikingly similar.
Quote this comment #11.1 Posted by rseiler on 13 May 2005 - 20:04
Which is the first thing I thought of, too. Of course, PC Satisfaction, which seemed to be in beta for between one and two years, vanished without a trace. Now even MS seems to have forgotten about it and will start the beta all over again.
Quote this comment #11.2 Posted by memodude on 13 May 2005 - 23:37
Same. I was in PCT and this sounds just like it. I remember PCT scanned very slowly and added a large system drag; I hope OneCare isn't the same.
Quote this comment #11.3 Posted by rseiler on 14 May 2005 - 20:55
I think it is, or, more accurately, a direct descendent:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1815494,00.asp

What I still don't get is the other rumor of MS putting out a standalone AV package as soon as next week. Presumably it would be the same one that's bundled in A1? I can't imagine MS having to support two.

And then there's Longhorn, which sounds like it's going to have in it about everything A1 has save the AV. It should ALL be in there in one form or other, and for free, since these tools do nothing more than rectify MS's own shortcomings.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #12 Posted by neo_joel on 14 May 2005 - 05:12
i get connection refused when i click the link.. i want to sign up for this
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #13 Posted by eilegz on 14 May 2005 - 17:42
check this out:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/onecare/default.mspx

for me it looks like an upgrade of windows xp sp2 security center
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