I wanted to share my thoughts with you on Windows OneCare. I have been using it for several months on my main PC and I am very happy with it. It has a small footprint and runs very well on my system. I have had zero viruses and the firewall is working very well. Occasionally, I have a problem but can manually open the ports in OneCare if it doesn’t provide me access automatically.

What is Windows OneCare?

Windows OneCare is an all-in-one solution to help you stay on top of your computer. OneCare provides you with antivirus, data backup, firewall and system maintenance such as defrag all in one convenient place. And the best thing is it consumes less resources than any other Firewall/anti-virus solution. Have you ever used ZoneAlarm; it is a beast.

Before you can install OneCare you must meet the following requirements:

  • Windows XP Home Edition, Professional, Media Center Edition, or Tablet PC Edition with Service Pack 2 (SP2) Internet Explorer 6 for Windows XP SP2 PC with 300 MHz or higher CPU clock speed
  • 256 MB of RAM
  • 550 MB of available hard disk space (on system partition)
  • 56 kbps or faster Internet connection (broadband recommended)
  • Readable/writeable CD or DVD drive (CD-RW or DVD-RW), required for backup and restore functionality

During Installation, the setup automatically checks that your computer meets the minimum requirements and then moves forward with the installation.

Note: See my image gallery on how to install Windows OneCare.

OneCare is very easy to work with. Once it is installed, you have a circle with the number 1 running in your taskbar. It is either green, yellow, or red.

·         Green-This color means your status in good and your computer has the latest updates, anti-virus signatures, has been tuned up, and a backup has been taken. Basically, your computer requires no attention.

·         Yellow-This color means your status is fair. This typically means you have not run a backup or a tuneup. Additionally, it could also mean that you are missing a non-critical update. Basically, yellow means that you do not have any immediate threats and as soon as you take the proper action, your status will return to green.

·         Red-This color means your computer is at risk. You may have turned your firewall off, your anti-virus signatures may be out of date. You must take immediate action. 

If you are still interested, Invite your friends and family to signup for the Windows OneCare Beta!
Do you know others who are interested in trying out Windows OneCare? We are now at the point where we would like to expand our group of beta testers. We encourage you to extend Windows OneCare beta invitations to your friends and family. Just have them go to http://beta.microsoft.com/, sign in with their Microsoft® Passport Network credentials, type in OneCare (case sensitive) when prompted for the guest ID, and follow the instructions from there.