Look how old this is! I post at SearchCommander.com now, and this post was published 18 years 9 months 13 days ago. This industry changes FAST, so blindly following the advice here *may not* be a good idea! If you're at all unsure, feel free to hit me up on Twitter and ask.
Windows One Care? Well, according to Microsoft, here’s what it is…
“This PC health service is always on, running quietly in the background. It helps give you round-the-clock protection and maintenance—virus scanning, firewalls, tune ups, file backups, the whole nine yards. Delivered to you in a smooth, hassle-free package.
Wow, sounds great, right? About time, you’re thinking? That’s what I thought too, until Microsoft announced Tuesday that it’s going to cost $50 a year!
Instead of paying Norton, Zone Alarm, Winpatrol and others, you’re going to just pay Microsoft $50 a year to protect yourself from all their vulnerabilities?
That seems like a sound business decision on Microsofts part, doesn’t it? Do you think the ecommerce servers will be overloaded with customers?
I’m busy, and don’t have time to rant much, but maybe with their billions, they should make their operating system safe and secure to begin with? With free updates for the life of the PC? Put all the others out of business? I can’t wait for the Google Operating System. …
Anyone else care to comment? Will you sign up? Want to try the free Beta version?
I think there are two issues here:
1. Do you want an all in one solution, or best of breed solutions? My feeling is “best of breed.” I want the best firewall, antivirus, anti-intrusion, and if necessary anti-spyware. Getting some huge convoluted suite might be easier, but it doesn’t do the job as well. The combination of Zone Alarm or Kerio Firewall, and NOD32 antivirus, and winpatrol or Counterspy is 1/4 the size and resources of McAfee or Norton and does a better job.
2. Who do you trust to handle your security? MS or ANYBODY ELSE? Microsoft built an intentional back door which caused the recent WMF problem. They created Active X. When they were told this was a horrible security problem, they said, “Just don’t go to websites you don’t trust.” They created the Registry. They created a system where you need to log in as administrator to run your computer. Their firewall allows outgoing traffic and has no fine control. Their backup program, historically, hasn’t been compatible from one version of windows to the next.
I remember last year, reading their Security Newsletter which recommended that you turn off html email along with showing images in email. It was sent as HTML email with images and had no alternative viewing available. So if you followed their advice, you couldn’t read their newsletter. Their newsletter then said to turn off their ACTIVE X technology because it was so dangerous, and then turn it on again for their site and the others that you trust.
In other words, they seem to understand less about security than any of their competitors.
So, do I want a suite created by the least security conscious company I know of, or to select the best individual solutions to protect my computer?
The choice doesn’t seem too hard to me.