Microsoft's security suite, Windows Live OneCare, has taken a fair bit of heat from its initial release - not least from Tom Raftery.
The second version quietly made it out on to the web a few weeks back
and it has some interesting new features I've been impressed with.
OneCare is another good, consumer, example of our Software + Services initiative and with 10gb of cloud storage on offer through the program it's going to be one to watch closer. Let's take a look at a few of the improvements.
Start-time optimizer/turn off unused programs
There are programs out there like PC Decrapifier
which do a good job of something you really shouldn't have to do with a
PC - clean up the startup process. So many programs decide that they're
the most important thing on the PC and install themselves as a startup
service. Ridiculous stuff like QuickTime, RealPlayer, Acrobat and
others (Microsoft is no angel here). If you wonder why your PC boots
slower and slower over time, this is a major factor and the Start-time
optimizer in OneCare tries to help. It's not perfect, especially when
you see stuff like Host Process in the list of removes but this is much
cleaner for most people to use than MSConfig. Here is how it looks
Multi-PC management and monitoring
Given
I have installed OneCare on my parents PC this is a great new addition.
I can now remotely view the health of their machine and manage settings
such as Firewall, backup and auto updates. Very simple, and very
useful.
Online backup for photos
This
one really snuck on there and is hidden down in the settings - perhaps
as it's a paid for service but hardly surprising with 10gb
of cloud storage on tap. Yep, another Software plus Services solution
that combines a rich client with cloud services. Brandon has posted a Video of Online Photo Backup with Windows Live OneCare 2.0
http://blogs.msdn.com/stevecla01/archive/2007/12/11/onecare-gets-healthier-with-10gb-cloud-storage.aspx