Microsoft announced OneCare™ almost 2 years ago as a way for the average PC user to get a beefy all-in-one protection package that would keep them safe from all types of malware.
It seemed like a good idea, since most of the World is using Microsoft products anyway. Well, AV Comparatives based in Austria ran a test of many of the leading Anti-Virus products to see who was doing a good job and who could use improvement. Here is a list from their published report (link opens in PDF) in the order of placement from best to worst:
Gdata AntiVirusKit (AVK)
TrustPort Antivirus Workstation
AVIRA AntiVir Personal Edition Premium
F-Secure Anti-Virus 2007
Kaspersky Anti-Virus
Symantec Norton Anti-Virus
ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus
AVG Anti-Malware
BitDefender Anti-Virus 10 Professional Plus
Fortinet FortiClient
Avast! Professional Edition
Norman Virus Control
F-Prot Anti-Virus for Windows
McAfee VirusScan
Dr.Web Anti-Virus for Windows
Microsoft Live OneCare
If you read the complete report, you will see that Microsoft Live OneCare™ failed significantly in comparison with the others, barely making the 80% range.
I am not Microsoft bashing. When you software is on 95% of the World’s computers, you are the target of choice. Heck, if I were to write a program and distribute it, I would have zero attacks because no one would care about my crappy little software. But Microsoft is everywhere, so it is targeted.
The problem I do have with Microsoft is that, based on AV Comparatives test results, their software is no where near ready for use by the masses. In fact, based on the numbers in the report, OneCare™ really should not even be in beta status yet. It needs some major improvement.