Al,
This might be of help on your questions..
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Justice" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "BLIND COMPUTING MAILING LIST" <Blind-Computing@jaws-users.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2008 3:18 PM
Subject: [Blind-Computing] WINDOWS LIVE ONE CARE, EVALUATION AND COMMENTS
I thought this might be interesting to some of our list who have been
searching for a good solution to the anti-virus and spam problems we all
have experienced from time to time.
I was an AVG and Spy Sweeper user for years. Both programs are excellent
and each program designer has now incorporated additional services into
their latest software versions. But in each case, the operator must, at
least from time to time, get involved with these programs to make sure
that
they are performing the system sweeps which are essential to the
protection
of our computers. AVG's newest suite of programs offers a good fire
wall
in addition to its other features. Spy Sweeper now has anti-virus
capability as well as a really fine spam fighting function. I considered
updating to AVG Version 8 and was constantly updating my Spy Sweeper to
make sure that it too had the latest software to work with. This required
some time and attention, naturally. The only problem I had with either of
these packages was that some of each program is difficult or completely
inaccessible to someone using a screen reader. There is enough of the
functionality which can be used but each program requires that the
operator
have a strong working knowledge of his screen reader. At times, the PC
cursor was enough but at other times, the Jaws cursor had to be employed
so
that certain options could be checked or confirmed. As for fire walls,
the
only one I had was the Windows Service Pack fire wall which is good but
certainly not 100% reliable.
I had heard about Windows Live One Care from another list member. He
spoke
highly of it and recommended that I try the 90 day free option. I did
that
and for the past 2 months, I have been using this program for my
anti-virus,
spam and phishing protection. At first, the fire wall would often ask me
about various programs which were trying to access my computer during
normal
internet operations. There were certain programs on my system that Live
One
Care didn't recognize. But those brief incidents told me that the fire
wall
was indeed alive and working. When a warning did occur, it was simple
enough to Alt Tab to the screen and check a box which would allow the
program to operate. The screen, like the rest of Live One Care was
completely accessible in every respect.
I started reading carefully about this program and discovered that in
addition to scanning for viruses and spy programs, the "Tune Up" function
of the software was also defragmenting my disk, finding and removing
unnecessary files and in short, making my system work much better than it
has in a long time. The software constantly checks for updated anti-virus
definitions and updates itself. If there is a problem or something which
requires the operator's attention, a balloon pops up which advises the
operator of that fact, then discretely disappears, allowing normal work to
continue uninterrupted. The most remarkable thing about Live One Care is
that it performs most of these tasks in the background and alerts the
operator only when necessary.
Many people have a serious aversion to things marketed by Microsoft. I
don't share their views. You can't argue with success. The bottom line is
this. After a couple of weeks, I uninstalled Live One care, re-activated
AVG and ran a complete system test. AVG found no threats of any kind. I
re-activated Spy Sweeper and performed a full system scan. Again, no
cookies were found which had been placed there by web sites like Google.
In
short, Live One Care had been doing its job as well as AVG and Spy Sweeper
combined.
SIGNING UP FOR LIVE ONE CARE:
Now, this is the only fly in the ointment. For security reasons,
Microsoft
employs a picture in which certain characters are displayed. In order to
sign up for a Live ID which is necessary, the operator has to deal with
those characters. Microsoft does provide an audio ability with which the
operator can listen to the numbers or characters spoken. Unfortunately,
the
audio quality is horrendous. I was never able to make sense of what was
being spoken. In desperation, I brought in someone who simply read the
information in the image and I entered it.
If software is purchased from a store, a screen will eventually appear
which
allows that information to be entered into the system. Any good OCR
scanner
can recognize the product ID code which is printed on the back of the
program's container.
In conclusion, I'd like to recommend Windows Live One Care as an option
for
someone who plans on using a computer or group of computers for normal day
to day operation. It seems to do the job quietly and reliably and the
program does more than most commercial software available. Finally,
everything is in one compact package which is relatively small, compared
to
some anti-virus programs.
John Justice
My job feeds my family, music feeds my soul.
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