14 DAY TRIAL // The Redmond company started the week with a new version for the famous Windows Live OneCare, a security solution that was often brought in the spotlights for the weak results recorded at several tests. On Monday, Microsoft released Windows Live OneCare 1.6 with lots of new functions and is now working on OneCare 2.0 beta, an upcoming version of the tool. According to a blog post from LiveSide, the new release bundles several useful functions such as the possibility to disable the browser permanently and interesting statistics concerning the firewall activity in a certain month.
"OneCare also improved its performance in the virus scan test which saw it placed last back in February, showing that as promised, the team is putting more work into the OneCare detection. Unfortunately it is still ranked 14th out of 17 products tested. No sign yet of the OneCare 2.0 beta, but as always if you have any support issues with OneCare, head over to the Windows Live OneCare forums," it is mentioned in the blog post published at LiveSide.
OneCare is currently one of the security solutions that attracted a huge crowd of disappointed users because the product recorded only bad marks at the recent antivirus tests. For example, the recently conducted tests by the folks from AV-Comparatives revealed that OneCare is not even close to the leader position, being one of the weakest security solutions on the market.
If you want to download Windows Live OneCare, you can take it straight from Softpedia using the following link.
If Windows Live OneCare disappoints its users, Sophos Antivirus for Windows XP is the most efficient security solution as it managed to obtain the leader position in the recently conducted tests by Virus Bulletin. On Tuesday, Sophos proudly announced that its Antivirus for Windows XP received the first place award after it beat 37 different solutions. According to an article posted on the official page of Sophos, their product was the best of all at detection rates, lack of false alarms and speed of scanning. Obviously, Sophos Antivirus detected 100 percent of the threats without any false alarm.
"Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows XP performed impressively during the tests with its simple installation, in-depth configuration options and excellent detection rates," said John Hawes, technical consultant at Virus Bulletin. "By protecting against all the in-the-wild viruses without false positives, Sophos earns itself another VB100 award."
Sophos Antivirus was also tested by Softpedia and it is available as a free download on this link.
Wednesday was probably the most important day of the week because the Redmond-based company announced a partnership with the famous LG phone producer that will enhance their products with exciting features. First of all, the entire agreement looks like a patent exchange because Microsoft will benefit from LG's patents while the phone producer will receive several licenses granted to the software giant. Obviously, this is an excellent deal as it is able to provide valuable technologies for both partners, the Microsoft attempts to conquer the mobile market being already known. According to a press release published on the official page of the software giant's page, LG is interested in the Linux-related patents granted by Microsoft because the phone producer wants to develop powerful operating systems for its devices.
"This agreement and our good relationship with Microsoft enable LGE to provide improved telecommunications solutions to our customers," said Jeong Hwan Lee, executive vice president of the Intellectual Property Center at LGE. "We believe that the license arrangement with Microsoft provides appropriate recognition of the value of LGE's computer system-related patents, which includes patents directed to computer architecture utilized in game consoles and other products. We believe in the importance of respecting the IP rights of others and that patent collaboration and protection is a best business practice the whole industry should be engaged in."
On Thursday, the software giant Microsoft announced that it prepares a new set of updates for several products developed by the company. Among the solutions that will be patched, we can mention the operating system Windows, Outlook Express, Windows Mail and the famous browser Internet Explorer. According to the security notification published by Microsoft, there are 4 critical updates prepared to be released while 1 is rated as important and 1 as moderate.
"Security updates are available from Microsoft Update, Windows Update, and Office Update. Security updates are also available at the Microsoft Download Center. You can find them most easily by doing a keyword search for "security_patch." Finally, security updates can be downloaded from the Windows Update Catalog," Microsoft describes the updating procedure.
On Friday, the search giant felt like it was the time to improve the Windows Vista functionality and released Windows Automated Installation Kit Documentation (Windows Server code named "Longhorn" Beta 3 & Windows Vista SP1), a special documentation update for the Windows Automated Installation Kit and Unattended Setup Reference. The 2.6MB file is meant to bring valuable information for all the owners of these two versions of the Microsoft operating system and help them install the application on new computers.
"The Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) is designed to help corporate IT professionals deploy Windows onto new hardware. The Windows AIK is a new set of deployment tools supporting the latest release of Windows. This guide describes the current methods, tools, and requirements for deploying Windows," Microsoft described the download.
If you want to download the file on your computer, you can do this by clicking on this link and take it straight from Microsoft's official page.
