Microsoft's anti-virus has the potential of causing more damage to your computer than a virus. The Redmond Company has acknowledged the fact that Windows Live OneCare has been deleting user emails from Outlook and Outlook Express. Microsoft has added that it is currently developing a fix and that this week the issue will be resolved.

But the confirmation delivered by the Redmond Company is doing little to help users that risk losing information due to Windows Live OneCare's behavior. According to reports, the erased Outlook and Outlook Express emails have been associated with OneCare identifying malicious software in an email attachment.

Windows Live OneCare fails to quarantine the affected email, or to delete the malformed attachment and instead manages to quarantine and in some cases completely erase .pst and .dbx files. Following such actions by OneCare Outlook and Outlook Express, users will discover that their emails and details have vanished along with the personal folder.

The Redmond Company revealed that it plans to release a fix addressing this issue with the next scheduled update launch on March 13. "We are working to address an issue where the antimalware engine for OneCare is erroneously quarantining Outlook .pst files or Outlook Express .dbx files, when the .pst file or .dbx file contains an infected attachment," a Microsoft representative told Computerworld. Those familiar with the evolution of OneCare already know that this issue is not new. The anti-virus experienced similar problems in the 1.0 version.

OneCare has been plagued with issues, from poor performance to functionality since its launch in late January 2007. This latest example of aberrant behavior will only serve to build up criticism against Microsoft's security solution.