14 DAY TRIAL // If you're going to go out, at least go out with a bang. This seems to be Microsoft's motto for Windows Live OneCare, a security solution that, in the latest comparative tests performed by AV-Comparatives, managed to best almost all rival products, including offerings from Eset, BitDefender, Kaspersky, AVG, Avast, Sophos, Symantec, McAfee, Norman, Kingsoft, G Data and F-Secure. OneCare, which has but a few more months to live, had a proactive detection rate of new malware of 60%. Only Avira AntiVir Premium 8.2.0.374 managed to score higher, with a detection rate of 69%.
The tests performed by AV-Comparatives were focused on the generic and heuristic techniques security products use in order to detect and stop malicious code for which no virus signatures exist. AV-Comparatives only updated the security solutions tested until February 9, 2009, and used malware samples from February 9 until February 16.
“AV-Comparatives published the May edition of its proactive/retrospective testing to measure 16 anti-virus vendors’ capability in detecting new threats. Microsoft anti-virus received one of only 3 Advanced+ ratings. Our detection rate was 60%, the second best among the participants, and we had the fewest false positive samples,” revealed a member of the Forefront team.
Eset's Nod32 delivered a proactive malware detection rate of 56%, BitDefender 12.0.11.4 managed just 50%, AVG Anti-Virus 8.0.234 - 45%, Avast professional Edition 4.8 – 42%. For Sophos Anti-Virus 7.6.4 the detection rate was 37%, 35% for Symantec Norton 16.2.0.7, 25% for McAfee VirusScan Plus 13.3.117 and 14% for F-Secure Anti-Virus 9.00.149.
Still, what recommends Windows Live OneCare's proactive protection over that of its rivals is the extremely low number of false positives. OneCare did not have more than a couple of false positives, which means that the security solution is highly unlikely to detect genuine files as malware.
Come June 30, 2009, Microsoft will stop selling Windows Live OneCare licenses, and instead start offering a free security solution currently codenamed Morro. The Redmond company explained that it would continue to support existing OneCare customers until their subscriptions expire.
UPDATE: "It’s true that Microsoft will discontinue retail sales of OneCare on 30 June, 2009 so you won’t find it in stores after that date, but consumers will still be able to purchase the product after 30 June directly from Microsoft at Live OneCare. No specific date has been given yet for when all sales of the product will cease, but I can follow up with that information once I have it if you are interested," a Microsoft spokesperson told Softpedia.