Windows Live OneCare has moved to the next stage in its evolution. At the debut of July, 2008, Microsoft made available for download version 2.5 of its one-size-fits all security solution. However, the Redmond company managed not to make a big deal out of the release of OneCare 2.5. Dropped on July 1, the antivirus went live without any official mentions from Microsoft, and it wasn't until July 9 that Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc confirmed the launch of OneCare 2.5.

"Beginning last week (July 1st to be exact) - existing Windows Live OneCare users (paid subscribers) began automatically receiving Windows Live OneCare 2.5. The Windows Live OneCare website also began offering Windows Live OneCare 2.5 for new users as well. If you are a Windows Live OneCare subscriber and have not yet been automatically updated, you can either wait until the update occurs or download the new version from the Windows Live OneCare website," LeBlanc stated.

Not all the Windows Live OneCare users running previous versions of the antivirus have been automatically upgraded to the latest release. In this context, a manual update is in order. Windows Live OneCare 2.5 can be grabbed via the link at the bottom of this article. However, unlike the automatic update, users will have to remove earlier versions of OneCare before installing 2.5.

Windows Live OneCare 2.5 is nothing more than an evolution of the Redmond company's all-in-one PC care solution. The security solution offering not only antivirus firewall, management, backup, and restore capabilities, has been tweaked to be an incremental release from the previous version. According to Microsoft, there are little changes that have reverberated all the way to the surface of the product, but certainly not new features, functionality or modifications to the graphical user interface. Instead, version 2.5 includes under-the-hood enhancements designed to improve the overall user experience.

"However, Windows Live OneCare 2.5 does bring some changes worth taking note of. Windows Live OneCare is now available in 3 new markets: Brazil, India and Hong Kong. Also, if you are using the Online Photo Backup feature in Windows Live OneCare, you will be pleased to see that online storage capacity has been increased from 10GB to 50GB! Online Photo Backup is an added benefit to Windows Live OneCare users where they can pay $50 a year (on top of their existing Windows Live OneCare subscription) to have their digital photos automatically backed up to the 'cloud'," LeBlanc added.

Windows Live OneCare 2.5 is available for download here.