Security

Windows Live OneCare Joggles Around with Its Expiration Date

At random

By Marius Oiaga, Technology News Editor

21st of December 2007, 10:32 GMT

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After Kaspersky 6 and 7, the Antivirus and Internet Security editions, managed to strike out on Windows XP and Windows Vista, it's now the turn of Microsoft's own security solution to deliver a performance "close to perfection". After the introduction of faulty signatures updates, Kaspersky incorrectly labeled Windows Explorer (explorer.exe) as infected with Worm.Win32.Huhk.c, proceeding to quarantine and, in some cases, to delete the executable entirely. In a case of coincidental synchronization, Windows Live OneCare is also giving its users head aches, and the issue is less severe.

Windows Live OneCare appears to be expiring at random. Frustrated users have flooded the OneCare support forums complaining about the problem. Users of the Microsoft antivirus have started receiving automated emails of confirmation pointing to the fact that their subscription for OneCare had been canceled. The scenario was valid even

in cases where the users hadn't asked for the cancellation of their subscription. As a direct consequence, the status of OneCare was transitioned to Expired. Microsoft failed to address the issue officially, except for the entries on the forum. At the same time, the company has yet to provide a resolve.

"I know that this seems like a bad problem and it certainly is annoying, but please do not call support for this problem more than once. Please revisit this thread for updates to the issue. Your subscription may appear canceled, but you are still *fully* protected. OneCare is still getting updates, the firewall and antivirus are still active. Backups and Tune-ups may not run at the moment, but I'm not sure on that. Anyway, the latest information that I have is that this is a top priority problem and it have many eyes looking at it. To the best of my knowledge, the specific cause has not been identified - which is why it still isn't fixed. I believe that the problem originates with a miscommunication between the OneCare servers and the Billing servers", explained the Windows Live OneCare Forum Moderator.

Microsoft did succeed in identifying the source of the problem, and while it did not make it public, a representative from the company revealed that the glitch was on the billing servers. Emphasis was placed on the fact that only a limited number of users were impacted and that a fix was being produced. "We are in the process of reaching out to the limited number of subscribers whose accounts have been canceled due to a temporary glitch in our billing system, and will work directly with those effected to correct their account status and address any interruptions in the OneCare service they may have experienced", stated Kapil Rastogi, Program Manager at Microsoft.

TAGS:

Windows Live OneCare | cancellation | expired | Microsoft

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