I thought this might be interesting to some of our list who have been searching for a good solution to the anti-virus and spam problems we all have experienced from time to time.
I was an AVG and Spy Sweeper user for years. Both programs are excellent and each program designer has now incorporated additional services into their latest software versions. But in each case, the operator must, at least from time to time, get involved with these programs to make sure that they are performing the system sweeps which are essential to the protection of our computers. AVG's newest suite of programs offers a good fire wall in addition to its other features. Spy Sweeper now has anti-virus capability as well as a really fine spam fighting function. I considered updating to AVG Version 8 and was constantly updating my Spy Sweeper to make sure that it too had the latest software to work with. This required some time and attention, naturally. The only problem I had with either of these packages was that some of each program is difficult or completely inaccessible to someone using a screen reader. There is enough of the functionality which can be used but each program requires that the operator have a strong working knowledge of his screen reader. At times, the PC cursor was enough but at other times, the Jaws cursor had to be employed so that certain options could be checked or confirmed. As for fire walls, the only one I had was the Windows Service Pack fire wall which is good but certainly not 100% reliable. I had heard about Windows Live One Care from another list member. He spoke highly of it and recommended that I try the 90 day free option. I did that and for the past 2 months, I have been using this program for my anti-virus, spam and phishing protection. At first, the fire wall would often ask me about various programs which were trying to access my computer during normal internet operations. There were certain programs on my system that Live One Care didn't recognize. But those brief incidents told me that the fire wall was indeed alive and working. When a warning did occur, it was simple enough to Alt Tab to the screen and check a box which would allow the program to operate. The screen, like the rest of Live One Care was completely accessible in every respect. I started reading carefully about this program and discovered that in addition to scanning for viruses and spy programs, the "Tune Up" function of the software was also defragmenting my disk, finding and removing unnecessary files and in short, making my system work much better than it has in a long time. The software constantly checks for updated anti-virus definitions and updates itself. If there is a problem or something which requires the operator's attention, a balloon pops up which advises the operator of that fact, then discretely disappears, allowing normal work to continue uninterrupted. The most remarkable thing about Live One Care is that it performs most of these tasks in the background and alerts the operator only when necessary. Many people have a serious aversion to things marketed by Microsoft. I don't share their views. You can't argue with success. The bottom line is this. After a couple of weeks, I uninstalled Live One care, re-activated AVG and ran a complete system test. AVG found no threats of any kind. I re-activated Spy Sweeper and performed a full system scan. Again, no cookies were found which had been placed there by web sites like Google. In short, Live One Care had been doing its job as well as AVG and Spy Sweeper combined. SIGNING UP FOR LIVE ONE CARE: Now, this is the only fly in the ointment. For security reasons, Microsoft employs a picture in which certain characters are displayed. In order to sign up for a Live ID which is necessary, the operator has to deal with those characters. Microsoft does provide an audio ability with which the operator can listen to the numbers or characters spoken. Unfortunately, the audio quality is horrendous. I was never able to make sense of what was being spoken. In desperation, I brought in someone who simply read the information in the image and I entered it. If software is purchased from a store, a screen will eventually appear which allows that information to be entered into the system. Any good OCR scanner can recognize the product ID code which is printed on the back of the program's container. In conclusion, I'd like to recommend Windows Live One Care as an option for someone who plans on using a computer or group of computers for normal day to day operation. It seems to do the job quietly and reliably and the program does more than most commercial software available. Finally, everything is in one compact package which is relatively small, compared to some anti-virus programs. John Justice My job feeds my family, music feeds my soul. 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