Get a Free online Safety Scan @ Microsoft

Steven Parker

08 November 2007 - 17:50 Hot!

Tired of installing countless scanners? Well look no further! Windows Live OneCare safety scanner is a free service designed to help ensure the health of your PC.

Check for and remove viruses
Get rid of junk on your hard disk
Improve your PC's performance

You need Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows Server 2003, or Windows 2000 Server. You also will need to use either Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or MSN® 9.0 or higher as Firefox does not work there. There is one available for Windows Vista but that is a beta, be warned!

Link: Windows Live OneCare safety scanner for Win2K/XP/Server 2003
Link: Windows Live OneCare safety scanner for Vista (Beta)

32 Comments

hows this news its been available for a long time

Maybe it was updated, and the Vista beta one is there too. Not to mention not everyone is as knowledgeable as you..

Ive been using this for months now both xp and vista, its nothing new

I remember using this about a year and a half ago. Still hasn't changed one bit.

i would hope the definitions have changed!

Ahhh, got confused with actual scanners and virus scanners. x)

Aren't they charging for a One Care suite of programs? How does this relate to that?

Reading this made me think of Nick Burns!

Doesn't work. It says I'd have to use Internet Explorer.

And what is wrong with IE?

MightyJordan said,

And what is wrong with IE?

that comment has gotta be bait LOL

Nope, it's a real question.

The funny thing is, there is no answer.

(lol)

C_Guy said,

Nope, it's a real question.

The funny thing is, there is no answer.

(lol)

Actually the funny thing is, that you would even ask a question like that. You must be new to computers and if you are then please excuse me and just google IE's gazillion security issues not to mention that it is years behind more modern and secure browsers.

But...if you aren't new to computers then unfortunately I can't say to you what I would like without getting banned. I'd just assume you're having a Forrest Gump moment.

internetworld7 said,

But...if you aren't new to computers then unfortunately I can't say to you what I would like without getting banned. I'd just assume you're having a Forrest Gump moment. :wacko:

And your information is about as up to date as IE5?

internetworld7 said,

But...if you aren't new to computers then unfortunately I can't say to you what I would like without getting banned. I'd just assume you're having a Forrest Gump moment. :wacko:

the really really funny thing is IE's security issues have been fixed, and you are talkgin about old versions of IE taht are yearsa and years old so of course that are years behind other browsers, ever heard of IE 7.

C_Guy said,

Nope, it's a real question.

The funny thing is, there is no answer.

(lol)

Sure there is an answer. There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING wrong with IE. Don't let these "wanna" be computer guru's tell you any differently either.

Firefox IS NOT the answer.

But, if you remove any tinfoil headgear, you can see for yourself with an ethernet sniffer, such as wireshark.

Why raise unfounded speculation? See for yourself.

markjensen said,

But, if you remove any tinfoil headgear, you can see for yourself with an ethernet sniffer, such as wireshark.

Why raise unfounded speculation? See for yourself.

+1 that comes close to comment of the year

markjensen said,

But, if you remove any tinfoil headgear, you can see for yourself with an ethernet sniffer, such as wireshark.

Why raise unfounded speculation? See for yourself.

Well, you try it first.

RAID 0 said,

Well, you try it first.

i am sure many a tin foil enthusiast has already tried it, this is the sort of stuff where if someone is getting info from you, the conspiracy nutters are all over it seeing exactly what is beign sent and tellling the whole world about it, like the sony root kit etc etc

whocares78 said,

It's funny Mark thinks I am "one of them" tinfoil hat people. I don't like online scans. Does that really make me a conspiracy nut?

bah, ive been using this for 2yrs now

-McAfee
+Defender
+Free Live Scan
= Ultimate protection

is this just advertising or what, this has been available for a very very long time. not news, not even useful, the scanner has been known to be rather basic

its there some online scan that work for firefox, i dont want to use ie.

IE is design from Microsoft and that link from Microsoft = match = work fine.

joker999 said,

IE is design from Microsoft and that link from Microsoft = match = work fine.

But why isn't it available for Firefox?

toadeater said,

But why isn't it available for Firefox?

Why would MS make something that works with their competition? Except maybe to blow Firefox off your computer!
Which probably would be a benefit to you!!

Housecall by Trend Micro works with Firefox.
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Onecare is a few steps over Defender. People should not equate the two products together, even if they -appear- to be -similar-.

Besides, this looks like an online scan compared to an actual installable suite. I have the suite on 3 pcs (total cost of just the tax once Fry's rebates were applied), and I must say I like the setup. More excited about the current beta of onecare, it comes with a master/client setup if you have multiple PCs using the program under the same Live ID.

The real question here is,
who trusts MS to just go ahead and make the changes this thing might make?

Sorry,
Never never used this thing and probably never will. I prefer to test/tweak and tune my stuff manually.

Oh that's clever. It deleted my files without asking me first, very nice. So I lost my EICAR test file... not a big a deal, but it would have been nice to have first been asked.

Oh and fantastic, it deleted my password recovery program.... wonderful.

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