Windows Live OneCare 2.5 Now Available

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.

NOTE:  If you choose not to wait for the automatic update to occur and want to go ahead and "manually" update yourself via downloading the new version off the Windows Live OneCare website - you will need to uninstall the previous version first before Windows Live OneCare 2.5 will install. I had not been automatically upgraded so I chose to install manually on 1 of my PCs but the others were automatically updated soon after.

So what's new with Windows Live OneCare 2.5? As I stated previously, the Windows Live OneCare 2.5 release is mainly an "under-the-hood" release. That means all the improvements take place behind-the-scenes so you will not notice any major new features or changes to the overall UI. Windows Live OneCare 2.5 is an incremental release that highlights Microsoft's ongoing commitment to improving Windows Live OneCare for paying subscribers.

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".

As a Windows Live OneCare user myself, I enjoy seeing updates to Windows Live OneCare even if they aren't major updates. The priority for me is simply keeping my PC protected.

Note: This blog entry was originally posted on windowsvistablog.com. View original post