Three PC liscense subscription

A Windows Live OneCare subscription comes with a three-PC liscense which means I can install it on up to three PC's. If I have one the three PC's replaced with a new system, will I be able to reinstall the program on the new system?

 

I believe you can, as long as you remove it from the old one. It is not as if the software is tied to any one machine, as an OEM disc would be. I could be wrong, but I bet you're safe.

 

Thanks ttupa. I was trying to get an answer directly from the horses mouth but but sometimes it's not so easy to do.

 

Yes, I used to have One Care up until it expired back in December. You can safely uninstall from one system and reinstall it on another. Before you uninstall from the system make sure to remove it from your one care cirle and when you reinstall use the same windows live ID you used when you registered.

 

Thank you too miner, that's really helpful info. BTW, did you like it/was it anygood?

 

Well, it was OK. Not exceptional but honestly the reason why I didnt renew was becasue of the free stuff which do the same basic job as One Care for no cost. The only advatage for One Care was that it works well enough to keep the average user safe, I have it setup on my parents system and they liked it much more than running Comodo/AVG since they really didnt know what to let through the firewall and not to and so they ended up pressing Allow to any message from the firewall. One Care however is much more install it and forget it kind of system. Might not be as safe as the free firewall/antovirus combos but does the job. It is decent on resource usage, much less than any of the Norton consumer products but definately more bloated than Nod32 or Avira/AVG/Comodo combo.

The good bits: Like any all in one solution, all your security stuff is integrated in one place and one software. The automatic scanning includes option to clean out temp files, defragmenting the HDD and also backup software. I usually turned off backup since I have other methods to do so and havent really tested it but its there if you want to try.

However there are some quirks, it monitors Windows Automatic updates and keeps on bugging you if any system on your circle has patches missing or if you have documents in the print queue for a long time.

Ofcourse, if you look through the support forum for one care, you will find people having some issues installing/uninstalling the software and issues with outlook but in the 2yrs I used it I havent had any such problems and never really had to contact support for anything.

P.S: If you are looking to purchase the software, dont buy directly from Microsoft. they charge you the full retail price and have automatic renewals and will have to call in at the time of expiry if you want to cancel the service. But, the good news is if you buy the box from a retailer then you are not subject to automatic renewals and it is generally cheaper. I bought mine initially when it was first introduced for $10 from CC and Amazon usually has it for around $15 - 30 which when you look at other paid security software is a pretty good deal.

 

Microsoft's antivirus scan engine has a low detection rate when compared to most others (both payed and freebies).