So MSE still doesn't offer everything that OneCare does and per the outsource supplier of support they have a "Plan" to add in those functions.
My issue is this: My paid subscription ended on 5/1/10 - I didn't receive any notifications that I would be unable to renew
(puzzling but not the real point) My issue is finding a good all in one solution to OneCare on short notice and concerns regarding my backups that have contain archived off items.
The outsource support provider stated that they will not extend subscriptions for users that have an expiration date after March
15 2010 (even if they did have the hard cut off of 12/2010)
< SNIP >
I have never dealt with a software company that cuts off customer escalation requests at an outsource supervisor level and certainly
never had one that didn't at least attempt to seek a solution via other methods.
So my questions to this group would be: Has anyone found
A all in one package that provided what OneCare did that you would rate as a great or even very good replacement?
Any venues found to escalate concerns over support / policy issues?
Looking forward to a response and any help that members can provide.
L
Linette23,
I understand your issues, but lets simply evaluate your situation quickly and avoid wasting time on something that simply is unlikely to happen, since as you already mentioned the extensions have already ended and the actual 'hard date' was technically the
end of a subsciption.
As you realized, your key issue is replacement, but of what? Since nothing else has ever been exactly the same as OneCare, you first need to decide which of the abilities are really important to you and then look for a product(s) that contains all
or most of those. Very few ever really used all the features, in fact most used not much more than the anti-malware and either backup and/or printer sharing. Since as the list created by Steve shows, many of these items are either unnecessary or
can easily be done in other ways, it's best to determine what will really be required and whether another complete suite is really even necessary.
The first question you need to answer in any case is what operating system you are using, which I'd guess would be Windows XP, since either Windows Vista or 7 already do much of the above built-in and so only MSE is really required for most of these.
Then, if you determine that you only require backup and maybe one or two other basic items there may be either a separate third-party application or a simple/free way to do something else manually or with Windows Scheduler. BTW, there is a free Restore
only application available to restore your OneCare backups in the future, at least until you've fully switched to something new and have a good set of backups with that.
Also, realize that though your OneCare subscription may have just ended it is still protecting you, it is simply and aggressively notifying you that it soon won't and may not be providing updates, though I believe it only does this 30 days after
the subscription ends. So it hasn' t totally dropped your protection, it simply soon won't be as effective as it might have been.
If you don't currently have time or money to spend on something new you could simply install the free Microsoft Security Essentials antimalware and the OneCare Restore application if required and you'd have complete and free protection, just no new backup, printer
sharing or other automated items, which can be done within Windows itself anyway. Once that's in place, you may find you only need a bit of help to get a couple other items figured out and you really won't need a new suite anyway.
Rob
