Is it possible to add a fourth computer onto a single Windows Live OneCare account for an additonal fee? If not, must one open and subscribe to a new account? How will a new acount impact the sharing features (i.e, printer network, backup, etc.) of the already active account? Any advice is appreciated.
According to the terms of the OneCare retail license, you can have OneCare on 3 computers using a single subscription. A subscription is tied to a LiveID and each LiveID can only have a single subscription associated with it. Therefore, to add a 4th PC, you need to purchase another subscription (or retail copy for the license key) and activate it using a different LiveID. Since the 4th PC is then using a different LiveID, it cannot be part of the Circle for OneCare's Circle features - monitoring from a Hub, Printer Sharing, Centralized backup. That said, you can purchase a retail copy of OneCare, put it aside (never using the key for renewal, lest you be "double-dipping") and use your existing LiveID to add the 4th PC to your Circle. It should work, though it can be blocked in some cases. -steveMicrosoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare Forum Moderator
According to the terms of the OneCare retail license, you can have OneCare on 3 computers using a single subscription. A subscription is tied to a LiveID and each LiveID can only have a single subscription associated with it. Therefore, to add a 4th PC, you need to purchase another subscription (or retail copy for the license key) and activate it using a different LiveID. Since the 4th PC is then using a different LiveID, it cannot be part of the Circle for OneCare's Circle features - monitoring from a Hub, Printer Sharing, Centralized backup. That said, you can purchase a retail copy of OneCare, put it aside (never using the key for renewal, lest you be "double-dipping") and use your existing LiveID to add the 4th PC to your Circle. It should work, though it can be blocked in some cases. -steveMicrosoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare Forum Moderator
Thank you , Mr. Boots, for your response. Probably the safest thing to do for maintaining functionality of our OneCare circle would be to dump our daughter's laptop from the circle and purchase a separate subscription for it, or obtain security software for it though a third party entitly. I am intent on keeping the desktop pc's (one a very new and advanced pc) on our existing OneCare circle account for file sharing, printer sharing, backup, etc. purposes.
