Windows Live OneCare is a fantastic idea. Write buggy insecure software and then charge the people who buy your software extra if they want to buy OneCare, which is supposed to protect them from the errors you created in the first place.
Anyone else see a conflict of interest here? Why fix the software, when fixing it, only gives people a reason not to buy OneCare!
Anyway, a trial version of OneCare came on the Vista laptop that Microsoft sent me. This morning I was sent an Activation key to upgrade from the trial version to a full version. Excellent, that will get rid of the nagware screens Microsoft have in the trial version and allow me to update the virus definitions.
Ah, the naivete, if only life (with Vista) were that simple.
Three hours and countless restarts later I was still battling unsuccessfully to Activate OneCare.
First off, if you want to go from the trial version to a full version you have to uninstall the trial version (requires a restart) and download and install the full version (requires a restart). Why? Why can’t you simply add an activation code to the trial version and it change automatically to the full version?
Anyway, after going through this process I was faced with the following unhelpful error message:
When you click the Get Help button, you are brought to a screen which asks you what the error is! I dunno. You tell me. You are the one with the bloody problem.
“OneCare has encountered a problem” doesn’t elicit any helpful responses unsurprisingly!
I decided to make sure I had done a full uninstall. So I uninstalled OneCare (and restarted) and then I ran the OneCareCleanup tool (has to be run as Administrator and requires a restart).
I then reinstalled OneCare and sure enough an Activation screen appeared - wohoo, I thought, success at last. Silly me.
I clicked on the Activate button, the screen closed and nothing happened after that. I decided to try a restart as almost everything else in this process had required a restart! Still no joy.
I tried going further in the Windows Live OneCare Support pages. Could I contact someone to help out? Of course not. Why? Because Windows Live OneCare determined that I was still in the Free Trial Period so I was only entitled to email support (24 hour turnaround).
AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I give up.
I went through this horror-loop too but as I’d paid for it (ok €19 for three machines for a year was cheap) I refused to give up and opened support tickets with them.
Turns out that if your machine’s date/time is more than a few hours off, you’ll get that retarded error. Fix date/time and all will be well in activation. My machine was a day off for some reason.
It works reasonably well for me except when it tries to do the regular full system scan, chews up 100% CPU and never finishes.
It also didn’t catch a potential trojan that AVG caught.
McAfee, Norton and the others have been at this game a long time. MS need to do a lot better than the current C- effort if they want to make a dent in that business. They had to give up the last time they tried it.
Thanks for that Conor.
In my case, the Vaio is synch’d to a timeserver so the time is always correct.
It also appears they did little testing of the Beta->Full upgrade path. Half the time they give you web errors for the full product, the other half for the beta. Ditto the help pages.
It’s pretty shoddy compared to some of the competition (one of whom I worked for, for a short period). They would go back 4 or 5 versions and make sure all upgrade paths were bulletproof.
Tom, what is POS?
First thing that comes to mind is: POS = “Point of Sale” terminal. But that’s because I have done a fair share of work on financial transaction processing software in the past.
Somehow I suspect that is not what you meant.
Uldis,
think “piece of ….”
Right, figured it out …
I tried to install Onecare after using the free trial version. It would work for a few days, then tell me ‘Your virus protection is out of date’ I had to keep phoning the oh so polite tech support guys, (some with a flimsy grasp of the English language). It would work for a day or two, then tell me it was out of date. I decided to cancell. That was at the beginning of March and I am still trying to get a refund. They actually charged me again, so I’ve now paid £75.98. I spoke to ‘John’ on Wednesday and he promises me it has gone through this time and I must say, it looks quite hopeful, but I am loosing the will to live and may have to shoot myself.
having problems activating my windows live onecare, doesnt matter what i do i still cant activate it……..what is going on? Another thing is i cant find any telephone number to contact windows live onecare to resolve this problem….any suggestions? Someone please say they are having the same problem and I am not imagining this?
hi
can i get the activation key if its no use for you sir? i am trying it out.. it looks crap, bt wht if i try?? it wuld b a kind deed sir
seth saad
Can anyone give me a phone number for Liveone Care? I paid for a subscription and about 2 months into it I could not update Adobe. Copme to find out - Liveone Care was the culprit blocking my update. I uninstalled Liveone and tried to reinstall it. No such luck. My wife got on line & had to sign up for another “free trial”. The free trial is about to expire and I can’t contact them to let them know of my delimma.
All I need is a phone number. HHHHEEEEELLLLLLLPPPPP!!!!!!!!1
iS 3 MONTHS THAT i TRY TO install Live One Care….unsuccesfully. It keep me bring in a loop of pages that goes in circle…..never one time come up a simple “click button” which say “Activation” and never give me the chance to enter the key ativation code ….
Tried 10-15 times…Nothing!!! Ive bought it regularly so why I cannot install it???????????? Any help before I switch to another AntiVirus???? Soon I will
iS 3 MONTHS THAT i TRY TO install Live One Care….unsuccesfully. It keep me bring in a loop of pages that goes in circle…..never one time come up a simple “click button†which say “Activation†and never give me the chance to enter the key ativation code ….
Tried 10-15 times…Nothing!!! Ive bought it regularly so why I cannot install it???????????? Any help before I switch to another AntiVirus???? Soon I will
Same situation…….
ahhh — LOC — those are the initials aren’t they? I am in the mood for a class action suit. Everyone I know that has purchased LOC has now asked the tech experts at Microsoft to remove it completely from their computers. The purchase price was about $49 here in the US. Some of us spent many hours on the phone from the very beginning, the first sign of trouble being installation and activation issues. From there on it was a downward spiral, it seemed that the more the techies fiddled to find solutions the more the whole thing came unraveled and with that also went the performance of the computer. It came to feel as if my computer now belonged to Microsoft; LOC behaved more like a virus than a cure. The people at Microsoft, although very good to deal with, could care less that we have wasted our money. One must pay to participate in their great experiment? It is brilliant getting the public to underwrite a gigantic worldwide trial of a product!
Dear John and Shelley, I phoned Onecare loads of times this summer. Unfortunately, in an effort to block the whole awful experience, I seem to have thrown away all the info I had. I have found a free-phone number, but am not sure if it is the one I used. I know I had to make about six menu selections to get through. You could try it anyway. It’s 0800 281221. Apologies if it is useless, or too late now, as you’ve shot yourself in desperation sheer desperation!
could you please tell me how to un-install the OneCare completely from my computer. Please!!!!!!! I got a new 15 in 1, but i can cot install it because of ONECARE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Wanda, I had the nightmare of LOC here as well. My suggestion to you is to call them and get their tech people to walk you through the complete removal of it from your computer. That worked for me. Good luck. R.K.
I’m also having major problems could you sent me the phone number of the secret society live onecare the 800 number you have listed is missing a number 800-281-221 ?
thanks
I hate OneCare. I want it completely off my Vista ultimate machine. Please send the secret to completely uninstalling the non-activated version that came with the OS.
John - Here is the number I have for Microsoft Customer Service: 1 + 866 + 663 + 2273. You will need to give them a product ID# and your subscription ID#. I talked to someone named Samina who was brilliant but still a company man so to speak. She, in the face of all my ranting, did with finesse and total professionalism methodically walk me through the COMPLETE removal of everything that was associated to Live One Care. Good luck, Robert
I’ve never yet encountered a piece of software that wasn’t, to some degree or other, a pile of crap and I’ve been wrestling with it since 1963 in the old mainframe days.
That said, does anybody know if, when you have all this trouble with W L One Care, can you get living Tech Support on the phone?
Do we just buy the thing and get cast to our fate in an ocean of unknowable Monkey Business or will there be someone to help us when the smoke starts coming out of the computer and Windows Live One Care goes completely haywire and causes all of our tires to go flat and our house to catch on fire?
John,
you can get support from real people for OneCare but don’t expect it to be any good!
See my support outcome here - http://www.tomrafteryit.net/microsoft-give-up-on-trying-to-fix-windows-live-onecare/
thanks for posting this phone # for support. I had zero luck using their online “help” … cancellation was a breeze thanks to this post!
Please give me an 800 phone #.I’m trying to buy the service but will not use credit card.would like to be billed or echeck
I gave the wrong number sorry it was 1-425-704-2033. the other number I accidently posted is spam and tries to get you to sign up for something that asks for personal acct numbers and stuff do not call it. (yes I have reported that number thats why I pasted the wrong one and I apologize)
I have had nothing but aggravation, Hours of wasted time, 1 of my 3 computers crashed and has not been repairable with this software. i’m still waiting on a refund.
so i bought this live onecare at the store. i installed it and it worked fine for awhile. a week later it told me i still needed to subscribe? i thought by buying this i did? can anyone tell me if i need to pay more money and subscribe online? i’m frustrated
I’m still waiting for the credit on this lousy software that took all my time up
Worse install ever.
I’ve restored an entire AIX system on a midrange computer in less time than it’s taken me to validate my product key for OneCare. Oh yeah, it’s still not activated.
The install of the software went smooth enough but when I attempted to activate my subscription using the enclosed 25 character token (product id) I kept getting the nefarious message “Product Key Already In Use”. Using MSFT’s online, computer support is an exercise in futility. No matter what you put in you’ll either get a message stating it doesn’t understand the question or points you to another help screen which in turns points you back to the help screen you just left. Reminds me of the adage, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”.
Finding a phone number for live support has been impossible and I refuse to deal with their phone tree again.
In the amount of time I’ve spent trying to get this product activated I could have driven from SF to Redmond.
Sorry for the rant but I had to vent.
I sent an email to their support line so I’ll see what happens in the next 24 hours.
Think good thoughts.
I paid for Windows Live One Care and my pc went bizark, so I had to do a recovery, now I can’t download it and I can’t get in touch with them to get my refund are something. What a Bummer!!!
You had much worse luck with onecare then I ever did, although I do have complaints, I found the program to be easy to use and not that bad at all. I still trust Norton more though :P.
check my website for my own review of onecare.
Hi there! I need all your help badly. I chose to cancel Windows Live Onecare before the renewal date was up, so I wouldn’t need to pay again. I done everything to cancel, yet they hadn’t taken my details off the system and still charged me. So I got in touch with them and they apologised and told me I would be given a refund. Now 4 weeks later I am still waiting for it. I contacted my bank and they said it is nowhere to be seen, there has been no payments from them whatsoever to my bank and yet microsoft said according to them I have been refunded. Now I need to contact them to tell them I still have had nothing but it won’t let me fill out enquiry forms anymore because I have no subscription to them. I even downloaded the trial version but I still can’t email them. Please does someone have a UK phone number so I can get my money back???
i paid one care 1 year subscription till feb 2009 i am now told i am out of date fed right up can you help jim.
hope so.jim
Microsoft will not return refund because I had the use of their software too long. Does anyone know how we can start a class action law suit against them.
Sara, Check your statements carefully and make sure you arn’t charged again, as I was. I kept trying to get a refund and ended up paying for the damn thing three times. In the end, I wrote to Mastercard and they got my money back straight away. ( I should have done this at the first sign of trouble.
Hi,
I’m trying to cancel the Onecare trial but cannot find where to do it.
Can anyone give my a phone number for them or let me know where the page is I need to be.? I keep going round in circles.