In an e-mail to beta testers, Microsoft said the Windows OneCare Live Beta will be opened to the public "very soon," but, officially, the company isn't offering a specific ship date.
"Windows OneCare Live is currently in a limited, managed external [public] beta. We expect to release our beta more broadly for consumers later this year, which is consistent with the prior timing guidance we have shared to date," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement.
Ziff Davis Internet News has learned that the public release is "imminent" and could come as early as next week.
The program, which bundles virus scanning, firewall protection, data backup and PC cleanup tools, was recently refreshed to add new features for file scanning and data backup.
The tool, which will eventually be a paid product under the Windows Live brand, can now handle automatic scans of files received from the MSN Messenger IM client and offers the ability to back up computer data to external hard drives. Windows OneCare has also been tweaked to perform on-demand virus scans.
"Windows OneCare Live is currently in a limited, managed external [public] beta. We expect to release our beta more broadly for consumers later this year, which is consistent with the prior timing guidance we have shared to date," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement.
Ziff Davis Internet News has learned that the public release is "imminent" and could come as early as next week.
The program, which bundles virus scanning, firewall protection, data backup and PC cleanup tools, was recently refreshed to add new features for file scanning and data backup.
The tool, which will eventually be a paid product under the Windows Live brand, can now handle automatic scans of files received from the MSN Messenger IM client and offers the ability to back up computer data to external hard drives. Windows OneCare has also been tweaked to perform on-demand virus scans.