Overall: 4 out of 5

Highs: protects 3 computers, great price, low resource utilization

Lows: VPN configuration required, requires Auto Updates to be installed automatically or goes red

When I upgraded to Vista, I was looking to find a product for a fancy firewall (my favorite firewall company was purchased and their product has taken a wrong turn) and an anti-virus that didn't use too many resources (tried a few and they were too invasive).  Enter Microsoft Windows Live OneCare.  I tried the demo and once it expired, I immediately purchased the product.  It just sits there and does its job quietly and uses a minimal amount of system resources.  I like it because I rarely notice it and it gives me quite a few firewall options.  Did I mention that my subscription covers three (3) computers?  Pretty cool.  However, there is always room for improvement.  Here are a few suggestions:

1. If a network zone is set as "Home or Work," the firewall should allow VPN connections.  By default, the firewall doesn't allow this, so you have to change it on every computer.  Not sure what the security issue is to not allow outbound VPN traffic, but I assume that there is some security best practice of which I am unaware.
2. If I don't want to automatically install updates, OneCare goes red and constantly reminds me that I am unprotected.  That is fine; I just wish that I could turn off that message and make it green/orange again since I want to know what is getting installed before it gets installed.  For now I just install everything that is critical and hope my machine doesn't get hosed.  Which reminds me...  I better get that backup working sooner rather than later.

Overall a great product.  I will gladly continue my subscription until something much better comes across my desktop.