Windows Live OneCare Can Eat Your Email

FutureDomain writes in to point us to a blog sponsored by PC Magazine, reporting about another problem with Windows Live OneCare. Apparently, it sometimes deletes the entire Outlook or Outlook Express .PST mailbox when it finds a virus in one of the messages. The only solution is to tell OneCare to exclude the entire Outlook mailbox. This is the software that came in last in antivirus tests. The trail of tears is ongoing over on the Microsoft forums.

Comments

trail of tears?

[Raab]

isnt the term 'trail of tears' a bit extreme for some lost email?

Re:trail of tears?

[OiToTheWorld]

No, because losing your mail is TOTALLY similar to the forced relocation of the Cherokee people you insensitive clod!

Re:trail of tears?

[ColaMan]

There's 119 posts on that thread. It's a trail of something, most likely pissed-off users.
I smell an opportunity..... Quick! Someone post some linux evangelism there!

Re:trail of tears?

[kennygraham]

Do you honestly think that losing your email is anywhere near on par with being forcably relocated from the land your ancestors had lived on for centuries to be moved to Oklahoma?

Yes. Now I'll have to pay full price for viagra. I consider the two to be on par.

It's The Lt. Ripley Virus Scanner

[Anonymous Coward]

Nuke the mailbox from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

PST file

[pe1chl]

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to put all mail, including not only INBOX but also all extra folders, in a single file?
At least other MUAs usually have a separate file for each folder.

OneCare deletes nothing

[The Bungi]

Obviously they screwed up on the 1.5 RTM where now apparently they'll quarantine the whole PST file (don't get me started on the "one huge fucking file for everything" mentality...), but AFAICT OneCare does not delete the file. The problem is that it essentially hides it under [C:\Documents and Settings\All Users]\Application Data\Microsoft\OneCare Protection\Quarantine, compressed in a .CAB file and not accessible from a non-admin account. But if you can log into the machine with an admin account, you can recover the file, and turn off OneCare scanning of your mail file for good measure.

Then, get a good AV package - or better yet, just exercise some fucking common sense and don't open that "Re: Malaca Superfund Stranded" email from "Roberta Plantagenet~=%" that has a "postcard.exe" attachment.

Running theme with Microsoft's "security"?

[Anonymous Coward]

That theme seems to be "The cure is worse than the disease"

Example 1:
Problem- Malware has carte blanche in XP to do damn near anything if it's run from an account with admin privileges.
Solution- UAC in Vista. ("You are moving your mouse cursor. Cancel or allow?")
Solution Sucks Because- UAC is so friggin' annoying with the popups that people will either shut it off or get in the habit of blindly clicking "OK," which means they are likely to give malware carte blanche to do damn near anything.

Example 2:
Problem- Viruses.
Solution- Windows OneCare Antivirus.
Solution Sucks Because- One infected email can cause your whole inbox to go bye-bye.

Great job, guys! The five years it took you to get this stuff perfect was really worth it!

Re:So what exactly is the problem?

[earnest murderer]

Precisely. For that matter, considering the target audence the concept of a Log file as notification is not only ineffective but probably offensive to most. Of the people I know who might use this product, every single one of them would have ended up in a shop and paying a lot of money to have a tech figure it out. Or more than likely paying them to re-install Windows and hope it didn't happen again.