Rumors of Microsoft's involvement in the PC health and safety market began appearing several years ago, back when Windows Vista was still called Longhorn and was expected to ship in 2003 or 2004. In July 2003, I wrote an editorial for Windows IT Pro UPDATE in which I noted that "Microsoft plans to offer its own antivirus service with a low-cost subscription fee." At the time, it was expected that this antivirus subscription service would ship alongside Windows Vista and be offered to customers, electronically, from within that OS.

What a difference three years makes. Since then, Windows Vista has been delayed again and again as Microsoft continuously stripped away key features. And that antivirus subscription service? Pulled from Vista, it began life as MSN OneCare back when MSN was still the hub around which most of Microsoft's online products and services were introduced. In late 2005, however, Microsoft gathered much of MSN into its Windows Division and relaunched the various products and services it had been working on under the Windows Live umbrella (see my preview). So MSN OneCare became Windows OneCare Live, briefly, and then Windows Live OneCare, in keeping with the branding used for the other Windows Live offerings.