Microsoft is confirming what many have known for some time. That OneCare is deleting users' email files.
"The program did a scheduled update and then did the normal scan on my hard drive," Kevin Kimp wrote in an email to Computerworld. "The next time I opened Microsoft Outlook, I got a message stating that Outlook could not find the file outlook.pst. This program has done more damage to my computer and my business than any virus or spyware that I have ever had."
What is happening is that when OneCare detects malware in an email attachment, it will quarantine the entire .pst (Outlook) or .dbx (Outlook Express) file. The fix is to close Outlook, go into OneCare, go to the quarantine section and restore the erroneously removed file.
A fix is due out with the next scanning engine update on March 13th.
This comes on the heels of OneCare coming in dead last in an independent test by AV-Comparatives of 16 different antivirus products. In fact:
"Microsoft OneCare performed very low in the test and did not reach the minimum requirements for participation," Andreas Clementi wrote in the report (PDF). "Due (to) that, its inclusion in future tests of this year (will) have to be re-evaluated."
I have been involved with OneCare since the beta phase, and I'm still testing the product. It definitely still needs some work, but hopefully Microsoft can learn from these setbacks and continue to improve the product.