A while back, I reviewed the free, online PC tools Microsoft makes available by visiting onecare.live.com and clicking on the Safety scanner link. There you find three online tools: Protection, Clean up, and Tune up.

The free version works fine though a little slowly and, of course, relies on your having a broadband Internet connection.

For the past three days, I’ve been trying the real thing, called Windows Live OneCare, which is a subscription service available for download or at select retail outlets such as Best Buy and Office Depot.

OneCare, as the name implies, takes care of far more than viruses. It means to be an unnecessary-file cleaner, a disk defragmenter, an antivirus, spyware and anti-phishing fighter, as well as an automated backup system. And let’s not forget the network firewall.

It, too, requires an always-on, broadband connection to process its automatic updates.

Two questions well worth asking are: How does it work, and how well does it work?

The answer to the first question is that it works in the background according to a schedule it sets up, unless you alter that schedule. It won’t backup your important files unless you set it up, but once you do, it automates that, as well.

For someone like me, who has been taking all these tasks seriously and regularly maintains his computers’ health, OneCare is an effective alternative, although with free programs like AVG Free Edition antivirus and Windows own free anti-spyware program Defender, which I’ve been using the past couple of years, it’s hard to justify the expense.

That expense, by the way, is $49.95 per year for up to three computers. I’m currently testing the service on my powerful Vista desktop computer, my Toshiba Pentium 4 Satellite Pro laptop, also running Vista, and my small Toshiba Pentium III Portégé with Windows XP, Service Pack 2.

The download and installation was quick and easy, and since I have a 500-gigabyte external hard drive for a backup device, I quickly set up the backup parameters and pointed OneCare at the right device.

For my laptops, it wasn’t that easy. I’d wanted to backup over my wireless network to my backup drive, but some error always occurred that I couldn’t overcome. Instead, I created a backup folder on my desktop computer for each of my laptops and pointed OneCare towards them. It accepted that, and since my laptops aren’t clogged with hordes of documents anyway, there’s likely going to be little impact on my desktop’s 400-gigabyte internal hard drive.

How well does OneCare work? Quite well, actually. For those of you who wouldn’t know disk defragmentation from a spyware program, OneCare is truly one-stop shopping. I had to tweak the program and recreate my network to get all my computers set up, but it didn’t seem like any big deal. Plus, for once, Microsoft offers lots of support online or by phone.

As for the cost, it’s probably a wash and worth it for the automated tune-ups.

The only downside I see is the time it takes to run. Since it does it mostly in the background, you won’t notice much slowdown, though you may have to leave your computer on longer than you’re used to.

Nonetheless, I certainly recommend the product.