The report, by Austrian antivirus researcher, Andreas Cleminti, covers 17 different programs and pits them against a range of different viruses and malware. Both fascinatingly, and worryingly for OneCare customers, Microsoft’s effort has come last with an average of an 82.4% detection success rate.

When the top rated software, G Data Security AntiVirusKit, posts a 99.45% average, OneCare has a massive gap that cannot be ignored by consumers worried about the many and varied threats online, whether old, new or ever evolving.

While Computerworld reported a Microsoft spokesman as saying that: “We are looking closely at the methodology and results of the test to ensure that Windows Live OneCare performs better in future tests", coming last really isn’t good enough, is it?

Yes, OneCare is the newest anti-virus and Internet Security product of the bunch, and will no doubt be dramatically improved as time goes by, but still, to come last is shocking. If Microsoft really wants us to take them at their word when they say that security is their No.1 priority, we had either better see some massive updates to the existing OneCare 1.5 engine, or a new, reworked OneCare 2.0 release that is delivered free to existing OneCare 1.5 owners as soon as possible to make up for the complete and total embarrassment of such an amazingly low score from what is supposed to be the world’s No.1 software maker.

After all, if OneCare has come last, how does Microsoft expect anyone to recommend it to others? My own experience of OneCare, which I am currently testing with Windows Vista, is that it is a relatively simple program that has been ‘dumbed down’ for the masses. Only a couple of days ago I plugged in a USB memory stick and copied some files across only to be told that, lo and behold, OneCare had found a virus, and asked if I wanted to clean it.

So... what happened then? Read onto page 2 to find out... and to see how Symantec's Norton, McAffee and even Grisoft's AVG fared in the test.