Make Windows Live OneCare work with IE8 beta on Vista

If you haven’t heard of Windows Live OneCare online service you should try it. It allows you to scan and clean your system from malicious software, cleanup temporary and other unnecessary files and defragment your disks for faster system response, with just a few clicks. You can use its online service for free (via an ActiveX control that runs inside Internet Explorer) without interfering with your existing antivirus (if you decide to get the locally installable demo application or buy for the full version you should uninstall your antivirus, since two realtime scanners on the same system are most of the times a resource hog).

If you have Vista and have installed the latest Internet Explorer 8 beta version you may have found that the OneCare online facility doesn’t work anymore (shows a blank popup dialog when you try to launch it). The solution is to use IE’s compatibility mode, but since that button isn’t visible at the end of the address bar as usually for the Live OneCare URL, you have to use "Tools/Compatibility View Settings" menu and select (temporarily) to see all sites in compatibility mode. I originally tried adding the URL to the sites to be shown in compatibility mode but it ignored the "Add" button’s action, so I resorted to the temporary setting of all sites to compatibility mode which then makes OneCare Live work fine (even though OneCare Live online service is still in "beta" version for Vista).