Let me make this very clear: I have been using Windows Vista (Ultimate) RTM since two weeks now and so far I love and like it a lot. It increased my personal and business productivity big time.

Microsoft has made significant efforts in many, many areas one being transparency. I am not referring to the appealing visual transparency of the pleasant new Vista Aero style here. I mean transparency in its original sense: Windows Vista keeps users informed everywhere and anywhere as to what a specific setting means and you find a vast number of More info… links in almost all of Vista’s system dialogs. This is a great enhancement to the user interface.

With the above said I almost cannot believe what happens to one of the most important areas of the new operating system – namely security – once you have installed Windows Live OnceCare 1.5 – which admittedly is still in beta.

The following screen depicts my current Windows Vista desktop:

As you can see Windows Firewall clearly states “Windows Firewall is off.” and urges me to turn it on.

Windows Live OneCare Settings however tell a different story: My firewall is set to Automatic which is recommended and therefore I should be fine and safe.

Doing a search for “firewall” in the Start menu (btw: the Start menu search feature is great!) returns two firewalls, an advanced one and, hmm, a not so advanced one?

So what does this mean? Is my firewall active – as OneCare tells me? Or is it not active – as my Network and Sharing Center indicates? Which firewall shall I use? The normal one? The advanced one?

Well, as it turns out the OneCare firewall is indeed active. So everything is fine. Except the warnings of the Vista security center and its wrong recommendations to turn the firewall on.

This sensible area needs to be reworked quickly or it will confuse other users besides me.