Your Windows Live ID is essentially your online identity for all of the Windows Live services, Xbox Live, Zune and other third party websites (such as Expedia.com) that utilize Windows Live ID. If you're using Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger, your Windows Live ID stores all your contacts and email messages. Your Windows Live ID is definitely something you don't want to have compromised and I've got several pointers - or best practices - in keeping your Windows Live ID safe.

Do not hand out your password! Don't give anyone your password to your Windows Live ID. Handing out your password to anyone is simply asking for trouble. Don't even give out your password to friends or family. I can't imagine a reason why they would need it. Just don't give out your Windows Live ID credentials at all.

Be careful giving your Windows Live credentials on non-Microsoft websites. There are some websites out there that will claim they "require" your Windows Live ID credentials for their service. Some sites use this tactic to gain access to your Windows Live ID.

Fact: Microsoft will only ask for your Windows Live ID credentials on login.live.com and nowhere

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As you may have read, the Beta release of Windows Live OneCare 2.5 is now available on Microsoft Connect for folks to start testing. I of course went ahead and installed Windows Live OneCare 2.5 to give it a spin myself. So what's new with Windows Live OneCare 2.5? After installing the Beta myself, I didn't notice anything different over the non-Beta version. I decided to ping the Windows Live OneCare team to see what we can expect with Windows Live OneCare 2.5. They tell me that the Windows Live OneCare 2.5 release is mainly what they call an "under-the-hood" release. That means that we won't see any big  new features like the great OneCare Circle introduced in 2.0.  Going forward with the Windows Live OneCare 2.5 Beta - continue to expect the improvements and changes to remain "under-the-hood" and not very noticeable in the UI.

In testing the Windows Live OneCare 2.5 Beta, I noticed after installing it on one of my PCs and signing in with my Windows Live ID that contains my OneCare Subscription - it was not displaying my OneCare Circle. This was because

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