After discussion last week that Windows Live OneCare 1.6 had been released, it is now available to all users from onecare.live.com. Users already running OneCare will be upgraded over the next few weeks, however you may prefer not to wait.

Changes in 1.6 include the ability to disable the firewall permanently (Firewall - Firewall Advanced Settings - Managing and Sharing) or for a certain period of time (slide the firewall slider to the bottom) as well as a monthly report of firewall activity available from the OneCare dashboard.

OneCare also improved its performance in the virus scan test which saw it placed last back in February, showing that as promised, the team is putting more work into the OneCare detection. Unfortunately it is still ranked 14th out of 17 products tested. Technical details of the test are available from ComputerWorld (via Donna).

No sign yet of the OneCare 2.0 beta, but as always if you have any support issues with OneCare, head over to the Windows Live OneCare forums.

Update: Added some more info.