McAfee VirusScan

McAfee VirusScan

McAfee is an industry leader in computer protection and VirusScan is their #1 defense against viruses. This software comes with a ScriptStopper, to prevent virus to propagate from one computer to another via email, and WormStopper.

Some downsides to the program are it doesn't provide instant message protection, P2P/file sharing protection or registry startup protection. Check out the Gold product if you're looking for these features.

Ease of Use:

If you use the default settings, setup is a breeze. The default settings provide very good protection against viruses, Trojans, worms, malicious ActiveX controls and Java applets.

The SecurityCenter has several tabs besides the VirusScan tab. There is one for Personal Firewall+, Privacy Service and SpamKiller. These are other programs offered by McAfee.

Effectiveness:

VirusScan boasts one of the best virus detection records. The software received the VB100% award for 2007, the ICSA award for 2007 and passed both level 1& 2 Checkmarks from West Coast Labs.

Updates:

McAfee VirusScan 9.0 automatically downloads updated virus definitions from the Internet on a regular basis. Staying up to date will dramatically decrease any possibility that a virus will infect your computer. On Average, McAfee comes out with new virus definitions on a daily basis.

You will have to register and login to get updates-this makes the process longer than it needs be.

Feature Set:

McAfee VirusScan offers a rich list of features. You can set VirusScan to scan your computer at a preprogrammed scheduled time. The program also scans for spyware and adware.

You can't add several tasks to the Scheduled Scan. This would be a nice quality so you could scan all files once a month and only program files weekly or any other tasks you would like to set up.

McAfee has an Antivirus Emergency Response Team that continually monitors the worldwide virus activities to provide you with the utmost safety. The always-on protection guards against viruses, spyware and other Internet threats that may enter your PC via e-mail, instant message attachments, Internet downloads, and web browsing.

Ease of Installation:

We didn't encounter any problems during the installation process.

Help/Support:

McAfee has plenty of help options, including documentation, email and phone support. We were disappointed with their email response time-it took 5 days to respond and they didn't answer all our questions, hence the low rating.

Summary:

McAfee is a name brand product that does an excellent job at detecting and removing viruses. Their update process can be somewhat tedious and their support department needs to answer their emails in a timelier manner.