Rating: 
Summary: McAfee A#1
Review: After having Norton av 2004 crashing my 2 year old Dell it was time to finally get rid of Norton. I decided to give McAfee 8.0 a chance regardless of other negative reviews that I had read about it. I have to say that I am very pleased with this product. It installed with no problem and I don't have any annoying pop-up's that other people are writing about. I am glad I switched from the over-priced poor performing Norton av. NORTON IS THE VIRUS !!!
Rating: 
Summary: Cranky piece of software
Review: As a long time Norton AntiVirus user, I switched to McAfee VirusScan about four months ago. Big, big mistake. Does it stop viruses, worms, and trojans? Yea, when the software is working. Unlike Norton AntiVirus, McAfee VirusScan is prone to script errors and all sorts of the other little bugs. This renders your PC unable to scan your files. As an example, if you change your date format from the typical mm/dd/yyyy format, McAfee goes crazy. It doesn't work. From what I can tell, McAfee must use Internet Explorer as its framework or something. Very annoying.Well, then I started getting more script errors that were supposedly related to Microsoft's task scheduler. After finding that all of McAfee's FAQs on the subject didn't help, I tried talking with McAfee's chat support. I could tell that the poor guy on the other end was justing cutting and pasting potentional solutions. I kept telling him that I had already tried all his suggestions, but he couldn't take the hint. After a while, he wanted me to check with Microsoft support for help. Talk about passing the buck. And have you ever tried to get support from Microsoft? Yea, right. So I ended up deleting McAfee VirusScan from my PC. I went back to Norton AntiVirus 2004 this week and feel much more secure now. Seriously. I don't know why I tried switching in the first place. Norton always worked like a charm. I'm sticking with Norton AntiVirus from now on.
Rating: 
Summary: Much better than Norton
Review: First off, let me tell you what I believe: there's no single piece of perfect anti-virus software on the market today. Different users swear by different products. I have tried all the major anti-virus packages: McAfee, Panda, Trend Micro, NAV, AVG, etc. All have pros and cons. My strong feelings are: NAV 2004 is absolutely the worst (kills your system, screws up your e-mails, leaves undocumented files on your system...); AVG has a free edition which is good for basic anti-virus needs; Panda is buggy (disabled my IE); and you'll do well with either McAfee or Trend Micro.
I run MVS 2004 v8.0 on my Dell desktop which is exposed to lots of potential Internet security risks, and the software runs seamlessly, unlike the terrible experience I had with NAV 2004 Professional. It also scans faster than NAV, and has not crashed once so far. Updating virus definition could be simpler, and McAfee likes to push ads on you (just like Symantec), but at least my system is well protected. For this alone, I think MVS deserves four stars.
My recommendation: stay away from NAV 2004 - it's the worst program ever written; try Panda for 30 days to see if it works for you; get AVG free edition (at grisoft dot com) if you don't surf the web endlessly like me; get McAfee (...); get Trend Micro if all else fails.
In any case, do not let more than one anti-virus program run at the same time on your system. Also, download free spyware busters like Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy (from download dot com) regularly until Microsoft improves IE security.
Rating:
Summary: Does everything it needs to
Review: Having just switched from Norton Antivirus to McAfee VirusSan this year, I'm very satisfied with the job McAfee does. It has a similar feature to Live Update where it loads new virus definition updates automatically in the background when there are any available. The updates subscription is the same as Norton's--one year. The interface is a bit more cluttered than Norton's, but it's a very minor downside. I'd happily buy next year's version of VirusScan if it was available this cheap again!
Rating: 
Summary: Works ok, but has significant drawbacks.
Review: I did some research before I bought this and felt like it would be my best bet. Benchmark testing and my own experience with the corporate version at work confirm that this is significantly faster than Norton/Symantec, and less of a drain on the system. Norton also has a well deserved reputation of causing lockups and other problems in Windows. Lastly, McAfee does seem to take the role of finding new viruses very seriously.
Others have mentioned the annoying interface of this software, which is a thinly veiled attempt to sell you other software. I could look past this aspect if it weren't for some of the other issues, but it is pretty cheesy.
My only real issues with this software are:
1) The software is very tightly integrated into the Internet Explorer web browser. In order for it to run, I had to lower my security settings in the *Internet Zone*, even just to open the software when not connected to the web. Specifically, you have to enable ActiveX and JavaScript (again this isn't in the local intranet or trusted zones it is in the Internet Zone, so every site you visit will now have these permissions!). This even goes against Microsoft's recommended settings. This is the software equivalent of a burglar alarm making you keep your deadbolts unlocked. What were they thinking? Hopefully they will fix this in the future, but for now this is a deal killer for me.
2) Less important but still a nuisance is the way the software updates virus definitions. Instead of the software connecting directly to the home server to download updates behind the scenes like other packages do, this one always opens a browser window. This slows the process down, and requires you to customize IE security settings further unless you are running IE wide open (good luck protecting your PC if you are!). It also requires a two stage process with 2 different applications using different ports and going to different IP ranges, so configuring the firewall is much harder than it should be.
I ended up buying Panda Titanium anti virus, and am truly delighted with it. No weird integration into the web browser so I can keep security settings high, and it downloads 60-80 new virus definitions daily without the complicated McAfee process. Because the overhead is less the downloads are really short. Perhaps most important, it scans far faster than McAfee and requires fewer system resources. I scan my PC daily now because it is so painless. I still own the McAfee software, but wouldn't dream of re installing it instead of Panda.
One last note: Most IT guys I've spoken with have stopped using Internet Explorer for general web browsing at home (still use it for the near weekly windows critical security updates). IE has become a hackers magnet, with several major exploits occurring just in the last 6 months. Instead they use Firefox by Mozilla (free), or Opera (free and paid versions). I've switched to Firefox, and so far have had excellent luck.
Rating: 
Summary: problems, problems, problems
Review: I don't like to write negative reviews, but this product screams for one. Over the last 8 years I have purchased McAfee virus protector 6 times. It is suppose to be the best, so every time I get a new computer or change the operating system, I get a fresh copy because I think "this time it will work." I blamed myself thinking it was probably a problem with my computer or something I did. Well, now I know considerably more about computers and repair them. The McAfee operation is great if you get it to work, but for most of us it doesn't. Tech people will tell you that a lot of people have problems with this software. If you have bought once and it does not work, please take my advice and do not buy it again. In addition, when it does work, it is constantly interupting your computer by trying to get you to buy more of their products, even if you ask them not to. That McAfee icon pops up once an hour no matter what program I am using, it is so irritating. As you can see, I am fed up with mcafee. So my advice is - if you buy it once and it doesn't work, don't ever buy it again.
Rating:
Summary: McAfee does a great JOB
Review: I have a gateway computer, and my computer was having problems with some worm i got. Anyways, they told me that I needed to get norton, funny thing was, I already had there free trial, that was suppose to work for 90days, I tried the free trial at McAfee, and my computer started to work...I guess norton does work but it is so much more. McAfee does exactly the same thing as Norton with the only difference being $$$$. After a week I bought McAfee Internet Security suite. That is the best protection I have ever had!
Rating:
Summary: Great so far!
Review: I haven't had any problems with this like other users writing reviews have. It has really helped my system run smoothly, and it takes out a trojan virus or so just about every day. I just hope they come through with the rebate they promised.
Rating:
Summary: McAfee sent back
Review: I've been using AVG Anti Virus for several months. I was told that Mc Afee was better. So I decided to upgrade to the better product. This is the first product I've paid for that hit me with advertisements. Then every time I boot I have screens that let me know I don't have other Mc Afee products installed. The system check told me of I was not safe as I did not have some of the products installed. The last straw was when they sent my rebate back for no UPC code enclosed, a bold lie. This was the last straw. I'm now back to the free AVG Anti virus. They have updates almost daily way more than Mc Afee, my system runs faster, I don't look at "nag" screens, and I'm virus free. This time the free product is better. Keep your money and let you computer run better! They don't make it easy to get your money back.
Rating:
Summary: Good antivirus software
Review: I've been using McAfee VirusScan software for about 6 years, and Version 8.0 for almost a year and I've never had any problems with it. The updates are automatically installed, and lately seems like there is an update every couple days .. I just get an informational message that it's been installed for me. I've never been infected with a worm or virus in the last 6 years, so I can't speak to what kind of experience one has with the McAfee support staff if does happen. But then again, I consider it must have pretty good protection if I've never been infected even once when many people I know have been. (I am also running the ZoneAlarm Pro firewall, which I very highly recommend.) I bought Ver 8 because I was used to the McAfee user interface, and several PC magazines rated it tops recently. One thing that disappointed me about the most recent version is that they no longer have a logging mechanism to keep track of what happens during a scan (I was trying to run scans through WIN XP Task Scheduler and wanted to make sure scans were running properly ... And by the way, when I sent McAfee support an email message asking about this, I received a response in less than 24 hours, explaining that indeed the logger was removed in version 8, and by the way there's currently a bug in WIN XP Task Scheduler functionality.) All in all, I'll stick with McAfee...
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