McAfee, earlier known as Network Associates has one of the most popular antivirus programs in McAfee VirusScan. This software is for home as well as business / office use, whereas there is VirusScan Plus package for corporates. The VirusScan program was initially developed for Windows but another program has subsequently been developed for Mac computers.
- Installation– Installing is uncomplicated and does not take much time to transfer to the hard disk drive of the computer. System requirements are similar to that required by other competing software.
- Features and Ease of Use– The McAfee VirusScan Plus program has antispyware as well as outbound and inbound firewall protection features in addition to the standard antivirus program. There is a daily update of virus definitions and signatures. The ‘SiteAdvisor’ rates websites based on tests for spam, phishing and malware, while ‘X-Ray’ detects rootkits. Pop-up reminders for various actions appear randomly and cannot be disabled. There is on access file scanning and ‘SystemGuards’ checks computer activity for hacking and infections. All these features are also available on the McAfee VirusScan Enterprise, for bigger networked systems.
- PerformanceReviews – Overall McAfee VirusScan has received favourable reviews and its popularity proves its effectiveness. Scanning speed is reasonably fast and updates keep track of the latest virus and other threats. However, there have been concerns that the program sometimes fails to detect a few common viruses; this has been reported in independent studies and also by Virus Bulletin. CNET had reviewed VirusScan 2006 and found product performance deficiencies in 2 out of 3 tests. Consumers had also encountered technical difficulties while using this version of VirusScan. McAfee VirusScan has a reputation of using maximum CPU cycles to do its work; this is especially true of the earlier versions. Moreover, there is a tendency by the system to keep quarantining false positive files, even though the user knows they are clean and restores them
- Help and Support– Chat, email and limited telephone support is available, though many customers have complained that the support staff frequently cannot answer concerns and being very slow in coming back with the correct answers.
- Other Issues – Cost of the product is comparatively high; there could have been more value for money. There are no free basic antiviral services as is offered by some competitors. Memory requirement is on the higher side.
McAfee has a good reputation as a provider of popular and effective software that has more features than many of its competitors. It seems that while its research and development wing is pretty strong in coming out with new products and features, the back-up provided by customer service is woefully lacking. The follow–up regarding complaints and suggestions also does not seem up to the mark as some features criticised in earlier versions have not been modified in later ones. McAfee needs to gets its house in order and look into those aspects mentioned above and by other reviewers to regain top spot in the antivirus products it offers.