McAfee VirusScan Plus Review

Review

Overall: 9

McAfee has come a long way to recover from the well-deserved reputation of "resource hog", earned over many years of "bloatware" preinstalled on branded computers. The new VirusScan plus is a good product, with several basics but no stand-out feature, in addition to the excellent virus detection, that is. All in all, it comes out as the "jack of all trades".

Detection Rate: 10

McAfee’s VirusScan Plus shows one of the highest detection rates on the market. Even more impressively, it does so with a very low number of “false positives”. It has to be noted though, that these performances are achieved through their Active Protection technology, which sends out small fingerprints of suspicious files when an Internet connection is still available.

Light on resources: 7

A mixed bag, this section for VirusScan Pus. The amount of memory required in normal operation can be very substantial, and the CPU resources absorbed during a full scan can settle around 40%-50%. Despite that, the sensation of a “freezing machine”, which was a traditional “feature” in all older versions, has practically disappeared.

Ease of Use: 8

The McAfee SecurityCenter offers a nice centralised control system, in all sections, and McAfee SystemGuards throws perfectly understandable alerts to the user. Particularly useful the SiteAdvisor, which rates web site safety before you click with red, yellow or green colors. Some other accessories in VirusScan Plus verge on the brink of “gimmickry”.

Features: 7

• Anti-virus, anti-spyware, and SiteAdvisor offer protection from malicious software
• Scans all Web, e-mail and instant messaging traffic in real-time
• Two-way Firewall Protection to block hackers
• Site Advisor rates web site safety
• Anti-phishing function to alert you of websites that may try to steal your identity
• QuickClean safely removes junk files that slow your PC and take up space on your hard drive

Scan Speed: 5

VirusScan Plus’ scan speed is quite low. While not a deal-breaker in itself, this outcome is very surprising, given the amount of resources absorbed during the process. One can’t help wondering why.

Value for money: 8

In terms of features, it provides a seemingly “wide” range of basic functions: an excellent antivirus, an average antispyware and an average firewall. The average price, together with the number of licenses (3) makes McAfee a robust “middle of the road” choice.

Specifications

Supported Operating Systems

• Microsoft® Windows 2000 (32-bit) with Service Pack 4 (SP4) or higher
• Windows XP (32-bit) with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or higher
• Windows Vista (32- or 64-bit) and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) or higher

Hardware and Software Requirements

• 800 X 600 or higher resolution
• 256 MB RAM
• 75 MB of available free drive space
• Internet connection
• Microsoft® Internet Explorer 6.0 or later
• Optional: Mozilla Firefox 1.5 or later

Supported Email Programs

• POP3 – Outlook Express, Outlook, Eudora, Netscape, IncrediMail and Thunderbird;
• Japanese only: Shuriken, Becky and PostPet
• MAPI – Outlook
• Web – MSN/Hotmail, or email account with POP3 access

Screenshots