VirusScan Home 8.0

Even worse, and yes it can get worse, this product will frequently pop up alerts that make it look as if your computer is infected with a virus! When you click on them, surprise! They're really just more adds for McAfee antivirus software. Yep, you're getting adds for the product you just bought.
But wait, we're not done yet! There are not less than 5 different boxes you must de-select during the install process to avoid getting e-mail spam from McAfee and their "business partners". This is particularly annoying as you're required to give your name and e-mail address just to load the program in the first place.

Finally, if all this wasn't bad enough, the antivirus updates are delivered in a cumbersome series of pop-up windows inside a browser. If you use pop-up blocking software they won't work and you wont get updates. What you will get however, are error messages asking you to reboot your computer endlessly.

In short, this is without a doubt, the worst anti-virus product I have ever owned. It is intrusive, invasive and literally bombards you with ads. Do yourself a favor and buy Norton Antivirus instead.

18 of 19 found the following review helpful:

McAfee Internet Security Suite: 80% bad, 20% Ads  Jan 12, 2004

McAfee Internet Security Suite: 2004 (v 6.0)

I gave it 2 stars because I can see what the folks at McAfee are trying to do. I just wish it was done one product at a time. The bundle is not worth the effort...it should have stayed in a test lab until they got it right.

Setting: The biggest issue I have with this product is that the profile settings seem to "get lost" with each downloaded update. I have to re-set the "safe list" and verify my product EVERYTIME AN UPDATE IS REALESED. Another issue is that if you are a "limited user" using 2000/XP/XP-Pro, you can "see the options" the Admin as setup, but can't change them.

Warning Messages: There are far too many for me. I am no expert in IT; however I am not a novice either. I can tell you if this were on a novice's PC; they would be set to throw the laptop out the window. The silliest message was one I just got, after a Privacy Update was installed, that says "Internet Explorer is trying to access the internet. What would like to do?" How about letting me ONLINE!!

OK, so I can see using a "thin client" (i.e. a web browser's interface) to get updates. It makes sense, you are online anyway, why not use the person's browser rather than load a larger app? What I have an issue with is (a) this won't work if your pop-up blocker is ON... (b) U/N and P/W??? What's the purpose for this? I BOUGHT YOUR PRODUCT, LOADED IT AND REGISTERED! WHY MAKE ME CREATE AN ACCOUNT?

Finally, WHY ON EARTH WOULD A PROGRAM CALLED SPAMKILLER CONSTANTLY HAVE A VIRUS WITHIN IT'S OWN DIRECTORY???? Yes, you read right. I was told by this it's own ActiveShield utility, that there was an infected file, 4 times mind you, in the SpamKiller directory. What's that about?

I've had it with this product. I'm going back to Norton's SystemWorks 2003, and Norton's Personal Firewall 2003 (ALL of Norton's 2004 version are a big mess, and a waste of hard drive space, RAM, and time)

15 of 16 found the following review helpful:

Stick with 7.0  Dec 12, 2003
By Brian Kelly
Instead of purchasing a virus scanner, I have purchased the McAfee product dashboard. This kindly informs me that I only rate a 5.8 out of 10 on my "security index" (whatever that is). All I have to do to score a 10 is buy all their other products.

McAfee should be ashamed of themselves for the blatant advertising of their other products embedded into the application. The tray icon with quick access to the McAfee Store is particularly offensive.

In terms of feature set, this version adds no apparent value over the previous version. In fact, some features seem to be missing (cannot seem to fine-tune the scan settings), or maybe are just so well-hidden as to appear missing.

The Updater application no longer runs in the background, requiring manual checks for updates (note that McAfee claims it runs in the background, but it does not actually do so--the "Install Automatically" option has yet to download a DAT file). Strangely, the Updater runs in a browser popup requiring one to remember to turn off popup blockers in order to make it work.

The "improved" scanning engine now detects "potentially unwanted" applications. If you happen to have something that makes the cut, you will be reminded on every scan--if there is a way to exclude a file, it is exceptionally well hidden.

In short, if you do not currently own a virus scanner, then this one will do the job. If you already have one, do not bother "upgrading" to this one.

10 of 10 found the following review helpful:

Disaster  Jan 15, 2004

I can't remember ever having a worse software nightmare. Nothing worked the same once I installed it - this garbage installed a virus on my machine! The pop-ups were horrendous and it disabled my spyware and ad-shield software. An entire day wasted because once I knew I was getting rid of it, then the real hassles started trying to un-install. Of course I could not get through to their phone for 30-day $$ back so I just wrote them a note and called American Express. There should be a law against this software.

See all 24 customer reviews on Amazon.com