Average Customer Review: ( 97 customer reviews )
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30 of 31 found the following review helpful:
 Great program...but... Sep 21, 2002
While McAfee has certainly raised the bar for its Virus protection, this latest public offering grates a little on my nerves. What gets my goat, you ask? The infuriating lack of a "Disable System Scanning" option that was available in previous versions of the program. This means that system scanning, e-mail scanning, and internet scanning are no longer separate (and individually tweakable) functions. In 7.0, if you turn of scanning, you turn off just about everything else. With my aging, but still spry, Windows 98 machine, I am forced to sacrifice my used-to-be-comfortable-speed before the altar of complete virus protection. Since I have a solid, stand alone computer, a virus' chance of sneaking into my system came only through e-mail or a malicious website. I didn't need to do constant, in-depth system scanning and I still don't need to now. Windows XP users, or others with more super-capacity capabilites, may not find this a problem but for us lite-internet surfers with older machines, it can be a major hassle. To be fair, I'll give it a couple of weeks but if I'm still not impressed, it's back to its predecessor.To sum up: Is the program great? Yes. Firewall fantastic? You betcha. And it's got more bells and whistles than most fire trucks. But as for individual customization? I give it a big, fat "[zero]"!
17 of 17 found the following review helpful:
 Great program IF it installs properly, & support costs $$$! Oct 25, 2002
By Michael Cluff
"Geek-for-Hire"
McAfee's one of the premier virus scanners around. However, like with the proverbial 600-pound gorilla Microsoft, McAfee can cop a major attitude with customers. When I upgraded my XP machine from VirusScan 6.0 to 7.0, I had to go through several install-reboot-unistall-reboot-reinstall-reboot cycles before the installation finally "took." Until I hit the jackpot, the program wouldn't initiate properly, would hang, would crash after popping up unintelligible error messages, or wouldn't "remember" settings from a previous session. Worst of all, if you aren't lucky enough to have a successful installation, you have to PAY FOR CUSTOMER SUPPORT TO GET THE PROGRAM YOU PAID FOR TO WORK PROPERLY. (You can use the online help service for free -- but this will be helpful only if your issue is a FAQ.) Imagine if you purchased a new car that wouldn't start properly and you had to pay the dealer to tell you how to fix it. A 60 Minutes camera crew would be at the dealership's doors!
18 of 19 found the following review helpful:
 This product is fantastic! Sep 06, 2002
I've pre-ordered VirusScan 7.0 because I used the beta version and I was EXTREMELY impressed. Very stable, easy-to-use, and comes with an excellent firewall. I have found the slowdown problems of the past version to be nonexistent. I have VirusScan set to run in the background scanning all files with heuristics scanning and there is no noticeable performance impact! The beta version I am using is so good I just had to pre-order the final release! The firewall is NOT a cheap add-on to allow McAfee to add another blurb on the box...it is a full featured firewall that I find much better than ZoneAlarm. It is nicely integrated with VirusScan, too. The updating features are especially impressive...McAfee gives you a great level of control over the virus definition updating process that Norton simply does not.
17 of 18 found the following review helpful:
 Save yourself some money and don't get mcafee Nov 06, 2002
My company uses McAfee and I spend a good portion of my week helping users resolve virus problems and damaged caused by viruses. I've also used other Anti-virus software and from my experience McAfee has been the least reliable and the most problematic. First of all, they are usually the last to release DAT files to catch and repair viruses. Second, they have released DAT files and superDAT (virus scan engine) files that have caused their application to either consume 99-100% of cpu time or to misreport activity as a virus and prompt the user to delete the file. This happened to me once last year and again 2 weeks ago. Thirdly, if you plan to visit their homepage, get a popup killer. The main page is loaded with pop up ads trying to market various products. Fourth, the virus removal tools or registry edits, when available, are typically not designed for the average user to implement. Personally, the first places I check for virus removal tools and information are Trend Micro and Symantec. If you're looking for a reliable and more user friendly antivirus application, I would suggest purchasing Norton/Symantec Antivirus. If you're looking for something that is free, try AVG Antivirus. I haven't tried this myself, but I've heard it is a good application that offers free antivirus updates.
13 of 13 found the following review helpful:
Competitive Upgrade = Great Value Oct 29, 2002
By Thomas Landis
Can't beat the price of this item (after rebate). In the battle between Norton and McAfee, now McAfee offers a competitive upgrade rebate that allows you to get money back even if you are upgrading from a Norton product. I'd stack this anti-virus program up against anything on the market for the home user and have found the interface to be very user friendly. Updates via the web are very easy and can be automated to occur when you connect. You can schedule your drives for scanning anytime and this version even comes with McAfee's Firewall program which keeps your PC safe while connected to the web.
BOTTOM LINE: A 1st class product with an unbeatable price (after rebate)
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