McAfee VirusScan Plus 2009

Mcafee VirusScan plus gives you antivirus, antispyware and firewall in one easy to use package.

McAfee’s real-time protection is great at blocking viruses and for the most part it will strip out malware from downloads, but we did manage to sneak nearly 40% of known malware past it. For a mainstream user this is fine, but for advanced PC users this might not cut it. It was great at catching certain cookies and helper applications that load into web browsers without your consent. The issue we had was newer adware sites did not get blocked thoroughly. If you are downloading ActiveX controls or files it is pretty good at blocking the malware, just don’t rely too heavily on it to clean all of it up, especially scanning and removing spyware that is already on your computer, as we experienced it missing 2 out 5 applications on our system.

McAfee VirusScan comes bundled with many newer computers, aiding in its popularity. I would not suggest this as a purchase and depending on your level of use you could definitely get away with using a free antivirus software like PC Tools in comparison of what you get from McAfee. However it is a reputable brand and it is very good at tracking and removing viruses. One good feature is that you can schedule scans, and using the QuickScan function you can save scan times by restricting the scan to one area. For example, you could just schedule your scan to scan the desktop folder or shared folder if you have been downloading files there from P2P networks, etc.

The firewall works well and is non intrusive for the most part. You can block security holes on your system and restrict access to certain sites. The new SiteAdvisor tool is a helpful feature. It will alert you beforehand if you are going to click a potentially hazardous link to spyware or malware.

Updates are done on a daily basis typically, unless there are emergencies of course. McAfee’s dedicated Threat Center does a great job keeping in sync with the latest threats. They have designed a nice product, great for students and small networks because of the small price tag per license ($10), but if you are looking for something this basic, you may want to try a free antivirus program first.

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