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CNET Editors' review - McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008
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CNET Editor's rating: 6.7 out of 10
Reviewed by Robert Vamosi Review date: 10/11/07 Release date: 10/01/07 The good: McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008 offers more than three user licenses at $10 per seat, the ability to scan links in IM messages, and the ability to watch movies or play games uninterrupted. The bad: McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008 uses the same interface as last year, lacks hourly updates, and remains somewhere in the middle of pack in our 2008 testing results. The bottom line: McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008's protection keeps up with the changing threats on the Internet, but the product itself doesn't excel. Editors' note: On March 5, 2008, CNET revised its antispyware review ratings to emphasize a product's ability to remove spyware. The new ratings are based on the following formula: Installation (20 percent), Features (20 percent), Performance (50 percent), and Support (10 percent). In most cases a product's rating went down, expanding the range between highest and lowest rated. Many of improvements within McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008 are in the code, which is where you want them to be. McAfee has gone ahead with a silly marketing campaign emphasizing that it alone will protect your desktop, protect your Web browsing with Site Advisor, and will also protect your mobile phone for one price. Which makes us suspicious--why tack on the extras? Two of three "triple play" protections were actually offered last year, and, at the time of this writing, the mobile component still wasn't available for testing. Instead of repackaging itself, McAfee should have pared down the system resources it uses, enhanced its firewall more, tweaked last year's interface, and switched to a more streamlined download and installation process. As it stands Mcafee VirusScan 2008 looks and feels like warmed-over last year's product, with too few "must haves." Bottom line, for solid, award-winning antivirus protection, without the gimmicks and the ever present up sale to more expensive suites, Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2008 remains our Editors' Choice for 2007.
Setup McAfee continues to use a bootstrap method of downloading code to your machine, and then installing it module by module. This year the process was much faster in our informal tests. There's the security center, which you download first, then, depending on the product you purchased, the product itself is downloaded from McAfee to your computer. McAfee claims it can offer the latest build; the alternative is to install the product, then immediately update. What's curious is that McAfee didn't scan our computer (which other AV products have also stopped doing) yet VirusScan Plus insisted our computer was secure on first load (other AV products prompted us to initiate a scan right away). This may be an interface bug or perhaps reflect McAfee's overenthusiasm for its proactive, real-time anti-malware heuristics. It would be nice if it prompted us to run a scan. Should you want to remove McAfee VirusScan Plus, unlike most antivirus products we've seen this year, there is no uninstall option for McAfee in the Windows All Programs listing. Instead, you'll need to use the Windows Control Panel Add/Remove Software option. Unlike last year--when McAfee left a mess--after our reboot, we were pleased to find no evidence left on our machine. In comparison, Norton AntiVirus 2008 leaves behind registry files and some system files.
Interface  McAfee VirusScan 2008 reuses last year's interface without enhancement.
We do like that McAfee has blended its various tools--security, utility, networking--together so that the overall product feels more integrated and whole. Norton still feels like several standalone applications repackaged. This year McAfee VirusScan Plus appears to have rewritten some of its code; it doesn't feel as heavy and clunky as last year's edition. That said, in our performance testing, McAfee remains in the middle of this year's pack of products in terms of overall performance. One additional quibble is that by using the same interface for all its products, McAfee will list Attention under some of the nonused subheadings such as Parental Controls. To turn on Content Blocking, for example, we're told we'll need to buy McAfee Internet Security or McAfee Total Protection. This kind of up sale is unnecessary, and somewhat deceptive (maybe we don't want content blocking, or have it from another product). If you just want an antivirus product, you should be able to buy just an antivirus product.
Features New this year is a free McAfee Virtual Technician an optional plug-in which, when downloaded, will diagnose the state of your McAfee product and computer health and then make recommendations how to fix it--for free. It seems unnecessary, but then again you can't argue with the price. Symantec offers a Norton equivalent, but it'll cost you $69.95 per use. New is the ability for McAfee to scan links within IM messages and rate them. We found that this feature works with latest versions of AOL IM and Yahoo Messenger, two of the most popular IMs today; Norton offers similar protection but only for older builds of Yahoo and AOL. Also new is a feature McAfee calls "State Aware," in which movies, slide shows, and even games play uninterrupted by security alerts or scans whenever you're in full-screen mode. It's a feature we've seen in other antivirus products this year; Norton doesn't offer this. Enhanced over last year is the integration of antivirus, antispyware, firewall, and antiphishing. The heuristics, or System Guards, have also been improved. Missing are more frequent updates of signature files and programs. Kaspersky updates hourly, while McAfee promises only daily updates (although it might, in an emergency, deliver more frequently).
Performance In terms of whether or not McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008 will protect your PC, we cite results from two leading independent antivirus testing organizations. In the latest test results from AV-Comparatives.org, for on-demand scans McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008 earned an Advanced (second-highest) rating, catching 93 percent of all malware tested and tying with Norton AntiVirus 2007. For the Retrospective/Proactive test, McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008 also earned an Advanced (second-highest) rating (PDF). From CheckVir.com, McAfee VirusScan Enterprisewas earned an Advanced rating, which includes both search and antivirus removal. For antispyware protection, McAfee remains solidly in the middle of the pack in our latest CNET antispyware tests. CNET labs conducts three separate tests using spyware found to be bundled within free applications rejected by CNET Download.com (as part of its software policies, Download.com does not host applications containing known spyware). In the first test, active detection, McAfee discovered about 60 percent of the spyware; in the second, on demand test, McAfee detected about 55 percent of the spyware; and in the final, removal test, McAfee removed about 60 percent of the spyware placed on our infected machine.
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Conclusion User opinions - McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008
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Mediocre4.4out of 10
Average user rating from 11 users
3 out of 10 - Poor 2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful. 1 out of 10 - Abysmal 2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful. 8 out of 10 - Excellent 3 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful. 5 out of 10 - Average 2 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful. 1 out of 10 - Abysmal 5 out of 10 - Average 2 out of 10 - Terrible 10 out of 10 - Perfect 2 out of 10 - Terrible 1 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful. 1 out of 10 - Abysmal 1 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful. Full specifications - McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008
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Manufacturer:
McAfee
Part number: VSF08EMB3RUA
Manufacturer Info - McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008
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