McAfee Virus Scan Plus 2010 Download:

VERSION:  Windows 7 / Vista / XP / 2000, Single User PRICE:  $39.99 - $10 Instant Savings! $29.99 Other Versions:  McAfee Internet Security 2010 - $34.99 (Save 50%)

Review of McAfee VirusScan Plus 2010: McAfee VirusScan is still one of the more popular Antivirus programs, however, its Performance & Effectiveness over recent years has been questionable - let's see if the 2010 version has any noticeable improvements over previous versions. 1) Installation:   McAfee VirusScan 2010 installs in just over 3 minutes (3 minutes and 4 seconds), and requires no reboots after installation before using the computer. New this year, McAfee 2010 has a Pre-Scan that takes about 1 minute to complete. This can be a good feature to ensure a trouble-free installation, however, McAfee should offer users an option to skip the scan if they don't wish to scan their computer. Yes, it's only 1 minute, but... (See Installation Time Comparison Graph) 2) Features & Ease of Use:   McAfee 2010's program interface is almost exactly the same as last year's version - McAfee 2009. Like last year there is still a Basic Menu and an Advanced Menu. However, there is almost no difference between these 2 except that Advanced mode gives the user the ability to "Restore" files from Quarantine that may have been mistakenly deleted by McAfee. With only this minor difference McAfee could do away with these 2 different modes - even though a few more options are given in Advanced mode. In addition to Virus & Spyware protection that McAfee provides, it also has a two-way Firewall and provides Anti-Phishing protection - both of which aren't seen in your standard Antivirus package. McAfee has several additional tools included such as McAfee QuickClean (which cleans temporary files, old registry keys, etc), Disk Defragmenter (which is actually a Windows program that McAfee "borrows"), and Task Scheduler. Also, included in VirusScan is McAfee SiteAdvisor which lets you know if a website is safe or not when you do a web search on Google or another search engine (currently works with IE but not FireFox browser). Overall, McAfee provides a good feature set (although it could use better Logs and more user information) and a simple to use interface, but there are few improvements over last year, and in the ultra-competitive Antivirus market no progress is a bad thing - hence the slightly lower marks this year. New Features:     • McAfee Active Protection - provides immediate protection against malicious threats to your PC, rather than waiting hours for traditional techniques.     • Battery Mode - decreases power consumption by delaying power intensive operations until your laptop is plugged in. Features Checklist: Anti-Spyware Anti-Rootkit Bot Protection Email Scanning IM Protection Trojan Protection Worm Protection Anti-Phishing Two-way Firewall 3) Virus Scanner:   McAfee has 3 scanning options: Quick Scan, Full Scan, and Custom Scan (called "Let Me Choose"). McAfee 2010 performed a Quick Scan in a respectable 3 minutes and 37 seconds. Further testing found McAfee's Virus Scanner to scan at a pace of 12.8 MB/s, which translates into scanning 50GB of used hard-drive space in almost 67 minutes. This places McAfee 2010 as the slowest scanning Antivirus program we tested - taking almost double as long as the 2 quickest scanning programs: Avast and Norton 2010. (See Scan Time Comparison Graph) Updates: McAfee 2010 provides only 1 update per day (1.3 to be precise). This is still one of the fewest virus-definition updates of any major Antivirus program - by comparison Norton provides over 200 updates per day. A slow virus scanner coupled with some of the fewest updates in the industry leaves us unimpressed with McAfee's virus scanner. (See Updates Per Day Comparison Graph) 4) Performance Testing:   A good Antivirus program should not only protect your computer from Viruses but also not slow down the Performance of your computer too much by using up your computer's resources. We run each Antivirus program through a set of Performance tests to see the impact it has on the computer. View the results below of our Antivirus testing for McAfee 2010... • Memory Use: McAfee 2010 uses 74.2 MB of system memory. This is the most memory used by any Antivirus program, and the #10 rated of the 10 Antivirus programs we tested. • Reboot Time: McAfee added 11.6 seconds to our test computer's reboot time. #7 rated of the 10 Antivirus programs tested. • Installation Size: McAfee VirusScan 2010 takes 162 MB of hard-drive space for installation. #3 rated of the 10 Antivirus programs tested, and McAfee's best result in our 2010 Performance Tests. • Application Launch Time: McAfee added 0.188s on average to launch a web browser. This was the #7 rated program tested. • File Conversion Time: McAfee added 1.12s on average to convert a MP3 file to four other file types. #8 rated of the 10 Antivirus programs tested. • System Impact Score: The "System Impact Score" is a comparative score tallied from the above 5 Antivirus tests. McAfee 2010 scored a total of only 20 out of 50 points (7th place overall) when compared to the other Antivirus programs. These results show no improvement over last year - perhaps next year McAfee will finally address these performance issues. • View graphs of the above Antivirus Performance Tests. 5) Effectiveness: (Virus/Malware Detection) The most important function of an Antivirus program is to keep your computer free from Viruses and other Malware. Below we'll take a look at some of the industry's top Virus/Malware Detection testing and certification. a) AV Comparatives has 2 major Virus/Malware tests each year. In the most recent test in November, the Proactive Test, McAfee was rated only 1 out of 3 Stars. In the 2nd test, the On Demand Detection Test, McAfee performed slightly better - receiving a 2-Star rating. Overall, only average test results for these critical Antivirus tests. (*AV Comparatives is an independent Antivirus testing lab in Austria providing some of the most trusted Virus detection tests in the industry.) b) ICSA Labs Certified. ICSA is an independent organization that sets standards for security products and certifies anti-virus software. c) Virus Bulletin's VB 100% Certified. McAfee VirusScan passed the most recent VB100 test (Dec./09), and has passed all 5 tests this year so far. The VB 100% award is given to antivirus software that detects all viruses "in the wild." d) West Coast Labs' Checkmark Anti-Virus Desktop Certification. WCL specializes in functionality testing, performance validation and Checkmark Certification of security products. 6) Help & Support:   McAfee VirusScan includes in-program Help Files (adequate, but not great), Support Forums (called McAfee Communities), free Chat and Email, limited free Phone Support during the first 30 days, and various paid Support Options (such as $89.95 for McAfee's virus removal service). Overall McAfee provides slightly above average support, but there are too many instances in which users may be forced to use the paid support options. CONCLUSION: McAfee VirusScan 2010 is essentially the same as the 2009 version, so there shouldn't be any surprise that it tested almost the same (if not slightly worse). Is McAfee 2010 a worthwhile security program? It is a fairly good Antivirus program - but it isn't top-notch. If you're a loyal McAfee customer there probably isn't any reason to switch just yet, but if you're shopping for a good Antivirus program we'd recommend trying another program instead - see our Antivirus reviews for a better alternative. Overall Rating: Fair Misc Info:     • Version Tested: VirusScan 13.15.113     • Review Date:     • Last Updated:     • Previous Version: McAfee VirusScan 2009 Top 5 Antivirus Software Reviews:   1) Norton AntiVirus 2010 Review  - Rating:   Excellent   2) NOD32 AntiVirus 4 Review  - Rating:   Very Good   3) Kaspersky AntiVirus 2010 Review  - Rating:   Very Good   4) Avast AntiVirus Pro 5 Review  - Rating:   Good   5) BitDefender AntiVirus 2010 Review  - Rating:   Good << Top of Page

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McAfee VirusScan 2010 System Requirements: