Customer Reviews

McAfee VirusScan 6.0

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(98)

 

 

I've had some problems with VirusScan 6.0, but I may have solved some of them. First of all, if you're going to buy this product, I would recommend you download it from McAfee.com because you'll get the latest version, 6.01, which presumably has less bugs. If you buy the glitchy CD-ROM at a retail store, you'll get version 6.0. Here is how I installed the program:

First I uninstalled my current version of McAfee VirusScan, 5.21, and rebooted. Ran a quick Scan Disk and deleted any temporary internet files. I went online, downloaded and saved the McAfee installation file (a huge 32MB; thank God for cable modems) to my Windows 98 destkop. I then rebooted into Safe Mode and installed VirusScan 6.0 from there. Someone told me to do this because when you're in Safe Mode the minimum number of drivers and programs are running. This lessens the chance of a file corrupting the installation of VirusScan.

During the installation, I passed on installing the Firewall and Safe & Sound programs. Too much extra baggage for me. I just wanted VirusScan 6.0. Everything has been fine, so far. However, I don't leave McAfee VirusScan running all the time because it really slows down my system when it's on, more so than version 5.21. I just update the DAT and engine files and run occasional virus scans. I realize this increases the danger of virus infections, but it is a tradeoff I'm willing to make.

Disappointment, frustration, and cheated come to mind. If you've ever bought a car/truck with a strong brand name but it turned out to be a lemon...this would pretty much sum up this review of McAfee's VirusScan version 6.0.

I've used McAfee VirusScan for years with no problems from installation to operation. But I made the big mistake of purchasing, in my opinion, the worst VirusScan update on the market. Previous McAfee versions worked well, but not this one. It is obvious McAfee conducted very little, if any, quality testing. Installation went somewhat easy, however the product caused some major problems on my WIN98 system such as slowing the whole machine down and causing frequent crashes due to the flawed Instant Updater feature. The 4 calls to tech support proved more useless than the website.

What happened here?!? You would think McAfee was bought out and replaced with lazy developers and product testers. Regardless, the biggest loss here is not the product...it's the tarnished brand image of McAfee for endorsing its release. You should ask yourself why McAfee is offering such a tempting rebate. Most likely it's because they now realize it's not worth the CD it was distributed on. At the suggestion of other product reviews, I went ahead and purchased Norton 2002. From installation to operation to website updates, it is exactly what I remember McAfee once was. In the end, I expected more from McAfee as a company. I believe you should too.

Feb 26 2002 McAfee Internet Security 4+ includes VirusScan6 and Firewall. Its been a little "rocky" on my ME box with "rulaunch" problems and "guarddog.exe" sometimes freezes up when interacting with IE/Outlook/Explorer (File Mgr & Desktop). I downloaded latest patches 4.02.1023.0 and this has helped. My brother has been trying to get McAfee working on his Win2K box and it has been VERY difficult, the worst of the problems seem to relate to the firewall software. Sometime it prevents PC from being shutdown/restarted ( can only hit reset button ) It appears the software wants RAS? mgr/monitor? to be installed (why???) also problem with NT security with one of the services. By installing latest updates, changing security for service(s), updates to registry, manually downloading updates, some help from B Clinton (McAfee chat support) it seems to be working after a fashion. This product seems like ALPHA software on Win2000 SP2 and Network Associates s/b ashamed... you may get it to work but its gonna be painnnnnnnnn full ( I've been in IT industry for 18+ years soooo I've seen a few things...

I have never seen a software so poorly written. Even a newbie knows that you don't release a product if it can crash somebody's system. I regret the day when I bought this junk software.
I installed it on my Windows XP Pro machine and everything went to hell. The tech support is nothing but a joke. And when I aksed for refund, I was tossed around for couple of days.
I would not buy this producyt even for free.
I had to reconfigure my Windows XP Pro machine. And on top of that, when you try to download the upgrade patches, they complaint that they are compatible with the version of OS. Ha! There goes your claim of supporting Windows XP. I think MCafee should publicallt apologize to all the PC user cummunity and pledge that they will close down their company and never release a product.

BAD BAD Software.

Naveen

Don't even stop to look at McAfee. Most components are difficult to use and are unstable and slow at best. Some are unusable. My subscription to updates lasted only two months before they told me it was going to be another $$$$. Ouch!! Tech support is horrid, most issues require an "escalation form" that never arrives. Save yourself the pain. Most of the products are availible on freeware (and they are far superior than what you can buy from McAfee!!) With their attitudes, products and support, they surley aren't breaking any sales records. Buy or download something that will be around for a while.

I have used two version sof McAfee and both were a waste of money. They dragged my machine down so heavily that it became effectively useless. The mouse movements actually mimicked action that was like a viral infection draining the CPU. I switched to OnTrack's Fix-It v4, and everything has run beautifully since.

Don't purchase this product unless you want to waste a couple of hours of your life. I spent 5 hours attempting to install the program the day I purchased it, and another 2 hours with the technincal support service the next day. After all that, all I had was 6 pages of downloaded instruction on how to UNINSTALL the product. Save yourself some time and money and look at other virus removal software.

I bought the cd version and had no installation problems.
The following may help others trying to install it, and trying to use the automatic update feature.

I had mcafee 4.0.2, which is no longer supported, and did the following: I removed the old McAfee version through the control panel "add/remove programs" option, rather than inserting the new cd and letting the install program of version 6.0 remove it. I went to the mcafee website and downloaded the 6.01 version available there as well. I had no files deleted or other problems ensue from the installation process. I used "custom install" and did not load it's firewall application, as I use Zonealarm.

Regarding the automatic update feature, this was blocked by my firewall, (giving an "unable to connect to server" message) which could explain some of the problems others have described in trying to use that feature. I use ZoneAlarm as a firewall, and configured it to accept the connection to Mcafee. One could also disable or temporarily close the firewall and then click on the "check for a VirusScan update" option on the Mcafee menu, which will now be allowed to go out and connect to the Mcafee server and check for available updates.

Once installed, it is fairly easy to use and configure. Scheduling time for scans is not a problem--the interface panel has everything on it you need, under the "pick a task" bar. On the interface panel there is a "check for update" option, and this works reliably. The program hasn't slowed anything down or deleted any files.

I don't know if any of this made for my trouble free install, or if I was just lucky. There seems to be more problems with deletion of the imagehlp.dll file from the windows\system directory when Mcafee replaces the Norton antivirus product, and this problem has been identified by Norton (Symantec) in the Mcafee 5.x series.

Hope this helps.

This purchase has been a disaster. I installed the software and did a couple of scans - all fine. A few days later the screen started shaking in a strange way - I thought I had a virus. So I scanned - nothing. I thought I'd scan from DOS, so I created a Rescue Disk and booted from it. Unfortunately when booting from the Rescue Disk the C Drive wasn't there. So I tried to contact customer support - big mistake - I should have thrown the software in the trash and uninstalled it. To actually talk to McAfee technical support you either pay a toll number - or a one-off fee of $39. If you don't want to do this (feeling, like I did, that you have already paid for the product and you shouldn't have to pay again to make it work) you can use the online chat service. This is predominantly automated - you know when you have a technician because the spelling and grammar suddenly goes off. McAfee technicians try to get rid of you as quickly as possible - their main objective is to send you a sheet of instructions for what they think is wrong. These instructions are very poorly written (for example, they advised me to download an archived file without pointing out that it would need to be extracted - something which for the not particularly computer literate would be a problem). When the downloaded instructions did not work in my case I went back to the online chat and tried to resolve it. Three times I found that when I got to the point that they would need to actually communicate with me rather than just send me some printed instructions the connection went dead.

I strongly recommend anyone who thinks they may have need of technical support not to purchase a McAfee product - this really is the worst customer service of any company ever.

First, the bad:
I had many of the same installation-related problems that others have noted, so I won't repeat them here. I also want to point out that many of the more robust anti-virus features (e.g. heuristic scanning) are disabled by default, requiring you to manually enable them one at a time. It doesn't even schedule periodic scans of your hard drive - you have to tell it to do so! Quite a chore, and the skimpy manual doesn't provide much help.

Now, the good:
Fortunately, after a bit of labor and a couple of reboots, the program works very well. It is loaded with features, including anti-virus scanning for my Palm handheld and a built-in internet firewall. I haven't noticed a material slowdown in on-line surfing speed, either, so I'm very pleased with these features. It also has special settings for MS Outlook users, designed to overcome the email program's many security holes. All in all, I think it's definitely worth the small bit of installation-related difficulty to have such powerful anti-virus software on my pc.