Customer Reviews

VirusScan Home 8.0

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

This product will constantly do pop-up ads on your desktop telling you to buy their email protection product, etc. There is no way to disable these. It seems they aren't happy to get my money, they want more and more and have no respect for my privacy.

For a product that is supposed to protect your privacy, McAfee 8.0 requires a significant amount of personal information just to run. You'll need to input your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address just to get the product to install.

Furthermore, this information will be asked for again and again each time the product tries to update itself! To add insult to injury, this product will install, without asking, "McAfee Security Center" which is basically this worthless bit of graphical fluff that serves no purpose other than to spam your desktop with ads for other McAfee products.

Even worse, and yes it can get worse, this product will frequently pop up alerts that make it look as if your computer is infected with a virus! When you click on them, surprise! They're really just more adds for McAfee antivirus software. Yep, you're getting adds for the product you just bought.
But wait, we're not done yet! There are not less than 5 different boxes you must de-select during the install process to avoid getting e-mail spam from McAfee and their "business partners". This is particularly annoying as you're required to give your name and e-mail address just to load the program in the first place.

Finally, if all this wasn't bad enough, the antivirus updates are delivered in a cumbersome series of pop-up windows inside a browser. If you use pop-up blocking software they won't work and you wont get updates. What you will get however, are error messages asking you to reboot your computer endlessly.

In short, this is without a doubt, the worst anti-virus product I have ever owned. It is intrusive, invasive and literally bombards you with ads. Do yourself a favor and buy Norton Antivirus instead.

McAfee Internet Security Suite: 2004 (v 6.0)

I gave it 2 stars because I can see what the folks at McAfee are trying to do. I just wish it was done one product at a time. The bundle is not worth the effort...it should have stayed in a test lab until they got it right.

Setting: The biggest issue I have with this product is that the profile settings seem to "get lost" with each downloaded update. I have to re-set the "safe list" and verify my product EVERYTIME AN UPDATE IS REALESED. Another issue is that if you are a "limited user" using 2000/XP/XP-Pro, you can "see the options" the Admin as setup, but can't change them.

Warning Messages: There are far too many for me. I am no expert in IT; however I am not a novice either. I can tell you if this were on a novice's PC; they would be set to throw the laptop out the window. The silliest message was one I just got, after a Privacy Update was installed, that says "Internet Explorer is trying to access the internet. What would like to do?" How about letting me ONLINE!!

OK, so I can see using a "thin client" (i.e. a web browser's interface) to get updates. It makes sense, you are online anyway, why not use the person's browser rather than load a larger app? What I have an issue with is (a) this won't work if your pop-up blocker is ON... (b) U/N and P/W??? What's the purpose for this? I BOUGHT YOUR PRODUCT, LOADED IT AND REGISTERED! WHY MAKE ME CREATE AN ACCOUNT?

Finally, WHY ON EARTH WOULD A PROGRAM CALLED SPAMKILLER CONSTANTLY HAVE A VIRUS WITHIN IT'S OWN DIRECTORY???? Yes, you read right. I was told by this it's own ActiveShield utility, that there was an infected file, 4 times mind you, in the SpamKiller directory. What's that about?

I've had it with this product. I'm going back to Norton's SystemWorks 2003, and Norton's Personal Firewall 2003 (ALL of Norton's 2004 version are a big mess, and a waste of hard drive space, RAM, and time)

Instead of purchasing a virus scanner, I have purchased the McAfee product dashboard. This kindly informs me that I only rate a 5.8 out of 10 on my "security index" (whatever that is). All I have to do to score a 10 is buy all their other products.

McAfee should be ashamed of themselves for the blatant advertising of their other products embedded into the application. The tray icon with quick access to the McAfee Store is particularly offensive.

In terms of feature set, this version adds no apparent value over the previous version. In fact, some features seem to be missing (cannot seem to fine-tune the scan settings), or maybe are just so well-hidden as to appear missing.

The Updater application no longer runs in the background, requiring manual checks for updates (note that McAfee claims it runs in the background, but it does not actually do so--the "Install Automatically" option has yet to download a DAT file). Strangely, the Updater runs in a browser popup requiring one to remember to turn off popup blockers in order to make it work.

The "improved" scanning engine now detects "potentially unwanted" applications. If you happen to have something that makes the cut, you will be reminded on every scan--if there is a way to exclude a file, it is exceptionally well hidden.

In short, if you do not currently own a virus scanner, then this one will do the job. If you already have one, do not bother "upgrading" to this one.

I can't remember ever having a worse software nightmare. Nothing worked the same once I installed it - this garbage installed a virus on my machine! The pop-ups were horrendous and it disabled my spyware and ad-shield software. An entire day wasted because once I knew I was getting rid of it, then the real hassles started trying to un-install. Of course I could not get through to their phone for 30-day $$ back so I just wrote them a note and called American Express. There should be a law against this software.

This software doesn't even deserve one star, but there seems to be no other option.

I've been a satisfied McAfee user for years, and I was totally unprepared for totally unusable nightmare of a program. After I installed it, I couldn't register because there was already an account with my email address (Duh--that was my account). I was instructed to either register under a different email address (I have none) or log on and register on the site. When I logged on there was no option to register this 8.0 Home version. After an exchange of emails, customer service told me that I was all set, my software was registered and now I could log on and update(what good is anti virus software without updates?) When I logged on and followed their instructions I got a message telling me that I was not an authorized user and could not update the product. On top of this, the program did all kinds of weird things to my PC, and I spent hours trying to figure out and fix the problems. In the end I uninstalled it, and now my computer is back to normal, but without virus protection. I'm going to find a different software, and I hope that all of you will do the same and not waste your money on this one.

I've had this installed on my computer for a few months. Every once in a while it tells me that updates are available. When I click to update it tells me I'm not authorized to view the information. Sooo...I use their "chat" to talk with a tech to find the problem. After wasting over an hour with one tech, he gave me a list of instructions that disconnected me from the chat. Tried again a few weeks later, and the chat techs told me I needed to call customer service (after about 45 minutes). Called C.S. (on hold for 30 minutes), they wanted me to call tech support (2.95 per minute!) I said no, they gave me to a supervisor who told me he would send me the instructions to fix my problem via email....The email I received was a generic form mail which told me what I already knew, that I should have been given options when installing that I was not...So here I am again, with software I can't update and without the patience to try to deal with these idiots again...Ugh. I think I'd rather take my chances with a virus.

1 star is too much for this product. I have spent 2 entire days trying to install this product. The online support is not helpful and very time consuming. They had me unistalling programs from my registry manually which took forever and did not fix the problem. They indicated that they had currupt files in the virus scan and still never did apologize for any of the incovience. Please do yourself a favor and bypass this as tempted as you might be to purchase it. You will regret the aggrevation that comes with the software.

I had lost my Viruscan CD and requested via their online customer service for assistance with a replacement copy.

After more than 2 months and series of very frustrating emails, I am still without a replacement CD. First it took more than a month for Mcafee to finally acknowledge my proof of purchase. And it's been nearly a month since they last emailed to say that issue is being looked into.

Often, when I send a reminder about my unresolved problem, someone new responds and asks me to fill in all the tedious details again to show proof of purchase. Then they forgot all about my emails till I emailed them again.

I have never in my life encountered worse customer service than that provided by McAfee. And when I checked on the internet, it seems that I am not the only one with horror stories about McAfee's customer service.

I have given up and will be buying Norton instead.

I wasn't sure which virus software to purchase there were bad reviews on this and the norton 2004.I went with this because it was cheaper,and I have not had any problems at all, It was very easy to set up and I don't get any "pop ups" like other people have said in their reviews.