NEW Reviews Beta Feedback

McAfee VirusScan 2006 10.0 (Full Product)

87

Very Good

Avg User Rating
10 User Reviews | add yours »

Pros
Top-notch heuristics
Cons
Phone support costs $3 per minute

McAfee VirusScan 2006 10.0 (Full Product) Review

by Tony Bradley

This solid product has a friendly interface but expensive phone support.

McAfee VirusScan 2006 provides solid performance at a reasonable price, but getting help by phone will cost you plenty.

Got a Hot Tip?

Seen news about this product? Send us a link.

In tests for "The New Virus Fighters," McAfee VirusScan 2006 ranked second overall among the ten products in the group because it performed consistently well without bombing in any particular category. It ranked fourth in overall performance, doing particularly well in our heuristics tests. Here, it ranked second, behind Best Buy winner BitDefender. It ranked third in our scan-speed testing and sixth in detecting the malware in our zoo collection of backdoor programs, bots, and Trojan horses.

The program is simple to navigate, although the main console heavily promotes other McAfee security products--irritating for users who have only (and want only) the VirusScan product. This package's major flaw is that McAfee charges $3 per minute for telephone technical support. (McAfee does offer free around-the-clock Internet chat sessions though.)

Upshot: McAfee VirusScan performance and features are consistently strong, but one 15-minute call to tech support will run you the price of the software itself.

Tony Bradley

User Reviews for McAfee VirusScan 2006 10.0 (Full Product)

Reviewed by: olddave208

Duration of ownership: 4 Years

Strengths: In over 4 years of usage, I have never had a virus on my system. Protection is great, but one does have to keep up with updates. Runs well with zonealarm and spysweeper.

Weaknesses: Software is heavy on system resources. When starting my machine every day one must wait till the software does its update thing, or system hangs could result. Would not use on systems with low ram. On rare occasions software gets confused or files get corrupted requiring uninstalling and reinstalling the software. This problem has occured about 3 times, usually after major upgrades to the program.

Overall Evaluation: I have found the software to work well with my spyware and firewall. If running zonealarm with the full version one must tell software so it knows to turn off the Mcafee firewall. I have little faith in the Mcafee firewall. Scans do take a while to run. My system is about 60,000 files which requires about 1.5 hours to scan. Very few false warnings on viruses. In 4 years I have never had a virus on either of my XP machines. I would recommend to anyone over norton. I have worked on norton protected machines, and could not believe the system intrusion and resources used. One must follow instructions VERY carefully on initial load of software to get a good load. If this software does not run properly, it is usually inexperience of the person that creates problems. I consider support nonexistant, so if you are not computer savvy don't purchase Mcafee.
Reviewed by: Phenom

Duration of ownership: 2 Months

Strengths: Blocks Viruses, Trojans, and Spyware (PUP).

Weaknesses: None.

Overall Evaluation:

See all user reviews

People who looked at the McAfee VirusScan 2006 10.0 (Full Product) also looked at:

presented by retrevo.com

Latest Antivirus and Security Playing in PCW Video

Disaster! How to Retrieve a Deleted File What you've accidentally erased isn't necessarily gone forever.

More Latest Antivirus and Security Playing in PCW Video »

Latest Antivirus and Security News, Reviews, How-To's

Kaspersky Unveils Antivirus for Mac It is wrong to think that a Mac operating system is safe from malware.
Mac Trojan May be a Hoax Symantec says creating a spoof Trojan to promote a game is risky.
Report: Malware Makers Are Organized, Sophisticated Cybercriminals are organized like corporations, and follow regular software release cycles, says principal group program manager for the Microsoft Malware Protection Center.
Nasty Halloween Trick: Fake Antivirus Sites Beware of Haloween-themed sites that offer antivirus software and instead plant bots.
Microsoft Cleans up Bugs After Biggest Patch Release After releasing its largest-ever group of security patches two weeks ago, Microsoft has done a little cleaning up.