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 Windows PC Protection Jul 23, 2010
I bought this product after using Norton 360 on my laptop and desktop (the Symantec product was free from Comcast). The Norton product caused a fatal PC error associated with Drive Letter Access to DVD and CD drives. McAfeee's product does not.
The product seems to have less overhead than the Norton product. Scans run faster, and the tool set seems just as robust. All in all I am happy so far.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Don't order from this guy! Jul 23, 2010
I ordered McAfee Total Protection 3 User 2010, but that's not what I received. I received McAfee Internet Security 2010 which should cost about 1/2 the cost of Total Protection. I sent him an email requesting a refund several weeks ago, but so far I have not had the courtesy of a reply let alone a refund of the difference in price! I waited to write this negative review hoping that I would have a response from him, but nothing, nada, zero. Apparently Amazon doesn't follow up on customer service issues either.
The absolute WORST anti-malware software EVER! Jul 23, 2010
As someone who has worked previously in the information technology field for several years and one who has evaluated countless different anti-malware products I'm here to share with you my experiences with McAfee's Total Protection.
But first, let me give you a quick warning. Those of you who are purchasing this product because of the rebate, you'll be lucky to receive one. McAfee invalidated my $25 rebate for no reason whatsoever even though I submitted the items requested by mail well before the expiration date. I'm still waiting for a response as to why the denial.
Again, DO NOT PURCHASE MCAFEE BECAUSE OF THE REBATE! You can do EVERYTHING right and they'll still screw you.
Moving on, I'll begin with other reasons NOT TO PURCHASE this absurd product.
1) Memory usage is the WORST I've ever experienced from any anti-malware vendor. On my Windows XP system, it is currently using no less than EIGHT different processes occupying over 150 megabytes of memory. The memory usage does fluctuate and I've seen where it surpasses over 300 megabytes at times. Simply incredible! In other words, this software is a memory hog and will slow down your system.
2) McAfee's software frequently disables itself (both the anti-virus and firewall modules) for long stretches of time for no apparent reason but it does appear to do so after receiving the latest updates. There are a lot of people who have similiar issues with no known solutions (search Google, you'll see). It'll usually re-arm itself if you wait long enough, but sometimes you'll need to re-arm it yourself. Of course, doing this time you're left UNPROTECTED. That is unacceptable!
3) McAfee Total Protection is geared towards the computer newbie which is okay in itself, except it doesn't offer truly advanced functions (yes, there is an Advanced section but is laughable at best). When McAfee interferes with your software, whether blocking legitimate programs or deleting legitimate files (yes, you heard this on the news, right?) McAfee offers little to no recourse in working around the problem. For example, if McAfee detects a false positive you have two options. You can choose to restore the file but guess what? As soon as you do, McAfee is quick to delete it IMMEDIATELY afterwards! Who's insane idea of humor is this? So restoring a false positive doesn't work. 2nd option, you can contact McAfee about the false positive. The problem is that their support, if you can call it that, is haphazard. Good luck with that one. There is a 3rd option. You can temporarily disable the anti-virus module which is what I had to resort to when I had to work with a file falsely detected by McAfee. Truly ludicrous.
What most other vendors offer that McAfee doesn't in this case is a "trust", "override" or "allow" option to permit the file being falsely detected. It's mind-boggling why they left this option out, especially since McAfee is FAMOUS for false positives!
4) And onto the other end of the spectrum, McAfee is PITIFUL on detecting legitimate malware! Free anti-malware software such as Avast, AVG and even Microsoft's Security Essentials will protect your system far better than McAfee can. My son recently plugged in his USB drive into my computer after just having plugged it in at his school. It was riddled with viruses and trojans. McAfee detected just 6 of 10 items. The other 4 I was left to deal with myself. Thanks alot MCAFEE!
5) Submitting potential virus samples to McAfee (Avert Labs) is nearly useless. On an obvious virus that was creating hidden system files in my computer (I detected this with other software) the McAfee software sat idly by. So when I submitted the virus sample I got one inquiry from them about it and then... nothing happened! Nothing! They just let it go. How's that?
Are there any positives about McAfee Total Protection?
I can really only think of one and this is ease of use. It was made for the beginning PC user and nothing more. Still, the menu system can sort of get you going in circles but maybe that's just me.
And finally, there is the deceitful rebate issue. I've stayed away from mail-in rebates for years for precisely this reason but maybe this time it'll work, I told myself. Who am I kidding? So many manufacturers persist in screwing there customers with mail-in rebate scandals I am amazed there isn't a bigger outcry.
The thing is, if this software actually did its job well I really wouldn't be that mad about the rebate. It's 25 bucks. Well worth it if the software was good. The fact that the rebate was denied AND that this software is total crap makes me feel like a sucker instead.
So stay far away from McAfee Total Protection. The only thing that McAfee does satisfactorily in is with enterprise protection... well at least far better compared to its software for home users. It's a night and day difference.
My recommendations? Nearly everything else, and that is including the free stuff like from AVG and Microsoft. They run circles around McAfee AND don't have nearly as big a footprint.
'Nuff said.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Not *TOTAL* Protection, just an OK off-the-shelf solution. Jul 22, 2010
A lot has already been said about this product by other reviewers so I'm not going to rehash the basics. Instead, I'll just relate the basics of my own experience.
First, it should be noted that I reviewed this software using a virtual machine running Windows XP Pro, rather than a dedicated physical machine. This may affect certain performance benchmarks so please keep that in mind when reading.
All security software exacts a performance hit. Until recently Symantec's suite was the king of resource hogs. McAfee is pretty high on the list but not terribly so. Startup time increased by about 10 seconds but otherwise it was virtually invisible to me.
How well does it work? Well, that's a different story. My standard setup uses Microsoft Security Essentials + Spybot Search & Destroy (both are free) and I find that the combination makes for a very secure system with a relatively small footprint. Using that as a baseline I did a direct head-to-head comparison using two copies of the same virtual machine, one using my standard setup and the other using McAfee, with full updates applied to each package. I then visited several websites that are known to attack visiting PCs and distribute several kinds of malware, and performed several very stupid actions of my own, in an attempt to trip up the security software.
My standard setup caught and defeated 100% of the attack attempts including several "drive-by" attacks, infected PDFs, and a rather notorious "hostage-ware" virus that is quite prolific these days.
McAfee wasn't so diligent. In all but one case McAfee caught and defeated the attacks, but its mode of execution wasn't as good as my standard setup. Specifically, in several cases McAfee discovered the infection rather than the attack. While Microsoft Security Essentials was warning me that an attack was being attempted at that moment, McAfee didn't warn me until the attack was complete and the infection was now on my system. This is a significant distinction. If someone were to throw a punch at you, it's the difference between ducking that punch and recovering from it afterward.
The one infection that McAfee neither stopped nor was able to clean is the well-known "AntiVirus Suite" hostageware/virus that has been around, in various incarnations, for a few years now. McAfee DID alert me that there was an infection but by then it had already taken hold, and McAfee was unable to clean it. Microsoft Security Essentials intercepted it without it ever getting into the system.
Microsoft Security Essentials was also SIGNIFICANTLY faster at throwing up alerts than McAfee, even for attacks that McAfee blocked as adeptly as Microsoft Security Essentials. I found that slow response to be very discouraging.
My advice: Although McAfee is reasonably good at what it does, it isn't the best and it's eclipsed by free alternatives.
Always use McAfee Jul 18, 2010
Received product rather quickly. Installed in my laptop with Vista OS with no issues. Went to load into my desktop with XP and it would not install. Made sure everything from the previous McAfee was removed. Still would not install. Went online to McAfee's support and after spending quite a bit of time following the steps they outlined if one is having problems loading the software I decided to use the online help. Previous times that I've used them, they've been quite helpful. Unfortunately this time they didn't help out one bit. They said that my harddrive was corrupted and that's why the software would not load correctly. Well, I decided to do a bit of troubleshooting myself and after some patience trying some things on the computer, it loaded up completely with no issues. So everything is working well on each computer.
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