Entered CNET Catalog: 08/20/2003
SKU: VSVSF80E001RA
Manufacturer: McAfee
Manufacturer description
Are you exposed? Don't surf the Net, download files or open email attachments without the latest defense against more than 67,000 known viruses and the 300 new ones discovered every month. VirusScan 8.0 is an easy-to-use antivirus solution providing advanced protection from the latest virus threats. Trusted by over 2 million satisfied users worldwide, VirusScan protects your PC, files and email address book from high-risk, productivity-killing viruses, worms and trojans like Bugbear, Slammer, Code Red, Nimda, SirCam and Nicehello. Easy to use and always on guard, VirusScan automatically checks for virus updates and software updates, so your protection is always up-to-the-minute. And it's from McAfee Security, the most trusted name in online security.CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 09/24/2003
McAfee recently merged its retail version of VirusScan 8.0 with its online version. That's good news for users who want to download and install the program via the Internet. Better yet, VirusScan's online installation file is dramatically smaller--a mere 8MB compared with version 7.0's 30MB to 40MB--and in our tests, it downloaded in 25 minutes via 56K modem. Installation, both online and via CD, was trouble-free and took only a few minutes. Upon start-up, VirusScan downloaded updated virus definitions, as most antivirus programs do.
The new McAfee Security Center in VirusScan 8.0 provides a graphical display of your PC's ability to block viruses, hacker attacks, and related problems.
Last year, we praised VirusScan's browserlike interface but found its multiple Web-page-like screens tedious to navigate, particularly when you had to dig through several layers just to change a few basic settings. VirusScan 8.0 replaces the previous version's ungainly, browserlike interface with the McAfee Security Center, an interface from which you can manage all of the security programs on your PC--including third-party firewall, privacy, and spam-blocking apps. The Center's Security Index uses graphical bars (with a 1 to 10 rating scale) to show how well your PC is protected against all kinds of digital intrusions--viruses, hackers, spam, and so on--and it provides quick access to VirusScan settings.
Despite Security Center's embrace of third-party security apps, it's still very McAfee-centric. On our test PC, for instance, we use the ZoneAlarm firewall. Security Center accurately detected the presence of ZoneAlarm, as indicated by the 10.0 rating on the AntiHacker index; but by default, it stated that McAfee's Personal Firewall Plus was "not installed," a statement that might confuse some novices into thinking they weren't fully protected.
VirusScan 8.0 may be leaner, but its virus-fighting tools retain their muscle. McAfee has improved its worm-detection skills with WormStopper (previously known as HAWK), a PC system behavior-analysis tool. WormStopper blocks malicious, wormlike behavior, often before a signature-file download is available. It's difficult to predict future worms; however, VirusScan detected and deleted the MSBlast worm on our test PC, something our previous antivirus program missed. The ScriptStopper feature, which finds and blocks malicious scripts, is unchanged from version 7.0.
A better integration with Microsoft Outlook includes on-demand scanning of all e-mail folders and archives to find viruses and worms lying dormant there. Like Norton AntiVirus 2004, it scans inbound and outbound IM messages; its predecessor scanned inbound only.
VirusScan automatically deletes worms and viruses and posts an alert message to inform you of its efforts.
Unfortunately, McAfee removed its firewall from VirusScan 8.0, something which previously gave the product a competitive edge over the always firewall-free Norton AntiVirus. VirusScan 8.0 users can try a 30-day free trial of McAfee Personal Firewall Plus via the Security Center; however, users can also get the free, and much better, ZoneAlarm firewall from Download.com.
The merger of the online and retail flavors of VirusScan also creates a buying dilemma. The $49.99 retail package includes a year of virus signature updates, which after the first year is an annual fee of $14.95. By comparison, the online subscription is $34.95 a year. Online subscribers get program updates, which include new and upgraded features, as soon as they become available. But retail buyers must wait for the next version.
In our CNET Labs' tests, VirusScan 8.0 caused less of a drag on system performance than Norton AntiVirus 2004 . But McAfee scanned our 1GB drive much more slowly than Norton did. Here are our test results:
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In past VirusBulletin tests, McAfee's VirusScan has been tested and passed only once, back in June of 2002. By comparison, Norton AntiVirus has been tested six times and earned the coveted VB 100 percent title each time. It's hard to draw any meaningful conclusions from such limited data. Previous versions of VirusScan have also been certified by the independent antivirus testing laboratories at West Coast Checkmark, ICSA Labs, and AV-test.org.
McAfee, like Symantec, charges for its phone support: $3 per minute (with the first two minutes free), or a flat $39 per incident ($10 more than Symantec's flat fee). A more affordable option, obviously, is McAfee's free online technical chat. On the plus side, McAfee's online support site contains a handy wizardlike Answer Center that helps you pinpoint and resolve technical problems. And the live technicians, once we contacted them via chat, were always polite and helpful.
Unfortunately, we often found the chat queue to be unbearably long, independent of day or night; once, we waited 1 hour and 20 minutes. Chat also exhibited flaky behavior: we were once booted off after 15 minutes in the queue, even though we hadn't yet chatted with anyone. Hopefully, McAfee will correct these technical glitches soon.
User opinions
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User Rating: 
2/10
McAfee ridiculously overrated
Pros: Easy to use
Cons: Poor customer support; messy install and trouble recovery
User Rating: 
9/10
Great product and slimline
Pros: Port Blocking, Buffer Overflow Protection
Cons: It's getting a little old
You can lock the User Interface against other family members altering it or in case your computer gets attacked. You can set tasks to run in the night and the software will update automatically at 5pm every night.
Excellent, and beats the living D out of Norton.
User Rating: 
1/10
Ignore Editor's Rating! Just look at troubles abound in the McAfee Support Forums!
Pros: No pros found.
Cons: Causes PC to slow to a halt
The moment I finished the installation, the trouble began. My internet connection went down AND lost all control of my computer.
The hours spent with their support was fruitless. With my real work piling up, I couldn't wait any longer for a solution so I uninstalled it. Presto! Everything was fine again.
The culprit: mcproxy.exe. I found this is a McAfee process that runs in the background and uses 99% of my CPU. Feel free to see for yourselves at: http://forums.mcafeehelp.com/search.php?sid=9eeeeba1e9d22f4eb3e2754ced13031b
enter 'mcproxy.exe' under search and see all the other troubles people has had with this supposed reliable software.
For the ladies and gentleman of the jury I present you:
1. Installed=PC is a turtle and no internet.
2. Uninstalled=all systems go!
3. McAfee forums=read em' and weep.I thought it was just me, but >5000K views on this issue alone is something you can't ignore.
Look, avoid the headache and wasted time. Go look at other Anti-virus software.
By the way, I'm requesting a refund for this evil, evil software.
User Rating: 
10/10
McAfee vs Norton
Pros: McAfee is wonderful
Cons: Have yet to see any negatives
User Rating: 9/10
McAfee is doing its job by preventing 3 high-alert viruses from harming my system.
Pros: Dependable, automatic up-to-date virus definitions. No software conflicts.
Cons: Recent convert so no major cons discovered yet.
User Rating: 
8/10
works well
Pros: Not a resource hog
Cons: service support ??????
User Rating: 
6/10
McAfee support is poor
Pros: Fast scans
Cons: If you get a problem, whoa. The online technical chat is quite quick, but the people at the other end are sometimes pretty poor. Last night I wasted two hours trying to get update working. The support failed to get it working, after several different at
User Rating: 6/10
Ruined by the new Security Center
Pros: It's stable.
Cons: Updating dat files are a pain. Must login to their website to download updates. This extra step wasn't necessary with the old VirusScans. Can't turn off update reminders. I can set updates to be manual but the reminder pop-ups can't be disabled. The remi
User Rating: 6/10
7.0 version is much better, this version's Security Center app is an extra piece of junk
Pros: Will protect your computer from viruses.
Cons: The clumsy interface, it's hard to use at first. The Security Center has to be run and I don't like it, it hogs extra system resources. Also, the big this is the update manager, if your on dial-up and dont' want it automatically checking for updates, you'
User Rating: 
4/10
Virus Scan 7.0 was much better
Pros: Screens are prettier.
Cons: I have a web based IP. Both Norton & McAfee are very bad with that. Eventually I did a custom install removing Spam Blocker & Privacy service. There is less protection but now I can reliably get to my IP. The custom stuff on Privacy Service di
User Rating: 1/10
Updating virus signatures is a pain
Pros:
Cons: I have been a McAfee customer since it's shareware days. I can't understand why a security company requires me to lower my browser security settings in order to update my signature files. There are no instructions for making McAfee a "Trusted Site" and th
User Rating: 2/10
Too intrusive to be practical!
Pros: Catches viruses!
Cons: With this new version, there is no way to stop McAfee Popup windows alerting you to the presence of a virus in an email attachment. Imaging receiving 15 emails in a row, each with a virus. With the previous version, the software would simply delete the at
User Rating: 
3/10
Fine until it breaks and it will break
Pros: Very effective virus protection
Cons: Horrible customer support. Strange problems and their solution is to strip your machine of all your settings, reboot--all of this offline and then come back if that doesn't work. Support chat is slow and clearly done by people who are not well trained.
User Rating: 3/10
Do I have a virus or not!
Pros: Very simple to use.
Cons: Mcafee needs to re-think the notification interface. I installed on my sisters computer and Virus scan said it had discovered a virus. It was totally difficult to find where the log files where and what happened. Long story I will just stick with Sym
User Rating: 1/10
Keeps you from geting email viruses by preventing you from getting email
Pros: Easy to install. Keeps you from getting viruses
Cons: Keeps you from getting email. Requires unique email address per install. Nearly unconfigurable. Requires http auto updates (IE?) Tech support is a bad joke. Refund, just try and contact us. Avoid at all costs.
User Rating: 
5/10
Not Such a Good Buy Sorry Mcafee
Pros: Easy to use
Cons: Program has caused more proplems than its worth. Outlook express now stops downloading half way through downloading the messages from my mail server. The problem is corrected when I disable the program. Why Oh Why do we have to put up with the security ce
User Rating: 10/10
Scripting Errors. Terrible support
Pros: I've always used McAfee and found it to be reliable and easy to update. Version 8.0 is riddled with problems.
Cons: Support is a joke. Live chat is laughable. You won't believe some of the trash they want you to do to make their junk work. They must think everyone in the world is ignorant.
User Rating: 4/10
You'll be sorry
Pros: Easy to install.
Cons: My email (eudora) hangs for hours while it cleans/deletes virus. Tech support told me to either, 1. Have my ISP remove infected emails from my email account(this cost extra).2.Disable VirusScan--download your emails, emable virusscan--scan your system--d
User Rating: 
7/10
you guys are crazy.
Pros: Security center is fantastic, i have owned every single mcafee and norton AV product for the last 5 years and this blows them all away. no more restarts for virus def downloads no more prompts to download crap. all done automatically.
Cons: pricey to purchase all comonets such as Anti Virus and firewall etc. but if you get them all you are secure from anything. this blows mcafee and panda right out of the water.
User Rating: 3/10
Slow Go
Pros: Does protect you computer from some nasty things.
Cons: Resource HOG. Active Shield does what it says, at a cost of 40 to 50 percent of your system resources.
User Rating: 2/10
Annoying Product Offers
Pros: Faster than NAV.
Cons: I bought AV and do not need to be reminded about other McAfee products. Definition updates are somewhat strange -- it opens web browser instead just downloading updates in its own GUI. Annoying splash screen every time it starts, but the Security Center t
User Rating: 2/10
so many system problems after install
Pros: easy to install, but
Cons: After install had to reboot several times, lost internet connectivity through DSL, could not open Win explorer, control panel and My Computer. As soon as it looks like the application is opening, desktop will turn blue with no icons on it and then reappea
User Rating: 6/10
Quite satisfied!...
Pros: Relatively painless installation. Quick virus updates. Easy to understand. Mild use of resources.
Cons: Simple interface needs more control.
User Rating: 4/10
works, but there are better programs
Pros: attractive interface, works OK
Cons: Have to buy each piece (spam, virus, firewall, privacy) seperate, after reloading a couple of times I decided to replace and it took me hours to get it off my computer. Read the instructions for manual removal at the McAffe website before you buy. Conside
User Rating: 9/10
Finally a product that WORKS!
Pros: Simple to install and use! With rebates, only paid $20. Doesn't slow computer any. After fighting with Norton Internet Security 2004 for 3 days, I am so happy that this programs works! Forget using Norton; crashed my computer completely, had to reformat
Cons: None so far!
User Rating: 3/10
Install Nighmare on XP Home
Pros: I have used this product for two versions now and have been fairly happy until now. The new version 8.0 simply will not install on XP Home. I have spent days trying all the registry cleaning and file deletions to no avail. Would not recommend upgrade f
Cons:
User Rating: 3/10
I was once a first time user, not again!
Pros: Easier to install than Norton 2004 AV.
Cons: I removed NAV 2004, because I thought the scanning was slow, but after installing McAfee, I found that this one is VERY slow. It took almost 25 minutes longer than Norton, on my same computer! I removed the scan for compressed files for both, prior to sca
User Rating: 1/10
Stick with 7.0
Pros: Not much
Cons: This is the most dumb down version. 1) First of all when you install it doesn't allow you to choose which directory to install to. 2) ActiveX every where. You need ActiveX on in order to use this product. ActiveX is well known for security risk. 3) Vi
User Rating: 5/10
Killed Netscape & IE!!
Pros:
Cons: I just "upgraded" from 7.0 to 8.0 and it killed both of my browsers! It also messed up my installation of SpamKiller, which happens to be a McAfee product.
User Rating: 3/10
more trouble than its worth
Pros: automatic updates
Cons: Had many problems with origianl download, product kept telling me to adjust ActiveX-even after making them. Waited over 45 min for online support, and then i got prescripted responses, for 4 different techs. When contacted them via email i received autom
User Rating: 10/10
The SuperBest!
Pros: The first time when i bought norton anti-virus 2004 i was shell shocked! I waisted my cash on just a minor upgrades like buttons and activation from nav 2003? However i got rid of it due to excessive slowness and switched to mcafee virus scan 8.0 . I did
Cons: Poor Support!
User Rating: 5/10
Can destroy your Computers Disk drive!
Pros: Less of a resource hog.
Cons: Crashed my PC, because i chose not to re-boot. With Norton, i can carryon working, straight after an update. But Macafee just throws a fit and crashes your PC. It's also irritating as i have to keep re-booting after each update... even when i say NO!
User Rating: 9/10
COOL! BUT A COUPLE OF PROBLEMS!
Pros: *Super fast scanning engine and startup *Fast automatic updating *Easy to use interface *Security Center can control all Mcafee products *Powerful detection and removal system (better than norton) *NOT a resource hog, unlike norton
Cons: A couple of problems i have noticed, is the failure to load the agent and the fact that during startup, the security center icon is not present in the system tray! Which is very annoying, any advise would be helpful!
User Rating: 1/10
Recall Virus 2004 ver 8.0
Pros: Will catch virus.
Cons: Once installed noticed immeditely that I had to wait between 1-3 minutes to open a window when I started up. Been in contact with online help center for 4 hrs and three techs while I waited for a 4th one. They had be going everywhere and every back door
User Rating: 10/10
great product norton is history
Pros: Everything is great in this detects virus and does something about it. Norton does not detect viruses. I had it it did not tell me i had a virus until i opened the file. Too late smart thing. Got a virus from the internet after formatting norton did not d
Cons: mcafee security centre extra unnnecessary stuff. Makes u want to buy all the rest of the stuff since it tells u ur computer is only this safe while if u pay extra money you will get the rest and make your computer completely secure. What is up with that??
User Rating: 9/10
Getting there
Pros: 1) Easy to use interface 2) Seamless auto updating mechanism (it's NOT Instant Updater)
Cons: Some incompatibilities still being worked out.
User Rating: 2/10
Hello Dell! Don't include AcAfee!
Pros: It's not Norton.
Cons: I wish it were Norton. This product has slowed to a crawl the computers on which we have it installed. No response at all when we send emails to McAfee Support, but of chances to keep buying more S/W from them. Won't buy a McAfee product again. Now if
User Rating: 4/10
If your into privacy forget this product
Pros: Catches viruses
Cons: Wants to connect to the internet all the time, Even when told to do so manually? I thought Mcafee was to protect not to steal away my privacy. Forced to register to get updates...? If you thought Microsoft was bad wait until you see this. A very disappoin
User Rating: 3/10
Windows 2000 users BEWARE
Pros: I like the easy to use interface. It automatically checks for updates.
Cons: Had to install/uninstall 4 times before I could get it to work. Finally, after getting it to work the first time if I had to reboot for any other reason it would not start up unless I completely shut down the power to the system first. I also tried Nort
User Rating: 5/10
Disaster!
Pros: Easy to install and configure
Cons: When i first installed McAfee VirusScan 8.0 and Firewall, i was really thrilled about how much less, resources it took compared to Norton. It ran fine for a week - but then, during 1 particular update, it asked me to restart my machine - I DID NOT - but t
User Rating: 1/10
Nightmare of a nightmare...
Pros: The product box was red.
Cons: After install went online and it demanded to upgrade (from 8.0 to 8.0?) Install crashed. Product would not run. Payed to have support send me an email for an exhaustive uninstall to facilitate reinstall. Same problem continued. Payed to have support
User Rating: 4/10
Works, but can't stand it.
Pros: It's already disabled two viruses sent via e-mail.
Cons: 1) Regularly asks me to reboot in order to apply updates. Antivirus protection is completely disabled until you do so. 2) You can't disable the splash screen which is an every-boot-up running advertisement trying to convince you to purchase the other "sec
User Rating: 7/10
Excellent product!!
Pros: After using Norton Anti Virus 2004 for approx 1 week, I decided to dump the resource hogging software. This is the first time I have used any McAfee Anti Virus and I am extremely happy with the results. Much faster on boot up then Norton and does not drag
Cons: none
User Rating: 8/10
Blows Norton 2004 Away
Pros: Not a resource hog, works well, easy to configure. I have always been a Norton user but after installing 2004 and seeing my system slow to a crawl I started looking into McAfee. First I purchased Spamkiller to replace Norton Anti-Spam 2004 since I thought
Cons: Not wild about having to do all configuration through the "Security Center"
User Rating: 4/10
pathetic! read on
Pros: A good product that has let me down.
Cons: 1) They totally screwed up the program now, who needs all that unessesary secuirity centre garbage. When a man buys a AV product he expects it gives him what he wants. 2) And now, you can't even download the AV definitions manually, you have to use Insta
User Rating: 6/10
Hard to Install, Slows e-mail
Pros:
Cons: slows down e-mail previews and downloads to worst levels ever, pre-existing McAfee virus scan products cause install problems, several "blue screens of death" after install, last McAfee viruscan I will purchase (have used all from 4.0 until present)
User Rating: 9/10
Great Product! No problems encountered.
Pros: Easy to Use Effective Stable
Cons: Can't update DATs manually must use Security Center. No Downloadable Installation File - must use web install.
User Rating: 9/10
Best on the Market !!
Pros: Slick easy to use interface Auto up-date alert
Cons: Supicious scipt finder has no clean or delete function
