McAfee Anti-spyware 2015 Review
What do you look for in a good anti-virus program? Performance? Protection? Usability?
In a lot of reviews online, you will see that McAfee beats most top antivirus competitors. This is confirmed by tests conducted by AV-Test in March and April 2014. In this day an age, as more people are starting to install anti-virus programs onto their mobile devices, an awareness of how it influences the performace is becoming a large factor. before, it was just how many viruses does it have recorded in its "do not allow" banks. However, as more of us are starting to protect our important data on our tablets and mobiles, we are realsing that we want to have this additional protection, but not lose the speeds on our devices that we have grown to love. Fromt he test carried out by AV-TEst in early 2014, vigorous tests were carried out that measured whether McAfee influences computer speed while installing and running programs, copying data, downloading software or visiting websites showed that McAfee’s average effect on speed was one second, compared to an industry average of three seconds. McAfee also excelled in AV-Test performance results. When exposed to 138 samples of brand new (so-called zero-day) attacks, McAfee stopped every single one, compared to an industry average of 94 percent. McAfee also made no mistakes in stopping 20,646 samples of widespread and prevalent malware discovered during the four weeks prior to the beginning of the test period. By way of comparison, the industry average was 98 percent.
Features
Just as with all of the best antivirus products, McAfee gives you fine control over its scanning behavior. You can select automatic real-time scanning of all files or just programs and documents. Or you can select specific items to exclude. You can also control whether it should scan email attachments, instant message attachments and network drives. Much more than a simple virus scanner, however, McAfee AntiVirus can boost your computer’s performance by letting you erase files that don’t need to be there. In fact it can permanently erase files with a shredder in such a way that nobody would be able to resurrect them with file recovery software.
Even though this virus scanner treads lightly on system resources, you can adjust settings such that it minimizes the effect on your PC’s speed (the scan will be less thorough). Or you can choose to have it scan more thoroughly, even though it will require system resources that slow down your PC. You can also strike a balance between thoroughness and speed.
McAfee AntiVirus is one of the PC antivirus products that includes its own firewall. A good two-way firewall is the foundation that supports any virus protection system. Firewalls decide which applications can enter or leave your PC. You can use a firewall to hide your PC from the internet, or to block internet access entirely. The current-generation Windows firewall is excellent. However, if you prefer your antivirus software and your firewall to be from the same provider, then that’s what you have with McAfee. Furthermore, by using the McAfee firewall, you can configure it from within the application, which means you don’t have to leave the security application. You don’t have to use the firewall that comes with McAfee; it works perfectly well with the Windows firewall.
If you are not regularly updating your version of Windows and your applications, you are allowing vulnerabilities to occur. Each update to Windows and Windows applications fixes vulnerabilities in the previous versions. Consequently, McAfee takes a system-wide perspective and provides a vulnerability scanner that updates your Windows installation and your applications.
For an entry-level antivirus product, McAfee AntiVirus sports a competitive feature list among its peers. However, by stepping up to an internet security suite such as McAfee Total Protection, you gain the ability to block spam and dangerous email and protect your identity. And by stepping up to McAfee All Access, you get unlimited protection for all of the devices that you own, plus a password manager.
Help & Support
The online help is well done with clear step-by-step instructions about many features. A knowledgebase, answers to frequently asked questions and community forums are also hosted on the McAfee support site. The community forums are for customers to exchange conversations and assist each other. McAfee employees also contribute from time to time. McAfee employees and user volunteers moderate the forums and keep them on track. The forums are organized by product and topic so it is easy to find the place where you belong.
The automated McAfee Virtual Technician diagnoses and repairs quite a few technical issues. You can always contact a human support technician by telephone or online chat. Virus removal and other services are available for a fee 24x7.
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