Overall, I wish I hadn't... (McAfee Internet Security)

Member Name: JeremyC

Product:	McAfee Internet Security
Date:	13/12/05 (289 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy installation, good interface, effective scanning

Disadvantages: Caused some PC instability, Privacy Service failed, objects to browsers other than Internet Explorer

I bought the 2006 version (9.0) because it was on offer at my local store and was £10 cheaper than the Kaspersky software I was planning on buying online.

Good points first. The installation process was quick and easy and the user interface was clear and straightforward. Virus scans appeared to run slightly faster than the Kaspersky product I'm most familiar with and so far I've been virus free. The SPAM blocker seemed more effective than anything I've used before and I eventually managed to get the package running smoothly on my PC.

Now the bad stuff. The McAfee Privacy Service seems to impose another password demand on users for little benefit ( I can't really work out what it is designed to achieve). It caused boot up times to slow dramatically (to the extent that I regularly gave up and left my PC to sort itself out for a further 2 minutes after logging on) and it caused instability in my system when one user logged off and another logged on. In fact the whole package seemed relatively resource hungry. Irregular lock ups and eventual failure of the Privacy Service were sorted by removing that part of the package completely , whereupon boot up times improved significantly. McAfee also demands that Internet Explorer be the default browser or certain of its functions won't work - including product activation/ registration. This really got my goat. Opera used to be my browser of choice but not anymore, especially as I got random 'no disk in drive' error reports when I tried to use Opera after having installed McAfee. This smacks of unreasonable commercial behaviour to me.

Overall it seems that McAfee is a reasonable piece of software but I can't help feeling that I should have stuck with the more 'clunky' Kaspersky alternative. Having run a free trial of their Security Suite on my kid's PC, I get the impression that it is less resource hungry and more stable at the expense of being a little less user friendly. And Kaspersky can co-exist with Opera.

Summary: Seems good at virus scanning and SPAM blocking but it's far from perfect.

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