McAfee Antivirus is an

antivirus software Antivirus software (abbreviated to AV software), also known as anti-malware, is a computer program used to prevent, detect, and remove malware. Antivirus software was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses, hence the name ...

created and maintained by

McAfee McAfee Corp. ( ), formerly known as McAfee Associates, Inc. from 1987 to 1997 and 2004 to 2014, Network Associates Inc. from 1997 to 2004, and Intel Security Group from 2014 to 2017, is an American proprietary software company focused on online ...

(formerly known as Intel Security, and Network Associates prior to that). Originally marketed as a standalone product, it is also bundled with McAfee Antivirus Plus, McAfee Internet Security, McAfee Total Protection, McAfee McAfee+ Premium, McAfee+ Advanced, McAfee+ Ultimate, and McAfee Business Protection. McAfee+ provides all-in-one protection for a user's personal info, privacy, and all their devices. It supports Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and ChromeOS devices and includes integrated antivirus, firewall and safe browsing capabilities as well as identity and privacy protection with identity monitoring, credit and financial monitoring, identity theft coverage and restoration,secure VPN, Online Account Cleanup, Personal Data Cleanup, Social Media Privacy Manager, and McAfee's AI-powered Scam Detector.

VirusScan Enterprise

Before McAfee completed the sale of its enterprise business it also produced an enterprise-level product named VirusScan Enterprise which was designed this for use on larger networks to make management of antivirus software on multiple computers easier. Unlike the home-user edition, the Enterprise edition consisted of a client application for networked computers. Clients could be controlled using the included ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO), which was a unified console that could control VirusScan and other McAfee products. Support for VirusScan Enterprise ended on December 31, 2021.

McAfee Antivirus for Mac

In November 2008 McAfee announced VirusScan for Mac OS. (Earlier versions used the name Virex, developed by HJC Software.) McAfee Antivirus for Mac is now only available as part of McAfee Antivirus Plus, McAfee Internet Security, McAfee Total Protection, McAfee McAfee+ Premium, McAfee+ Advanced, McAfee+ Ultimate, and McAfee Business Protection, and includes a firewall, VPN, Safe browsing and a password manager. It supports macOS 11.x and higher.

Controversies

Independent test results

Until approximately 2016 McAfee suffered from poorer malware detection test results and a larger impact on PC performance. Since end of 2016 with the introduction of AI and machine learning detection technologies initially called McAfee Real-Protect, the test results have changed significantly though.

AV-TEST AV-TEST is an independent organization which evaluates and rates antivirus and security suite software for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Android operating systems, according to a variety of criteria. The organisation is based in Magdeburg, Germany ...

(Germany) awarded McAfee with a TOP Product certification in the last 29 tests, SE Labs (UK) gave McAfee an AAA rating in the last 26 tests and AV-Comparatives has been certifying McAfee win an ADVANCED+ rating in its Real-World Protection tests since July 2022. AV-Comparatives has also rated McAfee as ADVANCED+ in almost all Performance tests since October 2016. In January 2025 AV-Comparatives published it's 2024 Summary Report in which it awarded McAfee with two Gold awards: the 2024 Real-World Protection Gold Award and the Best Overall Speed Gold Award. AV-Comparatives’ Real-World Protection Test measures a product’s ability to combat malware under everyday conditions. Winners of this test, such as McAfee, provide high levels of protection with minimal false alarms, sparing users the stress and burden of identifying whether something is harmful. The PC Performance Test evaluates the impact of a security product on system performance. McAfee showed the lowest impact on PC performance of all tested vendors throughout 2024.

Customer support criticisms

2010 reboot problem

On April 21, 2010, beginning approximately at 2 PM GMT, an erroneous virus definition file update from McAfee affected millions of computers worldwide running Windows XP Service Pack 3. The update resulted in the removal of a Windows system file ( svchost.exe) on those machines, causing machines to lose network access and, in some cases, to enter a reboot loop. McAfee rectified this by removing and replacing the faulty DAT file, version 5958, with an emergency DAT file (version 5959) and posted a fix for the affected machines in its consumer "KnowledgeBase".

2012 update issues

An August 2012 update to McAfee antivirus caused the protection to become turned off and users to lose internet connections. McAfee was criticized for not notifying users promptly of the issues when they learned about it.

Current standing

Over the years McAfee product reviews have been steadily improving with

PCMag ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and continues . Overview ''PC Magaz ...

rating McAfee+ with 4 stars out of 5, TechAdvisor awarding McAfee security with an Editors' Choice award, and Tom's Guide awarding McAfee+ Premium as a 'Tom's Guide Recommended' product with 4 stars out of 5.

References

External links

VirusScan for Windows
McAfee
VirusScan for Mac
McAfee
Tabular Comparison
Comparison Between Livesafe and Total Protection versions of McAfee {{Authority control McAfee Antivirus software Antivirus software for DOS Windows security software 1988 software MacOS software Classic Mac OS software