McAfee VirusScan is an antivirus software created and maintained by McAfee (formerly known as Intel Security, and Network Associates prior to that). Originally marketed as a standalone product, it has been bundled with McAfee LiveSafe, McAfee AntiVirus Plus, McAfee Total Protection and McAfee Gamer Security since 2010. McAfee LiveSafe integrates antivirus,

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and anti-

spyware Spyware (a portmanteau for spying software) is software with malicious behaviour that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send it to another entity in a way that harms the user—for example, by violating their privac ...

/anti-

ransomware Ransomware is a type of malware from cryptovirology that threatens to publish the victim's personal data or permanently block access to it unless a ransom is paid off. While some simple ransomware may lock the system without damaging any files, ...

capabilities.
In 2006, British telecom company

BSkyB Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...

started offering

Sky Broadband Sky Broadband is a broadband service offered by Sky UK in the United Kingdom. With the introduction of Sky Fibre, Sky Broadband now refers to ADSL broadband products. History In October 2005, Sky UK agreed to purchase the ISP EasyNet for £21 ...

customers a branded version of VirusScan for free upon broadband modem installation.

VirusScan Enterprise

McAfee also produces an enterprise-level product named VirusScan Enterprise: McAfee has designed this for use on larger networks designed to make management of antivirus software on multiple computers easier. Unlike the home-user edition, the Enterprise edition consists of a client application for networked computers, and a server application, which the system installs updates and configures settings for all client programs. Clients can be controlled using the included ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO), which is a unified console that can control VirusScan and other McAfee products. On September 8, 2020, McAfee has announced End of Support date: December 31, 2021

VirusScan for Mac

In November 2008 McAfee announced VirusScan for Mac OS. (Earlier versions used the name Virex, developed by HJC Software.) Key changes in VirusScan 8.6 included Leopard Compatibility, a universal binary package that ran on both Intel and PowerPC-based Macs, On access scanning and Apple Mail support.

Controversies

Poor independent test results

In tests by Virus Bulletin and additional independent consumer-organizations, McAfee VirusScan has not fared well, frequently failing to detect some common viruses. A review of VirusScan 2006 by

CNET ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...

criticized the product due to "pronounced performance hits in two of our three real-world performance tests" and some users reviewing the same product reported encountering technical problems. Some older versions of the VirusScan engine use all available CPU cycles. , McAfee virus-scanning products did not handle false positives well, repeatedly removing or

quarantining A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been ...

known clean files, even after user restoration of these files.

Customer support criticisms

Reviewers have described customer support for McAfee products as lacking, with support staff slow to respond and unable to answer many questions.

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 
 
Svchost.exe (Service Host, or SvcHost) is a system  process that can host from one or more Windows services in the Windows NT family of operating systems. Svchost is essential in the implementation of ''shared service processes'', where a number  ...

) 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 has 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

McAfee, though well-known, continues to have mixed reviews by industry sources, and the company has prepared a 2015 release series to address current market conditions. This repositioning includes voice and facial recognition authentication for cloud-based data security.

References

External links

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