Computers & Internet

McAfee Internet Security 2015 Review.

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McAfee is one of the oldest players of Antivirus market. But with an influx of more reasonably priced alternatives vying for the top spots, the antivirus giant may have to consider a software overhaul in order to stay relevant. McAfee has now offered their newly launched product Internet security 2015 with lots of changes and some good features. Let’s check them out in detailed.

McAfee Internet Security 2015 comes with some diligent features like Antivirus, firewall, antispam, antimalware and parental control. Their control panel is looks good intuitive. If you are going to purchase a dell desktops or laptops than you will get free 15 month subscription with the product.

The independent testing labs give McAfee generally good marks. Since my review of the standalone antivirus, its score with AV-Test Institute rose to a perfect 18 of 18 points. It rated Advanced+ in AV-Comparatives‘s malware detection test, though false positives dropped its rating in the whole-product dynamic test to Standard. In real-world tests by Dennis Technology Labs, McAfee achieved AA certification, the second highest level.

Virus and Spyware Protection

Virus, malware, and spyware protection were average for the most part. McAfee scored average to well in independent tests, but only scored 80% during our own tests. That means McAfee only identified and blocked known viruses about 80% of the time. Not exactly optimal. With only average antivirus protection, even with their built-in firewall, it’s hard to recommend McAfee as a good Internet Security suite.

A full system scan with McAfee took over an hour. That’s really a long time; the current average is 25 minutes. I do like the fact that it wipes out serious malware upon detection. You may find that it asks your permission to delete low-risk items at the end of the scan.

Impact on System Resources

McAfee uses a lots of system resources and drastically impact your system performance. Its firewall can sometimes slow down your Internet speed; especially if you are using a wired Broadband connection. System resource usage for McAfee was low when running in real-time protection mode. CPU usage was less than 1%, and memory usage was approximately 140MB on average. But when a full-system scan was running, the CPU usage went through the roof, nearly maxing out our testing PCs. Memory was still average ranging from 124MB-160MB, but the consistently high CPU usage is very troubling. During a scan, this can seriously slow down your productivity.

Technical Support

McAfee’s technical support is barely acceptable for most problems you may have. There are FAQ pages, video tutorials, chat, email, and forums where the majority of answers can be found. There is also a “Virtual Assistant” that will scan your system for potential conflict. This is a separate piece of software to download from McAfee. (It’s worth reporting that we tried multiple times to install this software, and it failed both every time, on every PC.)

If you need further help, like virus removal, custom setup, or a PC tuneup, it’s going to cost you. Manual virus removal is $89.95. Or you can upgrade to $179.95/year for full coverage, the most expensive we’ve seen this year.

Buy McAfee Internet Security 2015 1 User 3 Year Antivirus from Snapdeal

Final Verdict:

It seems that despite being picked up by a reputable company, McAfee hasn’t been able to make any kind of comeback. Lab results are at the very least mixed. Still, LiveSafe’s memory footprint and interface isn’t any worse than other antivirus programs we’ve looked at. Plus, not having a limit on the number of devices you install on is nice. However If you’re looking for perks like a secluded browsing window for banking and online shopping or special protection for social networking, which are becoming standard for software security suites, McAfee will only disappoint. The software continues to do what McAfee is best known for, which is protect against viruses and malware and help your computers and devices run more efficiently. If this is all you’re looking for, then McAfee is the security software for you.

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