Delete It, You Gotta Be Kidding Me!
Written: Jul 10 '02 (Updated Jul 10 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: While Operational, It Works Semi-Productively
Cons: Slows Down System Performance, Locks Up Internet Explorer
The Bottom Line: You want to do some target practicing with a shiny object, then throw the green on the counter, walk out and shoot at this!
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| vandalz's Full Review: McAfee VirusScan |
It used to be easy to go online and not have to worry about anything, but not anymore. Computer systems have just become more and more vulnerable, as the programmers are working day and night to might the operating system more user friendly. More user friendly for who ... Me or the Anarchist Hacker?
Needless to say, I decided that I would protect myself further than the precautions that I have already taken. I went and purchased some Anti-Virus protection software for my computer, and decided that McCafee VirusScan 6.0 would be just fine.
With all the features that it boasted, I shouldn't have any problems with my system, and if I did it shouldn't be too many. I run Windows XP Pro on my computer and so, sometimes I have software conflicts ... BIG surprise coming from the Microsoft Team. Oh well, I better get away from that rant right now.
After purchasing the software I decided to put it on my computer like most other consumers would, I mean that is why you bought it isn't it? Installation was a breeze. After about three minutes I was ready to restart my machine, and configure this "GUARD" for my computer.
Upon restarting, I noticed that it immediately started up with the system. Great! Now, I will be covered from Logon to Logoff. I had about one good day with the software and then all of a sudden I began to have some problems. Maybe I should have read some of the Epinions on here first, but I didn't .... Somebody can smack my hand later.
After about one day I noticed that I couldn't load Internet Explorer without it locking up and having to be restarted. The only true way that I found to remedy this was to restart the system, and that in itself can become frustrating. After restarting, Internet Explorer would work for about five (5) minutes and then bye-bye. I decided that I would disable Internet Filtering and Firewall Protection just to see if that would remedy the problem. It did for about a day, and then it was the same problems all over again.
Other problems started to arise on my system, one after the other, daily. I noticed that my P-4 at 1794 Mhz was performing slower than my P-166 on my old computer. Now why would this happen. Probably because all 256 MB of my resources on my computer were being used by this rather useless program.
Aim was unable to start up every time, and there weren't any filters in place. Oh, and the best part. I decided to activate all filters, and protections, and go to a Virii site. I began downloading viruses both in "zipped" and ready form, and the program acted as if there weren't any on my system. Even after manual searching, nothing! To me this is not good, especially for $24.95, what do you think? I could have probably used the disc for target practice and gotten about the same performance from that as I was getting from it being on my system.
Wonderful! After researching this problem, I found out that the only way to fully remedy the problem is to remove it completely. Well, that is just great! Now I don't have any protection from these "Deadly" viruses, and Hostile Java Applets. I uninstalled the software and took it back to the store at which I purchased it, but since I had opened the box, it was not re-sellable. So I took a store credit in which I will probably buy some other software at a later date.
Viruses are bothersome and sometimes very destructive. Unfortunately, I believe that McCAffee it actually a producer of a virus that people actually pay for. Now don't get me wrong, just because it didn't work on my system, and because at the time of this review publication that only 57% of the users that used this actually liked it, it won't be good for you, but don't bet on it.
If you want virus protection and you want McCafee, just send me the money and I'll check your system for you. As for some of the other utilities out there, I'm still unsure. I think this time I'll do more research into the program before purchasing it.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID: vandalz
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- Top 1000 |
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Location: Pascagoula, MS
Reviews written: 157
Trusted by: 43 members
About Me: Freelance programmer finishing up a project shortly. Watch for updates!
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