Update: (12/13/09) I have a three install license. When I tried to install a second license on my laptop I received a message informing me I had no installs left. When I clicked on the "help" screen I was sent to a screen which implied I might be a pirate. When I eventually got the customer service screen I found I would have to PAY to have a phone conversation with a real person. UNACCEPTABLE!

I had to install a program which opened a dialog box to "on-line chat" with someone in a foreign country. This required me to allow a stranger to take control of my computer (do you really want that?) and prowl around. I had a difficult time communicating the problem. The CS rep kept insisting I had to uninstall my previous install on my desktop, even though I had TWO installs left. When I finally managed to make him understand, he erased all my settings in Internet Explorer. Even though the problem was finally solved, the whole process took almost 45 minutes, 35 of which were spent online. Also it took me several days to actually download the help client as I kept getting repeated messages indicated the McAfee server was unavailable. I was never clear what the problem was.

So why would anyone subject themselves to such misery? I can't imagine.

Original Review (not changed):

The summary: A good anti-virus program which works flawlessly with Win7, but may annoy you during the setup.

I waited over a month to write this review because I wanted to do a clean install of Windows 7 Professional on a new "home brew" computer before testing it. I have avoided McAfee products for years because of several bad experiences in McAfee's early iterations. So I wasn't sure what to expect, but I wanted to give it a fair test that was unencumbered by other potentially conflicting programs or native problems.

I chose "Custom Install" from the setup menu since I like to see what's being put on my computer. Obviously I chose to install "Virus Scan" but I declined "Personal Firewall" since its built been built into every Windows version since XP, SP2. I okayed "Site Advisor", but said no to "Easy Network" since I could find no information as to what this is. (The packaging card attributes the lack of included instructions to "an ongoing effort to minimize the impact on our environment" although a cynic might suspect more of a financial motive.) After this the program downloaded something called "Compatibility Checker" trickled down from a slow McAfee home site (six minutes to download.) Downloading the Win7 update added another three minutes and the total install time came in at just under 12 minutes, a bit long I think (I have RR turbo.)

Just like Microsoft, McAfee requires product activation, but unlike Microsoft or Adobe requires your first and last name, email address and password, which I find objectionable. Another annoyance is the box (checked by default) which may put you on more spam lists AKA McAfee "partners." Be sure to uncheck them unless you really want more email. Entering a password is more complicated than it should be. No password requirements are listed until you enter a password which is not long or complex enough and then you are informed it needs to be at least eight characters long with at least one letter and one number and no special characters. The only way to find a suitable password is through trial and error.

More objectionable to me is the attempt to get you to sign up for an automatically renewing subscription which charges your credit card one month before your year's initial subscription ends at the "existing price -- discounts and special pricing do not apply." Furthermore once you've turned on auto renewal via your computer you are not allowed to turn it off with your computer. To not be charged again you're required to call customer service. McAfee automatically gets your money even if you stop using your computer or someone steals it, unless you remember to call them. And even if you want to authorize payment years in advance, do you want to buy something without knowing the actual price? Why this helps anyone but McAfee is a mystery to me.

The plus to this program is it has, for five weeks at least, worked quickly and unobtrusively for me. It may be partly due to my new computer's inherent speed, but with most virus checkers I can usually feel it pulling down my system as it toils in the background. Not so with McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2010. I also found the "Site Advisor" feature to work seamlessly, although it takes up another precious line on a browser increasingly burdened by add-ons like Google Toolbar, etc. Also installed with Site Advisor is a searchbox which pushes you to Yahoo and also sets your browser's default search engine to Yahoo. You can turn this entire line off, but I found no way to set the site advisor search to another site, for instance Bing or Google.

For those who want a more complete program, McAfee will give you more bells and whistles at a higher price. But remember, those bells and whistles in the background eat up precious speed. I prefer a minimalist approach, especially since Win7 has a lot of built-in safeguards.

So yes, I give the program a solid but not completely enthusiastic recommendation once one gets past the annoyances I mentioned. (Has anyone ever actually flipped over an antiviirus program?) If I find any long-term issues, I'll post an update

It is hard to review a product like this unless you have been running it a while. Less than a week ago I received and installed it on my PC. So far it has been a positive experience without any glitches at all. If time goes by and I do experience problems, I will edit my review. The install was easy and fairly quick. McAfee doesn't seem to be the space hog that Norton is, and certainly seems faster. The interface was simple and easy to learn for someone who has never used McAfee before. I ran my scans and set up the parameters of the protection I wanted. My PC was clean so I can't comment on how well it picks up any virus problems. All in all, it has been a quick and pleasant experience switching to McAfee.

I am so glad that I got this

I have used Norton for years and it has continued to be a mess It slowed my computer to a grinding halt

With this install I have nothing in conflict with it

It updates itself (Great for me because I forget to update sometimes)

It has a nice window that you can navigate quite easily

I didn't have to uninstall it to install the newer system which is fantastic

It also goes on to three computers instead of the usual 2

With their updates, they are not about hourly file updates or five minute updates -- at McAfee the updates are instant.


Their tools are great! They include antivirus, antiphishing, antispyware, and a personal firewall, plus a backup-and-restore feature plus many handy utilities

It was only after getting this in the mail & looking on the back of the box that I realized that Antivirus "Plus" only comes with 3 features. That is the big plus? Are you kidding me? If you want more you have to pay of course & there are 2 more version each costing more. Considering that I can get the same protection for free from Avast! I hardly see this as a great deal or worth buying. In the future if I decide to buy an antivirus program I will look into Norton. I used them a lot in the past & was always very happy with the results & all the "extras" that came with it.

The "Plus" is as follows: protection for email, chat, & go online. Freely surf, search, & browse the web. Play games, watch videos, & be productive w/out interruption. WOW! ALL that! Yes, I'm being sarcastic. The next version is Internet Security which includes the 3 mentioned items and 2 more. Shop, bank, & trade online more securely. Let your children go online safely. GEE shouldn't that already be in "Plus"? I think so! The last version is Total Protection. It includes all 5 items mentioned with 3 more. Know when someone connects to your home network. Safely search or click on links from friends, knowing your PC won't be exposed to viruses or threats. Protect your valuable files in case you computer is lost or stolen. I repeat GEE shouldn't that already be in "Plus"? YES! What a rip-off!

What it has going for it is it is a well known & trusted antivirus program. It is easy to install. (However, Norton & Avast! are also very easy to install.) And you can install it (McAfee) on up to 3 PC's. That is great for us having the desktop plus 2 laptops. I have used older McAfee programs in the past & never had any trouble with them & so far, this one seems to run as smoothly.

Bottom line, I think this is a waste of money. If you only want the 3 features than get yourself some protection for FREE. If you want all the "extras" I guess you could get the Total Protection but I would strongly suggest checking out Norton first & see if they have a better "deal"

Update 4-27-2010:
Mcafee had a boo boo with an update causing the "blue screen of death" (google it, it just happened if you don't believe me). I have had Mcafee on all 3 of my pc's. Well not anymore! My laptop bit the dust. I had to reformat it & decided to install Microsoft Security Essentials on it for my FREE anti virus protection. Well well, my laptop is blazing by with no problems. Mcafee hogged the resources on this machine that it would crawl & Mcafee killed my laptop. I was so worried about my other 2 pc's but they are okay. Phew! However this led me to believe that having one antivirus program from the same provider isn't the smartest of plans. I could have lost everything! So I uninstalled Mcafee off my other laptop & put good ol' FREE Avast! on it. Well well, that little bugger is chugging away faster & smoother than ever! I left Mcafee on my home desktop pc. When my subscription runs out, I will get another FREE anti virus rather than Mcafee. It is really pointless to have Mcafee when you can get all you need for nothing & not have your pc go to a crawl.

McAfee Antivirus Plus was easy to install, and easy to use, but their products always seem to slow my PC down, and this was no exception. I also had a problem registering - it kept telling me my password or email was wrong, and I was registering for the very first time, so I couldn't figure that one out. How can it be wrong when you're just setting it up? I tried several times, and then gave up. I immediately ran a virus check, and it picked up nothing, which showed me that the one I'd been using was doing a good job. It seemed to take forever to run the scan - this is where I've been spoiled:

I've been using Vipre Antivirus for the better part of a year, and I guess I've been spoiled by it. Vipre AntiVirus + AntiSpyware.

McAfee takes up around 8 times the memory that Vipre does, and it's site protecter, while it could be useful, is probably one of the things that slows my pc down. Vipre's scans seem to run far more quickly, and always gives you the option of deleting cookies it picked up, whereas the McAfee scans I ran didn't pick up cookies.

I have to say I've used Norton, AVG and McAfee, and they've all been far slower than Vipre, so to be fair I'm giving this one 4 stars. It has more options, and is better than the last versions of either Norton or AVG that I used - nothing that I've used can compare to Vipre, but I realize it's a bit more expensive than the others. I thought after reading the package to this particular version of McAfee that it might be much improved (ie: much faster), but it wasn't. I don't want to turn this review into an advertisement for another antivirus, and I apologize for being so biased, but I would think that by now McAfee could come up with a product that is both effective AND fast - unfortunately this one isn't it.

Norton and NOD have been my main AV software protection for the last 5 years, I gave up on Norton about 2 years ago due to it's high use of resources, and switched to NOD. I avoided McAfee up until now because I often read that it was a resource hog like Norton. This year things have sort of changed, call it the Year of Windows 7 and an attempt to clean up all the Bloat in the Windows camp, but from what I have read Norton 2009 and Mcafee have both trimmed the fat. So far I find Mcafee to be a lot less of a Hog than Norton 2008 but it still bleeds off some of my PC's speed. I give it 4 stars because even with though I get a hit in speed, I am also getting what feels like a very robust protection system.

My experience with McAfee so far:

The Good:
Installed cleanly, no problems. So far .
As far as I can tell it has detected and removed all the viruses that I have encountered but no one ever knows for sure unless you can run multiple AV programs on your PC and thats really not an option due to conflicts in the software.
But overal it seems that the protection in this version of McAfee's software is very good.
Three user license is great, thats just the perfect number for most homes.

The Bad:
It's a resource Hog, just like Norton. It slows down my PC when running, so if your on a underpowered PC this might not be for you. If your running Dual core or Quad core this should not be a problem unless your a gamer trying to get the most FPS.

The GUI will be baffling to the novice, it has options that are buried fairly deep.


Conclusion:

Worth the money, not bad to use, has a powerful but complex interface. It will be a welcome addition to anybody with a fairly modern PC, but will not be a good option for Gamers or people with very old PC's.

McAfee Anti-virus Plus was easy to install and easy to use. The first time in use there may be some registration problems and the first scan may take longer than normal, but once you get it up and running its by far the quickest and least obtrusive of antivirus programs I've had experience with in the past (Norton anti-virus and Norton 360 v1 and v2).

It certainly has lower resources requirements and allows for running in the background for an even less obtrusive user experience. The thing I value with this over Norton products. I would say that this is a set it and forget it anti-virus vs Norton's vista like products.

All in all a good program with simple interface and installation.

4/5 stars

I have been with McAfee for a while and I was glad to see I could get the 2010 update for free on Vine! Scans and updates all happen in the background. There really is no maintenance required for the user. the only feature I do not like about it is the SiteAdvisor toolbar. Although occasionally I go to sites where SiteAdvisor will help, I don't need my toolbar telling me that the site is safe EVERY SINGLE time I go to google or Amazon. So I just turned the toolbar off - no big deal - it still proves useful to turn it on when I visit off-sites which I am just not sure about.

To wrap it up - I've used McAfee for about 3 years now and do not plan on switching. McAfee antivirus is a customizable, easy "set-it and forget-it" software which will protect your computer from both attackers and from yourself without being annoying about it. I've tried free antivirus programs online but they are all very annoying and require you to update and require you to scan on your own time.

I've used McAfee off and on for over twenty years. They have had their ups and downs. Not that long ago, their product was turning into a rather heavy resource hog.

They've cleaned up their act and I am happy to have their product back on my home systems.

Installation is easy, updates are handled well and the interface gives you the info you need while otherwise not bothering you a whole lot.

This particular unit is a three license pack, which makes it a healthy bargain as more and more people have multiple PCs or a PC and laptops and this way you need not spend excess money on multiple copies.

The one caveat (and it is not unique to McAfee) is the renewal process. Putting it bluntly, they gouge you on renewal prices. When the time comes, do a bit of research and you should be able to find the newest edition in the open market for significantly less than the renewal cost.

beyond that, this is a great product. You *need* good anti-virus/anti-malware etc and you should get the best and most reliable software to protect yourself. This is one of the best.

I've got over 27 years experience with PCs both home and professional. (I currently support over 300 users.) There are only four products I will recommend for protecting a PC and this is one of them.

McAfee told me that currently there is a compatibility issue with Windows 7 64 bit. Their engineers are working on it an a solution is expected in 4 weeks. Although it was pre installed on my laptop, after 2 months I had to reinstall it and while McAfee support worked several hours on it, they didn't succeed to get it up and running. Forcing me to switch to a competitor product. Too bad as I thought highly of McAfee.