McAfee VirusScan

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McAfee SecurityCenter 2008

McAfee VirusScan is a popular antivirus program from McAfee (formerly known as Network Associates ). VirusScan is designed for use on personal computers - VirusScan Enterprise is designed for use in large businesses . A standalone program called VirusScan for Mac has been developed for Mac OS X.

The virus scanner cannot be obtained from retailers as a so-called “standalone package”, but only in the McAfee VirusScan Plus package or in the McAfee Internet Security Suite .

Functionality

In McAfee VirusScan Plus (name from version 2010: McAfee AntiVirus Plus ), in addition to the virus scanner itself, a spyware scanner and a firewall are built in.

  • " On-access " file scanner
  • Firewall protection for incoming and outgoing connections
  • Spyware protection
  • Daily virus definition updates
  • McAfee X-Ray detection (protection against rootkits )
  • McAfee SiteAdvisor - shows website safety ratings in the browser
  • McAfee SystemGuards - monitors the computer for activity that could be caused by virus infections or hacker attacks.

The program is compatible with Microsoft Windows 2000 , Windows XP , Windows Vista and Windows 7 .

VirusScan Enterprise

McAfee also publishes a virus scanner for large companies called VirusScan Enterprise. The scanner includes special functions for use in larger networks, especially for management on several computers. It also includes a client version for use on the individual computers in the network and a version for the server (with this, the updates are imported centrally in the company, just as the configuration of the individual clients can be changed centrally).

VirusScan for Mac

Formerly known as Virex , the latest version was released by McAfee in November 2007.

  • Compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
  • Universal Code : First version that runs on both platforms, i.e. Intel and PowerPC Macs
  • On access scanner
  • 5300 scanner engine
  • Apple Mail Scanner : The mails within the Apple Mail application are now also checked

history

McAfee VirusScan has a long history. The virus scanner has existed since the late 1980s, at that time as a pure command line program for MS-DOS . At that time there were only a few hundred viruses and hardly any alternative virus scanners. Accordingly, the program was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. At that time it was still sold as shareware and was z. B. available via mailboxes (BBS) . Except for the note that the version is not registered, there were hardly any restrictions in terms of functionality. In addition to this, there was the “virus monitor ” VShield , an on-access scanner running in the background, as a separate program .

criticism

Virus Bulletin tests show a poor detection rate for some known viruses.
A CNET report on VirusScan 2006 mentions that performance is poor and a full system scan would take a long time.
PC World names McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2010 good signature-based malware detection as positive , but also criticizes existing performance problems.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ However, the standalone command line scanner SCAN.EXE (current engine version: 5.4.0.0 ) was completely included in every Superdat update package ( SDATxxxx.EXE ) until March 2010 .
  2. ^ Virus Bulletin
  3. ↑ CNET Review of VirusScan 2006 (Eng.)
  4. ↑ PCWorld test report of AntiVirus Plus 2010 (Eng.)

Web links