Review by W. Munro

Overall, this program worked well (e.g. fairly easy install, fairly fast performance).

One of the primary stated benefits that I found compelling was the ability to protect files on an external USB drive that you might switch between multiple computers. For example, I generally work on my desktop at home, and then put files onto an external USB hard drive to take on the road with my laptop.

In order to actually achieve this benefit, however, you actually have to install McAfee on BOTH machines. The one you may have used to create the vault (in my case desktop), as well as the one you want to eventually access the vault from (in my case laptop). I didn’t have time to read the user agreement in full detail, but I’m pretty sure this requires purchasing 2 copies of this software in order to be in compliance with the license.

Also, this means that if you put a vault on an external USB drive and then want to access that vault from another computer that does not already have McAfee Anti-Theft installed, you cannot. This is a major shortcoming in many travel scenarios, when I often take my USB drive with me, but don’t take my laptop. Instead, using a public/Cafe computer or some other local/borrowed machine when I get where I am going. This scenario is not supported, unless you plan on taking the installation CD with you everywhere, and even then, you are not likely to have admin rights on public machines to install the software.