Review by Daniel Jolley

Quite frankly, I gave up on McAfee security software even earlier than I dumped Symantec/Norton, but I was pleasantly surprised by McAfee Total Protection 2008. That being said, I have to issue a caveat here. I did not install this product on my primary computer, as I’m quite happy with the security software I’ve been using - but I figured I would give this software a try on one of my secondary computers. My parents use this particular computer more often than I do, so I basically just needed something to help safeguard an email client and keep nasty web entities (viruses, spyware, adware) at bay during limited Internet access. That means I can’t really speak to a lot of the more advanced capabilities of this product, as my parents aren’t exactly adventurous when it comes to exploring what a computer can do.

Virus protection is old hat and then some, by now. Since this computer is basically left on all of the time, virus protection files are downloaded and installed automatically, and the real-time protection rounds up any potential danger as soon as it comes riding over the horizon. The same deal goes for spyware and adware. Scans can be set up to run overnight or whenever, so my parents really don’t have to do anything in order to be protected when they’re actually doing something online. That makes life a lot easier for my parents - and for me, as well. McAfee SiteAdvisor is also beneficial, as one of my parents (who shall rename nameless) does have a bit of an itchy clicking finger - any kind of warning about sites that have been identified as sources of spam, spyware/adware, and scams is definitely a good thing.

Any security software with real-time protection is going to slow down your computer to some degree, but McAfee Total Protection 2008 seems to leave only the most minimal of a memory and CPU usage footprint on this particular computer - but my parents rarely have more than two programs open at the same time. I can definitely say that this software doesn’t slow email down to an infuriating snail’s pace (unlike Symantec security products, which make opening your email client a veritable time-consuming ordeal) - and that’s noteworthy, in my book.

What surprised me the most with this product was the ease of installation. (The computer in question, I should note, is two or three years old and runs Windows XP with half a gig of memory.) Installation really couldn’t have been quicker or easier. Some products I’ve used in the past required some detail work to get the firewall configured the way I wanted it, but I really didn’t need to do anything of the sort in this case. When a program opens that isn’t configured through the firewall, it’s a simple matter of allowing or blocking that program from gaining Internet access. In addition, you don’t have to worry about being bombarded with firewall-related messages. I’ve used products in the past that popped up little alerts for even routine Internet traffic activities by default, requiring you to go in and reconfigure your settings to eliminate those flurries of mundane alerts. My parents usually stop in their tracks whenever they see a strange message on the screen, afraid to do anything else until I can tell them what to do in response to that message. With McAfee Total Protection 2008, I feel pretty confident that the only messages they see will be ones I really do want to know about.

This review will be most useful to those who aren’t experienced computer users, people like my parents who really only use their computer for email, some Internet searching, word processing, and similar basic functions. I think McAfee Total Protection 2008 makes for a pretty good security solution for this type of computer user because the product is easy to install, doesn’t require any fancy configuration changes after the fact, and basically just runs in the background, minding its own business, until such time as a threat of one sort or another comes along. The fact that this product comes with three user licenses is also a plus, as so many people nowadays have more than one computer.