McAfee Total Protection by Jennifer A. Ray

When Comcast began bundling complementary malware protection with their internet service, I installed the Comcast version of McAfee and was very happy - until Comcast switched to Norton a few years ago. Compared to the old McAfee, Norton tasks system resources much more than it should. So when I was offered a copy of McAfee Total Protection 2012 for review, it seemed like a no-brainer for me and I jumped at the chance.

Three months later, I am uninstalling it on each of the three computers I installed it on and moving back to Comcast’s Norton, forfeiting the remaining nine months of the McAfee subscription.

I installed it on a desktop PC running Windows Vista x86, a laptop running Windows Vista x64, and a netbook running Windows XP. I was able to install McAfee on the two Windows Vista machines without issue, but I believe I have only had Norton on them since the last time I reformatted each of those machines. The Windows XP Netbook installed OK, but McAfee wouldn’t activate properly. It seems that the old Comcast-branded version of McAfee I had removed a few years ago left some remnants in the registry that made it extremely difficult to activate that PC. McAfee thought I was still using that old Comcast version and said the subscription had expired. It took numerous uninstalls and reinstalls to finally get it activated properly, deactivating and reactivating the license at the McAfee site each time, and switching the order of those tasks each time until I stumbled onto the right combination.

Any satisfaction I felt at finally getting McAfee successfully activated was shortlived, however. The Windows XP machine began producing nightly errors on the McAfee program, and for a good hour before the error, the computer became extremely unresponsive.

Not only that, but all three computers frequently reported that McAfee real-time scanning had been disabled. Although I was able to enable real-time scanning again, it would only last a day or so, making any protection McAfee might offer extremely unreliable.

I am sorry to say that McAfee is no longer a product I would recommend to anyone - especially anyone not very computer savvy. I work in IT, and I found it cumbersome and frustrating. Your malware protection should be something that, while still needing periodic checks, just works without constant manipulation. That is not true of this iteration of McAfee. For now, I’m installing Comcast’s Norton again. It may use more system resources than I like, but at least it works. I will be trying Kaspersky or another competitor in the near future, though.