Did you know McAfee antivirus was one of the 1st companies to launch antivirus software in the United States, and the same antivirus software is still in use today? Indeed, they are now using a more evolved edition of it, but it's been chosen for more than 30 years speaks volumes. They have tested the McAfee Total Protection antivirus software. It found a good buy with strong digital security features in an easy-to-use interface. What do we mean by this? Keep reading to know.
McAfee Total Protection - Is Protection Really Total?
McAfee Total Protection is one of McAfee's most famous digital security suites. This has 3 types of protection:
- PC: It protects the customer's tools from viruses, spyware, malware, and ransomware via antivirus and firewall.
- Web: It protects customers against cyber threats while surfing the internet. It does this by deleting cookies, and other trackers websites may use and warning customers when entering risky websites. A VPN is also added to the higher-tier plans.
- Identity: It aims to prevent and protect against identity theft using built-in tools. For example, it has a password manager. It also searches the Internet and the dark web for any signs of identity theft and offers the highest level of identity theft insurance.
Real-time Scanning Antivirus That Never Sleeps
McAfee Total Protection did its best job as an antivirus to ensure that your computers remained virus-free. As its name suggests, it scanned your computers in real-time and stopped viruses before they had a chance to perform. Most credit goes to real-time scanning. But how did it work? McAfee Total Protection accessed a file, including downloads and email attachments, and accessed a fast scan to check for viruses and malware. This prevented unsure files from being opened and kept them in quarantine where they could do no damage.
So, real-time scanning? It works! But we have noticed that frequent virus checks put a heavy load on computers, delaying access to files by a few seconds.
Scan On-demand
McAfee Total Protection also offered options to perform a complete, fast, custom, or scheduled scan. These options were readily present through the desktop customer.
Full Scan: This checked all folders and files on the computer's drive. The basic scan lasted 5 hours and 22 minutes, checking more than 460,000 objects and deleting 4 threats. Following completion, an average of fewer than 2 hours.
Fast Scans: Fast scans were short, only 8 minutes on average during tests. They checked areas where viruses were infected. McAfee Total Protection did not specify how it selected the files, nor did it have the option to customize the scan scope, but reports showed it scanned more than 12,000 objects. That is not bad for 8 minutes.
Custom Scan: Custom Scan checks the folders, files, or drives. It has worked on single or multiple files, folders, and drives. All we had to do was right-press on the objects we wanted to scan and choose the scan option.
Scheduled Scan: This was a complete scan that accesses on its own based on the schedule. There were preset schedules like every other Monday of the month, but there was also the option to make a custom schedule by setting each scan's frequency, day, and time.
Firewall
McAfee Total Protection is also protected from network-based threats by using a firewall. It checked incoming and outgoing network traffic, blocked risky programs from being accessed, and helped us manage the Wi-Fi networks connected to laptops.
One of the favorite firewall features was NetGuard, which checked network action and prevented us from connecting to ensure URLs or IP addresses. Also, keep an eye on the programs running in the background. For example, when a security camera companion software tried to connect to a server that appeared to be in Russia, the firewall instantly stopped it. McAfee would have protected us from possible identity theft if it were spyware. Thankfully, the antivirus software was only trying to connect to cloud servers in Russia, so it allowed it in the firewall settings.
McAfee Total Protection Mobile Apps on the go
The iOS app is known as McAfee Mobile Security. On Android, it is known as Mobile Security: Proxy VPN & Anti-Theft Safe Wi-Fi. Both apps showcase McAfee's trademark clarity while giving high digital protection against viruses, malware, spyware, ransomware, etc.
The apps' high ratings were backed by lab test results from AV-Test, an IT security organization. They concluded the Android edition of McAfee Antivirus protected 99.9% of malware attacks in real-time and 100% of the widespread Android malware discovered in the past 4 weeks at the time of testing. These final results are as good as they get for an Android antivirus, so great job, McAfee.
McAfee Total Protection cost
No matter how cool its features are and how easy it is to use, the fact is that McAfee antivirus is not free software. So, what is the cost of getting total protection from McAfee Total Protection? Well, it will depend on how many tools you want to protect.
McAfee Total Protection, which has antivirus, web protection, firewall, identity protection, and a VPN, gives great value for its cost.
Conclusion
McAfee Total Protection is a smart option for antivirus software. It is cheap; it does a great job of protecting against threats, is easy to use, and has multi-platform support for Windows, iOS, Mac, and Android. McAfee Total Protection's strongest factors and areas where it can still improve.
Choosing an antivirus software is not an easy task, but with the help of research and practical experience, you will find the suitable antivirus software for you in no time.
