2012 Antivirus Software Reviews

McAfee Internet Security 2012

While McAfee used to be one of the trusted names in antivirus software and Internet security suites, they continue to coast on their big name. It shows.

Sure, there are still a few things going for it, like good real-time protection, but its virus scanning and removal were inadequate.

McAfee has become the new standard for bloat in an Internet security suite. McAfee Internet Security 2012 has more system processes running at one time than any other Internet security suite we've seen. (Good luck counting them all.)

And, when McAfee is checking for updates (something you have no control over), the system nearly comes to a halt. The same thing happens when McAfee is scanning for real-time threats coming through your web browser.

McAfee Internet Security uses massive amounts of CPU and memory just to perform realtime scans, sometimes making normal computer usage nearly impossible while it figures out if a site is friend or f

McAfee's technical support is adequate, but you'll have to pay--and pay big--for any real assistance.

In the end, despite the very high scores in real-time protection, McAfee's poor virus scanning and system resource usage are too much for us to recommend.
There were some positive and negative aspects to McAfee Internet Security's overall PC protection. Several of the major labs tested McAfee, and most of the results were poor:

• AV Comparatives
• Anti-Malware Test Lab
• PC Security Labs
• Malware Research Group
• AV-Test
• ICSA

And, after our own testing, there are only a few positive things to say about McAfee. McAfee Internet Security 2012 performed very well in blocking real-time threats via their web-filter where it recognized nearly every threat.

The major down side of this: McAfee massively slowed down the testing computers as it evaluated threats.

So on one hand, McAfee could block real-time virus, spyware, and malware threats, but it was at the (severe) cost of nearly crippling our test computers' usability in the process.

McAfee's other failure came from by way of poor scanning and virus removal. In our tests, McAfee missed over 25% of the samples we tested with; other labs reported even worse results (as high as 50% miss rate.)

Far too often, what other Internet security suites easily found and cleaned, McAfee couldn't even find. Many that it did, it couldn't fully remove.

Even though McAfee impressed us with its real-time virus blocking, the poor virus removal rates and immense realtime system drag ultimately make McAfee's protection unacceptable.
It's more fun to report good results than bad once, in this case, this review isn't much fun.

When our systems were running idle with McAfee Internet Security 2012 running in the background, there were some alarmingly high spikes, specifically when downloading updates or performing realtime scanning.

About half the time, McAfee CPU use shot up well above 50%, often bringing other PC activities to a halt, stayed there for a few seconds, and ultimately returned to normal. Spike are normal. We get it. The thing is, we didn't see this kind of high CPU increase in any other Internet security suite we tested.

Manual scans were much, much better, averaging just under 40% CPU across our range of test PCs.
Let's cut to the chase: the interface in McAfee Internet Security 2012 is awful.

From the word "Go" with the installation, things are difficult to navigate and poorly implemented.

For starters, the entire interface is small and constricted within a tiny box. Yes, you can stretch that box out, but why not just make the interface the right size by default?

Next, instead of a standard left or top navigation, in McAfee you expand each section vertically to reveal the options.

The problem? Nearly all of the expanded windows are so ill-fitting to the main window, you need a scroll bar to move up or down to see the full options. Again, because of the small size of the overall box, this scrolling is pointless.

And it gets worse in the firewall section where there are sometimes two vertical scrollbars adjacent one another.

Then, the options within each expansion are links instead of buttons or checkboxes (which would be much more logical), which means clicking an option opens another window on top of the section you were just on.

McAfee used this same interface last year, and it was terrible then, too.
Technical support for McAfee Internet Security 2012 comes in two flavors:

1. free, self-help options
2. paid, premium support
For those looking for free support, McAfee offers forums, searchable FAQ pages, video tutorials, chat, and email.

These options are as extensive as any competitor and provide good insight to most technical issues.

If these options don't resolve your problem, McAfee has separate software you'll have to install called "McAfee Virtual Technician." This software automatically checks your system and if it can, it makes recommendations to correct any problems.

If the Virtual Technician fails, the next option is to pay McAfee to resolve your problem for you. Their fees range from a one-time fee of $69.95 to an unlimited yearly subscription that can run as high as $299.95.

Given that these services are the exact services included for free with Avira and VIPRE, how McAfee is somehow able to justify charging for them is odd.

Antivirus Updates: 63%

Score: 79%
Orig Price: $79.99
w/Discount: $64.99
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Virus definition updates for McAfee Internet Security 2012 are set to download and install by default. You can choose to have McAfee notify you before installation as well.

Unfortunately, there's no option choose how frequently you'd like McAfee to check for updates. You can turn them on or off, but that's it.

While there is a timestamp indicating when your last virus definition updates were, and an estimated time McAfee will check again, that's barely adequate. And, in our case it was four hours before the next update. That's just too long when competitors like avast give both faster updates and more control.

Extra Features
McAfee offers several decent extra features with their Internet security suite including Parental Controls, online backup, and a file shredder.


Extra Feature:
Backup & Recovery: 60.00
McAfee offers Internet Security owners 1 GB of online storage to backup your files, photos, or other valuable documents.

For all intents and purposes though because of the extremely small amount of space, this backup software, like that included in Norton Internet Security, is useless.

1GB is such a paltry amount, it's barely even worth mentioning. 1GB isn't even enough to back up one single movie from iTunes or Amazon.

1GB might have been a lot of space in 1995, but in 2012 it's not even a drop in the bucket. Sure, you can buy extra space, but c'mon. 1GB?! Even GMail has more space for users of their free email service.

For what it's worth, the service does work reasonably well even if they're extremely chintzy with space.


Extra Feature:
Parental Controls: 70.00
McAfee's parental controls are very basic and only adequate. You have the option to set time restrictions for your children's computer use.

You select what kind of sites to block or enter specific websites you want blocked.

There's also an option to password protect the parental control settings so your child can't get in there and just turn things off.


Extra Feature:
File Shredder: 93
As with the basic version of McAfee, you get the same excellent File Shredder to help ensure the private files you want deleted are really deleted.

With it, the software automatically repeatedly overwrites the location on your hard drive where your sensitive files were so files are unrecoverable.

Few other antivirus programs offer this, VIPRE being one of the only exceptions.

It's a great feature we wish more software offered.


Conclusion - Overall Score: 79 %

Score: 79%
Orig Price: $79.99
w/Discount: $64.99
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Despite McAfee's long history as antivirus software pioneers, we can't recommend McAfee Internet Security 2012.

For starters, the installation process is frustrating and more complicated than it should be. It's clear there's some financial motivation behind their choice to do this. No one would make software installation this hard without incentive (however misplaced it may be.)

Next, the user interface is claustrophobic and uncomfortable to use. With a tiny space and tight scrollbars, it's unnerving even to do pretty basic things in the software.

As for actual virus, spyware, and malware protection, McAfee did well in the real-time, zero-day threat department, but really dropped the ball with system scanning and virus removal. Some tests showed about 50% of the viruses were left untouched by McAfee.

Next, SiteAdvisor, meant to add significant safety to your web surfing has to manually enabled in Internet Explorer. (This despite McAfee reporting that SiteAdvisor was enabled in the main interface.)

The final straw was its resource usage. There are many processes running all the time, and a computer can easily become bogged down when McAfee is downloading updates or scanning a potentially dangerous website.

Unfortunately, McAfee Internet Security 2012 just doesn't cut it this year. There are too many better, cheaper alternatives.