McAfee was the first company to offer antivirus software in the U.S. Although we now use a more advanced version, the fact that it has been trusted for over 30+ years speaks volumes. We tested McAfee Total Protection software for this review. It was a solid buy, with robust digital security features wrapped in an easy-to-use interface. What does that actually mean? Continue reading to learn more.

McAfee Total Security: Is the Protection Really Complete?

McAfee’s most loved digital security suite, Total Protection, is it. mcafee antivirus not scanning It offers three types of protection.

  • PC – It protects users’ devices from viruses, malware, and ransomware by using antivirus and firewall.
  • Web – protects internet users from cyber threats. It removes cookies and other trackers from websites. It warns users when they visit potentially dangerous websites.
  • Identity – It uses a variety of tools to detect and prevent identity theft. It has, for example, a password manager. It searches the dark web and internet for any indication of stolen information.

Because we wanted to test McAfee’s antivirus, we focused our testing on PC protection. We used the Acer Aspire 5, which runs Windows 10, and an Android smartphone for our testing. These are the results of our tests.

Real-time scanning: The Antivirus That Never Goes to Sleep

McAfee Total Protection performed its task as an antivirus. It was responsible for ensuring that our computer was virus-free. Real-time scanning is largely responsible for most of the credit. It detected viruses in real-time and prevented them from executing, as the name implies. How did it do that? McAfee Total Protection performed a quick scan on any file we accessed, including email attachments. It blocked suspicious files from opening and kept them in quarantine so they could not do any damage.

We wanted to see it in action so we downloaded an antimalware test file from EICAR.org. A notification alerted us that McAfee had stopped a virus and said “no action is necessary.” It works! It works! However, we found that the constant virus-checking put an extra burden on our computer and delayed our access to files for a few seconds.

Scan on-Demand

Total Protection offered several options for scheduling scans, including scheduled, quick, custom, or complete scans. These options could be accessed via the desktop client.

  • Full Scanning: This scan checked every folder and file on our computer’s hard drive. Each scan took many hours, as expected. The initial scan took five hours and 22 mins to complete. It checked over 460,000 items and removed four threats. The average time for subsequent full scans was less than two hours.
  • Quick Scans: Our tests took just eight minutes to run quick scans. This is because they only checked the areas where viruses are most likely to infect, such as system files and registries. McAfee did not specify how it selected the files to scan. It also didn’t have the option of modifying the scan scope. However, the reports indicated that McAfee had scanned more than 12,000 items. This is a good time for just eight minutes.
  • Custom Scanning: We specified the file, folder, or drive to be scanned. It was very easy to use. It was easy to use. All you had to do to scan the items was to right-click on them and choose the Scan option. This worked for single files or entire drives.
  • Scheduled Scanning: This was an automatic scan that ran according to the schedule we set. There were pre-set schedules like every other Monday, but you could also create your own schedule by setting the frequency, days, and times of each scan.

Virus Detection Testing: Are You Up to the Challenge?

To test how McAfee’s antivirus detects different types of threats, we conducted a controlled experiment. Five viruses were hidden on our computer, and we ran a scan to determine how many antivirus software could detect. This experiment was run on 40 different programs. Here’s what McAfee found.

Firewall

Total Protection protected us against network-based threats by using a firewall. It monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic and prevents potentially dangerous programs from accessing our computers. We also have the ability to manage Wi-Fi networks that we connect to our laptops.

Nightguard was one of our favorite firewall features. It monitored all network activity and stopped us from connecting to any suspicious URLs. It also monitors background programs. The firewall stopped a companion program trying to connect to a server in Russia when it detected that the security camera was trying to do so. McAfee saved us from identity theft if it was spyware. We manually allowed the software to access the firewall settings because it was not trying to connect to Russia’s cloud server.

The User Experience

Our review would not be complete without testing the user interface, from installation to use. McAfee Pre-Installation System Check

After launching the installation wizard it checked our system to make sure it was compliant with the requirements. It also looked for any other programs that could interfere with the installation. We were using Bitdefender VPN at the time and it flagged us. So we shut down the VPN and continued. Everything went smoothly, and McAfee Total Protection was running in no time.