Mcafee Total Protection For Mac
McAfee is a longtime name in the world of PC security. These days the company sells four security products for home users: McAfee Antivirus Plus, Internet Security, Live Safe, and Total Protection. This review is looking at McAfee Total Protection, which along with other McAfee products, recently got an upgrade. McAfee says the new Total Protection packs improved anti-malware protection, and a uniform interface on both PC and Mac. Total Protection comes at a variety of price points depending on how many devices you want to license. For a single device you’ll pay $60, add another $20 and you get Total Protection for five devices, and for $100 you’ll get coverage for 10 devices.
McAfee only licenses a maximum of five True Key password/identity manager installations per subscriber, however, even if you pay the price to cover 10 devices. Live Safe comes with the same limit on True Key, but offers unlimited device installations. Total Protection’s interface is well designed, but at the same time I found it a little confusing.
Some information is stored in the left rail, for example, while others are in the main panel, and still others are in both spots at once. At the top of the window you get five tabs: Home, PC Security, Identity, Privacy, and Account. There are also icons for alerts, tips, and settings in the top-right corner. Note: This review is part of our. Go there for details about competing products and how we tested them. Ian Paul/IDG Home is your basic dashboard with a green check mark or red alert to let you know whether your PC is protected.
It also includes quick links for running a PC scan, setting up True Key, checking application updates on your PC, and removing cookies and trackers from your browsers. Above those basic tiles there’s also a carousel with various information such as how many web connections McAfee has blocked—for Windows 10 users that can be a lot—and how many files have been scanned. PC Security is a deeper dive into your PC’s status. The left rail features at-a-glance information such as whether the firewall and real-time scanning are active. The main panel of this tab, meanwhile, features four small tiles that are similar to what we saw under the Home tab, with options to run a security scan, application updates, virus updates, and to browse McAfee’s history. The carousel, meanwhile, prompts you to activate features related to PC security such as checking that your third-party applications are up to date. Identity consists of three basic things: the True Key identity manager, a file shredder for deleting sensitive files, and McAfee Web Advisor.
The latter is a separate download that is supposed to protect you from online threats by warning you about problems before you encounter them. It includes “misclick protection” to block malware or prevent landing on a phishing site via a bad link, typo protection that addresses mistyped URLs of popular websites, eg Google.com versus Gooogel.com. If you’re a novice or casual PC user, Advisor could be a helpful tool, but advanced users could find it more of an annoyance than anything else. Ian Paul/IDG McAfee Total Protection’s Threat Map.
Privacy includes parental controls, another tile to remove cookies and trackers from your browsers, a file vault to secure sensitive files with encryption and a password. There’s also an interesting Threat Map tile that lets you see the top threats in the world or in your corner of the global network, including malware, malicious hacker IP addresses, and other information. Finally, Account contains your account information, including the time remaining on your subscription. Overall, McAfee packed a lot of information and features in Total Protection, and it’s all fairly well organized, though splitting information between the left rail and the main panel is a little confusing. Total Protection’s rotating carousel also feels like space that could be put to better use. It takes up so much of the interface while the essential tools are restricted to small tiles at the bottom of each tab.
Ian Paul/IDG McAfee Total Protection’s File Lock feature integrates with Windows File Explorer. Another quibble is that McAfee opens a second window to carry out almost any operation, from running a scan to digitally shredding files. Total Protection has such a large window by default, it would be better if everything just happened there. The only exception to that rule might be File Lock, which integrates with File Explorer. Perhaps a single-window approach would add complexity to the app’s navigation or reduce responsiveness, but multiple windows adds to that feeling of wasted space. The app also won’t amaze you with slickness or design.
It’s very understated, but that’s probably a good thing in a security suite, which should be part of your PC’s plumbing. Things can get messy without it, but you’d rather not have to think about it too much when it’s working. McAfee does have pop-up notifications that appear now and then, and Total Protection’s carousel does take up too much space to promote True Key and Web Advisor. Overall, however, McAfee stays out of your way while you work. Performance Both A-V Comparatives and A-V Test took a look at McAfee and its security protection performed very well. A-V Test found malware and zero-day attack detection was 99 percent in June during testing with 202 samples.
Malware detection was 100 percent from more than 10,000 samples, and there were no false detections for websites or legitimate software downloads. Ian Paul/IDG Total Protection’s Identity tab., meanwhile, found that McAfee had seven false positives during a real-world protection test, but it also detected 100 percent of all 329 malicious test samples. Malware defenses were really good during an online scan, at 99.4 percent, while offline detection was low at 78.8 percent. There were also 9 false alarms during these tests of nearly 38,000 samples. When we ran Total Protection through our usual Handbrake and PCMark 8 tests, we found McAfee had a minor impact on performance. Handbrake completed its job of transcoding a 3.8GB high definition video file in one hour, 18 minutes, and 24 seconds.
The standard time for our Windows 10 test PC without any extra programs running is one hour, 15 minutes, and 30 seconds. That means the PC took slightly longer than usual with McAfee running, but for a home user, that difference won’t have a massive impact. Prounstl exe driver for mac. PC Mark 8, meanwhile, got a score of 2,527 with McAfee running, and 2,532 without. That’s a small drop in performance and unlikely to be noticeable to most users. Conclusion McAfee is a solid choice for PC protection, and the impact on your PC resources should be pretty minimal. The price points are okay, but you can find better value elsewhere.
The McAfee desktop app needs a little work to make it more intuitive, and to optimize its design.
By Jennifer Allen 2018-11-06 20:13:03 UTC There's a common misconception that Macs don't need antivirus software. Unfortunately, that's far from accurate these days. Macs are generally more secure than PCs, thanks to a more secure operating system where certain aspects of its software are more locked down and harder to infiltrate by rogue software. Also, meaning fewer targets for criminals. However, that doesn't mean that it's impossible to get a virus on your Mac, or receive a suspicious piece of malware either. SEE ALSO: A report from Malwarebytes found that. That number is likely to rise in 2018 with new threats like OSX.MaMi and Dark Caracal cited in the article as significant ways of disrupting Mac owners.
The more Macs are used, the more they’ll be targeted by cyber criminals. And everyone loves the must-have MacBook of the moment, right? MacOS might still be more secure than Windows but why take a risk with your valuable data? We've taken a look at some of the best antivirus solutions out there for your Mac, ensuring you have an extra layer of security between your data and nefarious viruses. We’ve evaluated their effectiveness at detecting viruses, and lay out any of their additional security features too. Protect your Mac against ransomware attacks, computer viruses, and more with these antivirus products. The gist: One of the oldest names in the security software business, it's easy to know what to expect from.
Essentially, it runs in the background, keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity or threats to your system, without any need for interaction from you. In the past, Norton software has been known for causing performance dips but that's far from the case here. For one thing, its idle scanning feature only scans during quiet periods with that scan pausing the moment you use your Mac. What it offers: Norton Security for Mac offers a few different options for scanning. You can switch to automatic, always-on protection and never think about it again, or there's schedule scanning for appropriate times of day for you. It's the idle scanning feature that's most useful though, which simply works when you need it to.
Additionally, includes two Safari plugins. Safe Web helps you avoid visiting rogue sites, while Identity Safe is a simple password management tool.
Neither are quite as expansive as the antivirus facility, but as a useful way of cutting off issues at the source, they do the job admirably. The price: uses a subscription based service: $39.99 for the first year provides you with one Mac license.
If you want to use the software on more than one Mac, you'll need to upgrade to Norton Security Deluxe for $49.99 for the first year. The $10 upgrade gives you up to 5 licenses (for PC, Mac, Android and iOS smartphones), as well as parental controls if you need them.
The gist: Another familiar name in the security software world, is more than just antivirus software, offering a full security suite of features. It's a name that was synonymous with being a tad bloated in the past but that's far from the case now. If you want something more powerful than simple antivirus protection, this will scratch that itch. What it offers: As expected from a name as big as McAfee, there's the prospect of award-winning antivirus scanning. It's not quite as fast as Norton's nor quite as accurate, but it's still highly competent. Where things are ramped up is McAfee Total Protection's many extra tools, much beloved by its users. There's anti-spam protection that works with many popular email clients, a digital document shredding tool, Wi-Fi protection settings, and a network manager so your network can't be hijacked without your knowledge.
Parental controls are also available along with True Key identity management which uses multiple forms of authentication to ensure that only the correct owner of your Mac will be able to use it. It's all about cutting off your risks before you even get that far. It might not be the speediest or the most attractive antivirus software, but for those after comprehensive security assistance, it's unparalleled. The price: The price you pay depends on how many systems you want to run it on.
You can protect one device for $24.99 or five for $39.99, and up from there. In each case, that's the price for the first year of use. The gist: antivirus option might be a lesser known name in the antivirus and security software world, but it's garnered many awards for its antivirus engine. Some sources have even found 100% success rates for virus and malware detection, although mileage will vary depending on the viruses involved. A little cheaper than its competitors, it's a strong opening gambit for a company that's more well known amongst tech savvy markets than the average consumer. What it offers: Speed is one of the best things about. Within seconds of use, it'll scan thousands of your files with a full scan taking mere minutes.
Opting to scan specific locations such as your Mac's system library is also an option, streamlining your experience. No one wants to wait around for a full virus scan, so it's refreshing to see Bitdefender just get on with things, or provide you with convenient alternatives.
There's also the ability to search for malware quickly within various archives and common filetypes, such as PDF or ZIP, further extending your options. An always-on scanner known as Autopilot keeps an eye on things when you don't want to do anything manually, although that does mean no choice of scheduling. Security suite features are also included, such as an adware blocker, anti-phishing detection for webpages, and backup protection for your Time Machine backups. The price: is currently priced at $39.98 for five devices for the first year. It'll work across platforms so it's ideal if you have additional Macs, smartphones (Android or iOS) or PCs that require protection.
The gist: isn't like other anti-virus software, in that it's keen to make absolutely no impact on your Mac's performance, no matter how old your system is. Instead of using a large database to detect issues, it primarily relies on behavioral based detection, snooping out when something doesn't seem normal for your system. Tackling things with a different approach means it's perfect for old systems that haven't got the space or the RAM bandwidth for too much probing. What it offers: Webroot Antivirus for Mac stores all its anti-malware protection information on the cloud, meaning it's speedy and has a small footprint on your Mac. By saving you the effort of downloading virus definition updates, it's also impressively accurate while speedy. Most full scans will only take a matter of minutes rather than hours, no matter how dated your technology is.
Mcafee Total Protection Macos
Alongside such fast scanning, works to cut things off at the source. It has anti-phishing tools that block harmful sites before you even load them, along with a firewall and network connection monitor. Working as pseudo security software means it's a little more effective than simply scanning your system as and when needed.
Mcafee Total Protection Help
However, the real advantage here is how undemanding Webroot Antivirus for Mac is. It simply just works, without making you worry about any noticeable performance impact while your Mac is in use. The price: Webroot Antivirus for Mac works out as $29.99 per year for one device license. $37.49 provides you with three licenses per year, so it suits a household well. The gist: is software that's exclusively for Mac products. Unlike other entries here, it's been built from the ground up just for Mac, with no hint of a one-time clunky Windows interface in sight.
For a more stylish and intuitive way of tackling your virus protection, it's unbeatable. What it offers: High rates of accuracy is very much Intego Mac Internet Security's game. It does a fantastic job of detecting anything thrown at it, albeit a little slower than with some antivirus protection. As soon as it's installed, scheduled and real time protection is activated by default, making it an ideal choice for anyone who wants to avoid poking around the software. By default, it automatically detects Mac malware, but it'll also keep an eye out for anything Windows or Linux based, so you can be sure to not accidentally send such files elsewhere.
It keeps an eye on files on your iOS devices too. Besides the key antivirus protection features, also includes NetBarrier X9 to provide network protection, securing your Mac from unauthorized access when you're on a public network, like public Wi-Fi. The price: A one-year subscription for one device costs $49.99 with that price rising to $59.99 for up to three devices.