Product: VirusScan 5.02
Company: McAfee
Website: http://www.mcafee.com
Estimated Street Price: $39.95
Review By: Julien JAY

Introduction

After selling more than 70 million VirusScan copies worldwide, McAfee strikes back by unleashing a new revamped version of its award-winning Antivirus software. VirusScan 5.00 comes in two editions (Standard & Deluxe) with many new features that should enhance further the safety of every user. In this new release it's clear that McAfee has focused his efforts to simplify the software and enhance the data protection by including for the first time a backup feature in antivirus software. The deluxe edition we reviewed includes in addition to VirusScan, FirstAid 2000 and PGP 2000.

VirusScan 5.02 Deluxe features :

• New virus detection engine 4.0.70
• New Windows Installer based setup
• New user friendly Graphical User Interface from where you can directly scan your disk, display various information, and used all of the VirusScan features
• New Internet update mechanism that only download incremental updates and apply them automatically
• Quarantine feature that allow users to store in a safe place infected files that don't spread the virus infection -BackUp feature that keeps their most important documents and files in a safe place on the hard disk
• The brand new configuration wizard helps users to set their virus protection that best suits their needs by simply answering some questions

Short Viruses' history

Years ago, when the well known 'Michelangelo' virus appeared, its birth was relayed by a lot of media attention and the whole world discovered the potential destructive danger that viruses are for corporate and personal users. To this day more than 50,000 computer viruses (!) are identified: from friendly viruses that only display funny messages to harmful ones that'll corrupt or erase your data… As there's now a wide range of viruses, the media rarely speaks of them. So many novice users are wondering why they bought antivirus software that is supposed to protect them from unknown and invisible threats that even don't exist when the software is released. They're feeling frustrated to waste money because (hopefully) they have never been infected. They're absolutely wrong... Indeed, due to the Internet, new viruses are discovered everyday and threaten even your email inbox. Remember the latest biggest virus infection: 'Happy 99' spread like fire over the net in a few days and infected million users worldwide. This hoax virus displayed a funny fireworks animation during the time it modified the registry and DLL files to replicate itself on every outgoing email. As many new potential viruses threaten your PC you'll understand that antivirus software is essential and is an absolutely needed software insurance policy for every computer user that shares data with floppies or over the 'Net. McAfee's Macro Hunter and ViruLogic safeguard your PC from all virus types and from all potential sources:

• Floppy disks
• Email attachment
• Shared files
• Online services
• Internet Downloads
• Networks
• CD-Rom, etc.