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McAfee sucks

February 19, 2002 · 121 comments

I've cancelled McAfee's Virusscan online twice now. First time they didn't work with IE6 yet, though it had been in preview for a sizable period. Then the lured me back with a really cheap offer, and since they claimed to have fixed the issues, I tried again. Still no luck. Got long emails from techsupport (who seemed like complete morons) telling me to mock with my registry (search for x, delete each instance (but not these instances), repeat for this list of 20 words). Needless to say, I gave up.

Then I thought I'd use their standard Virusscan product, which I've used before, and it's worked well. But now that also bombs, with a "failed to register scheduler DLL in AvSynchMgr" message. Oh, thank you.

The one good thing to say is that there's no argument about getting a refund.

What antivirus should I use? (WinXP)

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121 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Gerg Bobert // Jun 14, 2004 at 08:02 PM

    Mcafee Always Sucked try AVG from grisoft.com (FREEEEE!) or Trendmicro.com (My personal favorite, not over bearing on PC like others out there. cauf cauf norton cauf.. and very strong at that... Gerg

  • 2 thomas pecora // Sep 11, 2004 at 09:02 PM

    Youre both right Yeah my mcafee sucked to,after 9 years no problem than Bam Mcafee bombed past two months,after the same endless printed inst,& chat on line doo dooo,I pulled it all out,PS it let slip in Xabot,which rteally hurt,finally after my e-mails back to mcafee,I always sign back mcafee sucks and have blocked them ,can we get the state or FTC,to investigate ?Afterall a newspaper had to go to court and sue to say "Macfee Sucks"..ck google.. AGV and Microtrend goog choices be sure update regular...MCAFEE SUCKS "Pecart"

  • 3 Mike Trotter // Sep 26, 2004 at 08:54 AM

    McAfee Sucks Try SpyHunter. It scans twice as fast, finds everything and has the capability to delete everything it finds. Its a great program.

  • 4 efranco@nycap.rr.com Franco // Mar 04, 2005 at 01:32 PM

    I have constant problems with McAfee - does anyone know how to contact them OTHER than the '900' #? Live chat NEVER works and e-mails are NEVER returned....Privacy Service paid for - constantly DE-installs itself, Virus updates end up in Error....I really think McAfee SUCKS!

  • 5 Martin Babin // Aug 03, 2005 at 07:25 PM

    McAfee, let me count the ways I hate you... In spite of being used to dealing with Office Max (read "mail in rebate") for several years and including everything in the package my refund was turned down with a claim that I didn't send in the UPC as proof of purchase (which I cut out of the box and sent). You allways have a slooow download to update something as soon as I get online, without giving me a choice of when to load it so that when I logon to get something done real quick I have to wait through one of your interminably boring updates and the secure pages that I am trying to access time out or automatically logoff so I have to go through the whole secure logon again.

  • 6 Bob lamer // Sep 05, 2005 at 05:37 AM

    Well guess what ? As of 09/03/2005 Mcafee STILL BLOWS ! Personal Firewall Plus and Spamkiller disable themselves after EVERY BOOT and leave you wide open for crap from the Internet. Worse yet, Mcafee KNOWS ALL ABOUT yet does nothing about it. Just try going to Mcafee.com and posting on their so called "help" forums. your post will be deleted in a heartbeat !! Went back to TrendMicro. Works well and NO hassles.

  • 7 A Fuentes // Sep 07, 2005 at 08:25 PM

    Comcast is now offering their broadband customers free DLs of the three or four McAfee products. You know what? Even teamed up with Comcast, McAfee still sucks! That's right. I used to be a customer, until I determined that it was their slooooooooow, clunky virus app that was killing Win2K and XP boxes in my shop. And forget trying to deal with them if you've had a major crash and need your reg keys. They are at least as bad as Norton, plus their sw is slower. So I uninstalled that crApp. Well, now they are teamed up with a major broadband player so I thought "maybe they have cleaned up their act." Just tried to dl their firewall app since it was "free." Couldn't do it because they wouldn't accept my email address since it's "already used." If their auto registration app is so lame as to blow off an existing legitimate paying customer, then I conclude that their app can't be worth the time it would take to open a free webmail acct. hungry_i

  • 8 lama chow // Sep 20, 2005 at 02:10 AM

    Mcafee product is extermely poor in terms of Usage installation and support.It is better to use something else. Free installation from Comcast: it takes a long to time to download, and even more time to configure and use. Once installed it slows down the system as if the operating system has been severely compromised. It just acts like the malicious software it offers to protect one from.The PUP identified by Mcafee should never be deleted - this will spoil the operating system. Better avoid.

  • 9 Scott Eaton // Oct 05, 2005 at 07:23 PM

    I agree that McAfee is either incompetent or dishonest or both. I bet both. Mail-in Rebate is a Las Vegas-like strategy that induces more sales while knowing that many buyers will fail to execute the Rebate process. Solowild.

  • 10 Bob // Nov 09, 2005 at 03:50 PM

    It has just come time to "renew" and suddenly I start having "bugs" attack, malware, evil attachments, trojans... Is McAfee poisoning the water so they can sell filters?

  • 11 colnagorider69@yahoo.com // Nov 11, 2005 at 12:16 AM

    Damn right they SUCK - big time. I downloaded that crap they sell a year ago and it screwed up a bunch of stuff on my PC. Tech support was no help; they said they could not support my version of Virus Scan. Fuck me boys, I just paid for it, what gives??? Anyway, I cancelled - I thought - but just got a receipt showing they've dinged my credit card for a "renewel." They sure make it difficult to contact customer service. Well, I guess it's one business model that works....

  • 12 Xander // Dec 05, 2005 at 01:28 AM

    Thanks for this blog folks - My McAfee keeps shutting off! What good is this damn thing if I have to baby sit it. I have AVG and Zone Alarm Running - and I may just get rid of McAfee and just disconnect from the internet when I'm not around. McAfee has given me so many "not responding" lock ups and slows my computer WAY down. (and I have a very powerful computer) To be fair lame McAfee did catch some virus called Jeefo. I may try Norton. AVG has never given me a problem so I'll keep it.

  • 13 m.c.pereira // Feb 13, 2006 at 09:21 PM

    I paid for mcafee on line and got it. It crashed my computer. I live in canada and tried their toll free line and it did not work. Finally I got through to them in another way. However this was 37 days after purchase and therefore I was told -no refund -tech support only at a price (they have a time limit of 30 days) I fixed the computer myself and am trying to get a refund since !

  • 14 McAfee Absolute Disaster // Mar 26, 2006 at 08:06 PM

    A false positive Virus Scan back on March 13 2006 completely corrupted my IEV6. Same BS tech instructions from McAee, X delete temp files and other BS instruction with no help. I was finally instructed to completely deinstall my MS program and start all over again according to Dell support. I wound up going with Firefox browser. McAfee, you suck!!!

  • 15 Ashley // Mar 28, 2006 at 11:14 PM

    I agree McAfee sucks. In fact I found this site by searching for "McAfee Sucks" on google lol. Even though I disabled spamkiller, I still have to sit and wait for it to filter through all the emails in my inbox looking for spam each time I open my email account! I have two different identities in my email and it does it each time I go back and forth between each. It also finds viruses with each scan, several, what the heck! Norton never found anything when it scanned, obviously it was better at preventing viruses than McAfee. Even though McAfee came free with my PC, I'm going to buy Norton I think. Dell needs to rethink the virus programs they put on their systems. This is one frustrating program.

  • 16 Ashley // Mar 28, 2006 at 11:15 PM

    Oh yea, and it won't let you go to any website hosted my homestead.com

  • 17 Micky // Apr 08, 2006 at 02:40 AM

    I completely agree... Mcafee is a POS! My new dell came installed with it... I ended up re-installing OS to get rid of all the pre-installed Dell junk, and I re-installed Mcafee in the process... long story short, soon after installation, I would get crazy slow-downs and freezes... I ended-up intalling my XP OS 3 times due to Mcafee spoiling my OS after un-install it. Check this, even the hacked-version sucks! All I want is a simple app that scans for viruses, maybe updates automatically, can be easily un-installed, and watches for all outgoing network connections (apps phoning-home and such). Btw, this is my first PC, I am coming from the Mac world - never had to deal with all this shit before... Mac OS mos def has the ups on Windows when it comes to the OS. AVG? Is good? Works well in XP Pro SP2?

  • 18 Henri // May 01, 2006 at 08:56 PM

    I couldn't agree with you more! I live in Canada, and when I tried to reach them through the internet, I realized they leave no contact information other than the one they charge for. I feel at their mercy for the time being. I knew little about them when I made the decision to take a one year service contract. Just recently, I had to wait twelve hours, and McAfee literally kept me from turning off my machine! I had to pull the plug, not once but twice. I finally gave in when I realized I had no choice, and waited patiently. That's convenient! Everytime I tried to restart, a message would appear telling me that they would tell me when I could turn off the machine. Excuse me!?! I ignored the message and restarted the machine (I had to unplug it by the way), but it would start all over again. What the hell is that? I couldn't do anything during this time. What annoyed me even more was that they never even told me what was going on until the twelve hours had elapsed. They were never even apologetic about it. "An error ocurred during the installation of an update" or something like this is what the message read. When this contract is over, maybe before, my friend and I are looking for a new antivirus program -- one that works!

  • 19 victor@officexpo.com // May 12, 2006 at 10:14 PM

    MacAfee is such a piece of junk it is not funny, they lied to my company, I had spent at least 40 hours trying to contact them and many more trying to get rid of MacAfee. I am switching my company to something else on Monday. I will not be taking hostage by stupid security company, who knows as far as I know they are writing the viruses. Enough with getting screwed by this companies!

  • 20 Dinsdale // May 15, 2006 at 06:53 AM

    Threw out Norton for being a problem and replaced with McAfee which slowly but surely took over my entire system. MCSHIELD is very unreliable when you have multiple eMAIL accounts. I have read posts elsewhere about the horrendous experience of others with this bloated PIG !! I had switched to CA at the office, and now finally had the time to switch here at home !! What a relief !! Instead of my CPU constantly running at 60-90% utilization, whilst McAFEE protected me from actually getting any work done, I HAVE MY COMPUTER BACK Praise the Lord !! Maybe CA is "IT" a simple virus and firewall program that does what you want it to do, assumes a moderate intelligence from the user, and in turn does not "eat your computer". OH, and if I didn't know how to kill processes and other more advanced stuff, I NEVER would have gotten McAFEE to DE-INSTALL in the first place. McAFEE INTERNET SUITE is one of the WORST PROGRAM FAMILIES EVER CREATED. Everyone who works there who has ONE SHRED of DECENCY or ETHICS should RESIGN, IMMEDIATELY !!

  • 21 tburnham2006@comcast.net // Jun 02, 2006 at 06:41 AM

    Just started getting butt loads od spam and just so happened my mcafee software page got a new icon called spam killer? talked to mcafee and they said did you buy a spam killer in which they allready know that itis not offered in their promo with comcast but they are trying to stick it to us to keep from getting those sick spam messages? at least i have not gotten the ones that say mymale member is too small and we can enlarge it for ya but i suspect they will be soon to follow!! i have never surfed porn sites and used to get that crap until i got comcast and now they just started letting spam thru but it is not x rated yet? anyone know why this took place?

  • 22 David // Jun 07, 2006 at 03:04 AM

    i personally Use AVAST which is free & updates better then AVG use to. Both AVG & AVAST I think are the best AV out there. mcafee nortons and panda hawg resources. allthough nortons and mcafee have big names they dont catch everything. Panda is good but spendy. I would rather invest in AVG or AVAST. WATCH OUT FOR SCAMS RESEARCH AV PROGRAMS BEFORE TRYING. AVAST & AVG GUARANTEED GOOD & WORTH WHILE.

  • 23 paul7663 // Jul 20, 2006 at 02:21 PM

    After installing Spamkiller, I started receiving spam (which Spamkiller identified) in accounts that had not received an email in months. Seems like a strange coincidence to me.

  • 24 dan // Aug 05, 2006 at 01:32 AM

    just had to delete mcafee from one of my systems because it would not let me connect to the internet after an update. first tried deleting firewall, that didn't work. when i e-mailed from a differant computer for support they sent back an e-mail which started "log onto your account"...hello? i can't log into my account you morons. of course they gave me the option of calling for support for 4 bucks a minute. huh? isn't that sort of like me nailing the doors shut to your home and then sending you an estimate for removing them while you are stuck inside? after deleting ALL mcafee files i was able to connect and tried chatting with them to reinstall "properly". their help caused my other computer to also stop connecting to the net. could someone please post the addresses of the ceo's for this company so we can send messages to them? or maybe their phone numbers so we can call them directly. say about 3:30 a.m. ? as of now both computers won't connect. who knows? maybe god is telling us we spend too much time on the net

  • 25 Ed // Aug 16, 2006 at 04:28 PM

    Bought McAfee online (what was I thinking?), couldn't even get it to install, kept crashing my system. Sat in the phone queue for 30 min after navigating through to 'get a refund' - no answer. Hung up, called back, and navigated to 'buy a product'. Instant answer! They said they were not able to refund my money, but gave me another phone number to a 'special department' to get the refund: 801-431-1759. Called this morning, and after fending off offers of discounts, they finally agreed to refund my money. Haven't actually confirmed my credit card, but try this if you can't get through on the number they give you...

  • 26 sawwardog@yahoo.com // Aug 18, 2006 at 11:44 PM

    HELP! I would rather have the Sasser Worm; then at least there might be a cure. I bought this dell laptop in early 2006 and it came with McAfee already on it. I installed AVG (and downloaded Firefox) but left McAfee running because I use LimeWire alot and I thought it couldn't hurt to run two anti virus programs. I soon realized that AVG was picking up real threats that McAfee never detected. I tried to be patient with McAfee but finally got fed up with it. Now i'm downright pissed. McAfee itself seems to be the worst virus I could ever have on my computer. I couldn't actually locate where McAfee was so I searched for it and tried to delete all of it's components. That isn't allowed. The only flaw with AVG is that it doesn't delete McAfee for me. Now McAfee is only functional enough to slow down my computer by about 20% and constantly harass me about renewing my subscription. I cant get rid of it and can't even reinstall it to properly uninstall it. Now nothing is functional and it's stuck on my computer. Someone please tell me how to get rid of McAfee! HELP!!!

  • 27 Robert // Aug 25, 2006 at 11:53 AM

    I totally agree with all of you. I tried McAfee, and it crashed my system to the point of losing all the data, including my original restore point on my computer...Wiped away the log files to restore.exe. I tried numerous times to contact them, and of course, no answer, until the 31st day, in which, they will not refund your money if it is 30 days old. Ha, Ha, what a F-----G Joke. I tried another number, which the customer service person said was not answering....No answer, no answer, no answer... This company sucks big time...Do not use it...

  • 28 mptwo7@aol.com // Aug 27, 2006 at 02:04 AM

    NO MORE MCAFEE !!! I ran McAfee for 2 years with no problem. It caught 2 virus's, and several worms and performed wonderfully. THEN...around July of 2006 I had a notice from McAfee telling me that I was entitiled to a free UPGRADE. Trustung them, I upgraded to to their newest Security Center, and that was all she wrote for my PC. Lock-ups, 100% CPU usage, nothing worked. I downloaded their "Fix It" program and ran it untold times, uninstalled, and reinstalled the virus scan, etc., nothing would solve the problem. As a paid subscriber to their product, I found out that if I wanted (needed) to talk to the nice folks down at McAfee about my already paid for product, I MUST PAY for this honor. Pfffft !!!!! E-mailing them got me ZERO responce's and they only sent me standard e-mails letting me know that they had more stuff that I could buy from them if I wanted. Long story short; STAY AWAY from McAfee's new Security Center. Do as I did: Uninstall McAfee with the MCREM program (do a Google search).... Then install NORTON. If you do have a problem with Norton, you may be forced to go ahead and have one those conversations with "Melissa (who is in Packistan), but at least you get to talk with someone, and it is for free as well.

  • 29 ganga // Aug 27, 2006 at 02:56 AM

    mcAfee is a real piece of crap. I hate it... The shitty thing lures you into upgrading and once you upgrade your system really slows down. You have the virus scan SHIELD (or whatever crap it is..) taking all the CPU. A real piece of crap application. I had enough... God help them!!

  • 30 DeerHunter // Aug 28, 2006 at 03:52 AM

    8/27/06 DAM ! These posting are very helpful, thanx I was starting to think my 1ghz machine was finally going to die until I started suspecting the McCrappy Security Center was the cause. I've had McAfee for years without a problem until I got their "Upgrade". What a F'n joke ! The machine now works as though it were a 486 ! I tried turning some of the "Features" off in the task monitor, but they reappeared in seconds. It's like virus itself. Blows !!!

  • 31 DeerHunter // Aug 28, 2006 at 03:52 AM

    8/27/06 DAM ! These posting are very helpful, thanx I was starting to think my 1ghz machine was finally going to die until I started suspecting the McCrappy Security Center was the cause. I've had McAfee for years without a problem until I got their "Upgrade". What a F'n joke ! The machine now works as though it were a 486 ! I tried turning some of the "Features" off in the task monitor, but they reappeared in seconds. It's like virus itself. Blows !!!

  • 32 Keith W. // Sep 04, 2006 at 05:18 AM

    I have this system and it does not hurt my computer Remeber buy it from trusted stores an install it yourself. I learn not to buy anything over the internet a good way to be had always check source someone could be posing as said but may not be

  • 33 john_mcgeechan@yahoo.co.uk // Sep 28, 2006 at 02:57 AM

    This company is by fat the worst company I have evr had to deal with. My Security centre worked fine for 2 years and then suddenly stopped working. And it is when you need to deal with customer service that you find out how good or bad a company is. Let me put it this way. I believe that once upon a time their was an annual competition, where companies tried to develop the worst, most unhelpful,evasive and downright dishonest customer service possible. McAfee won the competition in the first year, and were so far ahead of any other competitor that they decided to abandon the competition for the next year, as nobody had a prayer of beating mcAfee. To get back to the point. The error I was getting was a popup that would not stop appearing. It tried every combination of downloading and reinstalling to no avail. I started to research the problem on the net, and found to my horror that this problem had been going on for years, and what was worse that rather than have a solution McAfee simply stated that people "try this or that" to fix the problem. In the end I tried to get a refund. McAffee could not have cared less what my problem was, however they were at great pains to let me know that no refund would be forthcoming. Extrenmely disillusioned, I removed the software and downloaded Norton, so far nor problems. Oh and the epilogue for this story. Despite telling McAfee that I wanted my credit card detaisl to be comletely removed from their database, they took a payment when the subscriptiopn wass next due !! At this moment in time I am on the phone trying to get a refund, I have been waiting 15 minutes. Have tried twice to get a refund online, don't bother , their "speak with a support agent live", is yet anotehr scam. It's clearly designed to appear to be human, but is in fact just some sort of bot (try swearing at it , or asking it what 1 plus 2 is ). At the end of this tedious interaction it tells you to phone the refunds office. Which I am doing , after giving up after half an hour yesterday. Truly , if their is a company more contemptuos of it's customers I have yet to come across it....

  • 34 German F // Oct 17, 2006 at 11:28 PM

    So glad I came accross this site. Since I bought McAfee online 2 weeks ago, I've been experiencing problems...actually torture is a better term, on my PC like slow processing, Outlook not working, browser shutting down, no connection, etc. Tried contacting McAfee via the web but they have been useless. I will go home tonight and uninstall that piece of crap and use either AVG or Trendmicro. Thanks for all the info. Hopefully I can get a refund since it hasn't been a month since I purchased their product.

  • 35 JJ - Florida // Oct 19, 2006 at 11:08 PM

    I too got the "automatic download" of Security Center. My credit card was charged before I got the download. Never worked properly. Stopped my Internet connections cold. I tried the TechSupport on-line, emails etc. Finally they told me to delete from my PC. When I called 801-431-1759 to get my refund I was told the 30 days had run out. The fact that the product is defective doesn't matter. That telephone number is in Orem, Utah and is a toll number - not free. I now have Trend Micros Internet Suite which runs great!

  • 36 CCL-Illinois // Oct 29, 2006 at 06:14 PM

    You all are right! I am so frustrated with their support. This Software allowed a VBS\Psyme Trojan to get into my Dell computer. Probabl;y one of the days it shut itself off. Meanwhile, I paid for a Platinum Chat virus removal service. I had 3 so-called agents try to help me but couldn't. They said they would elevate me to a Level 2 specialist and he would call me. They never called (lied and said they called and left a message), however, I have caller ID and voice mail - I don't know who they called but it wasn't me. I tried to chat back but my paid Platinum service expired the very next day! I had to go to the free chat. Again they said soeone would call me on Saturday - no one called. I went back to the free support chat line today, Sunday, and now they said a supervisor should call me within 2-3 business days!! What idiots they are! I need help now not 5 days from now! (However I doubt they will call.) And they supposedly are one of the 10 best support centers! I am writing a very long letter to someone!

  • 37 L-P , Quebec // Nov 03, 2006 at 05:28 PM

    I agree with you all, McAfee is the worst piece of shit I've ever seen !! I bought a Dell Inspiron 6000 and with this laptop you get a 90 days free edition of McAfee. I didn't want this shit but was oblige to take it. The major problem is that you can't delete this fuc$%!!?application once you got it (At least not by an easy way). I tried to remove the application using the "add/remove program tool" but it didn't work because the McAfee uninstaller is not working at ALL !!! Then, I just tried to delete the application from my program files folder but there is no way you can do it because the fuc$%!? folder is protected !! Now I'm stuck with this shit and don't know how to clean it ! Moreover, I've got it for more than 90 days now, so every like 10 minutes the McAfee application show me a fuc$%"? popup to buy the complete version !! And how lucky I am, they are giving me discount on it !! I think that all this shit as been though from McAfee to force people to buy their shit !! Well if somebody has experienced the same thing, I would be pleased if you could give me a hint on how I can clean this thing !! Thanks ! note: sorry for my english, but I'm coming from the french part of Canada ...

  • 38 Wayne // Nov 11, 2006 at 02:43 AM

    I'll add my voice. At least your machine only slowed down. When I attempted to restart as instructed after the upgrade installation, my computer would try to boot for about 10 seconds then completely shut down. After 12 restarts with no success, I took the computer in for repair. They removed the McAfee software completely, and (surprise) the computer worked fine. Like the other posters, I find that McAfee has no support or customer service. They are a HORRIBLE company with HORRIBLE products. I will NEVER purchase another McAfee product as long as I live, and will discourage others from buying anything named McAfee

  • 39 Better Than You. // Nov 13, 2006 at 04:07 PM

    Symantec is the best, since over 60% of all computers use Symantec technology, only people who pretend they know anything about computers, or the same people who have computers so shit that they can't run Symantec, granted it takes a bit more RAM, but I'm sure most people can wait an extra 15 minutes before downloading thir hardcore porn.

  • 40 Doug // Nov 17, 2006 at 12:14 AM

    Last year I started installing mcafee ver 8 on brand new dell laptops...it totally hosed up the machine due to a conflict with the alps touchpad driver...had to revert back to ver 7. Just now I went to install ver 8 on a new dell m90...froze up during install. Found a citation online that it conflicts with m90 and a few others. What garbage they make at mcafee.

  • 41 Tokelo // Nov 20, 2006 at 09:10 PM

    I want to remove McAfee virusscan from my PC but I am not able to remove it. Can you help?

  • 42 I Now Hate McAfee // Nov 22, 2006 at 07:47 PM

    I never used McAfee before. Always used Kaspersky with no problems. I bought a new notebook that came with McAfee loaded with a free trial so I tried it. When I went to uninstall it it messed up the registry in my email! Outlook @#@($! This is no doubt related to the McAfee email checker feature. I had no problems with my email until McAfee screwed it up. Then it leaves tons of McAfee garbage on your computer and still controls part of it. DO NOT EVER LOAD McAfee on your computer! No matter what the crap you might read about how it supposed to be so good, this is really a crappy product and I am now forever their enemy.

  • 43 Larry // Dec 01, 2006 at 10:53 PM

    This is just unbelievable!!! I purchased "McAfee Total Protection" last week and immediately had major problems connecting to the internet. It totally affected my LAN connection, my wireless connection, and the running of some programs, even though I allowed some web sites, and tried to disable some of the McAfee protection features. When I finally had enough and tried to uninstall McAfee, it would not uninstall some of the programs. Now, when I put the CD back into the drive a pop-up box comes up with absolutely no options in it. Here is where I'm at. 1. My laptop is totally f#$%&d up! 2. You gotta love McAfee support... NOT! It sucks! 3. They won't accept AMEX 4. Calling that 801 number is a friggin headache. I was waiting for 45 minutes, and got absolutely no help! Question? 1. Is this a scam? Send us lousy software, and then charge us 4 bucks a minute to get help!?!? Isn't that , like, unethical. I think the CEO should be contacted. Anyione have his/her e-mail address? :) 2. Are McAfee programmers producing viruses themselves? You know... job security. 3. Is Management allowing it but turning a blind eye? You know... more viruses and bug ridden s/w more revenue for them. 4. Where can I go to drown my sorrows!?!

  • 44 Zounds // Dec 08, 2006 at 04:12 AM

    I stupidly bought McAfee anti-virus recently thinking I could just install the anti-virus. Nope, since I have both Zonealarm and Ad-Aware installed, I can't install just their anti-virus. So I uninstall the little bit of McAfee crap that did install, run Ad-Aware, and now I've got critical vulnerabilities on my computer, something I haven't had ever since I installed Ad-Aware. McAfee is installing their own spyware, no wonder they don't want any other programs like Ad-Aware running. I don't terribly care for Norton, but at least you can buy just their anti-virus all by itself.

  • 45 du_lethal@yahoo.com // Dec 21, 2006 at 11:41 AM

    Not only does McAfee suck, Norton is much worse. No support whatsoever and they slow down your computer and screw up everyting. There are free antivirus sites on the web and Avira I found is really good. They have regular downloads and my computer seems faster now. I only have dial up so the download took over an hour or so but well worth it. Check it out, just type in Avira Antivirus in your search tool. I use Scroogle.com exclusively bescause they do not track your searches like Google but they do use Google tooling to get you where you want to go without the spying. Good luck dude!

  • 46 JHolmy@yahoo.com // Dec 30, 2006 at 07:22 PM

    I have been having serious problems with the McAfee security center now included with the virus scan free from Comcast. Everytime I load this it shuts down my wireless connection for other computers on my home network. These other PCs are running an older (2 months?) version of the free Comcast McAfee suite and have no problems...until I load the new more encompassing version on one PC on the network. This seems to happen when McAfee scans my network and asks if I trust the other PCs on the it - it then tells me that McAfee network protection mst be running on all the PCS! I have had to unload McAfee three times with two full system re-loads and I have spent countless hours getting the other PCs back online! Very irritating! Anyone know why this hapens? Advaice would be welcomed.

  • 47 An ANGRY Comcast Customer // Jan 03, 2007 at 06:35 AM

    JHolmy: I feel your pain. I am a Comcast Customer and had the old security center (It works fine). Unfortunately the new security center was downloaded onto my main computer. I does exactly the same thing. Shuts internet down and screws up my network. Mcafee hasn't a clue. I have been on the phone with them for the past 14 days and I cannot get anything other than what they call level 1 support which SUCKS (These people don't even know the new product!). I have been told my call was escallated to a higher level of support and I am still waiting for a call back. 14 DAYS! I have called Comcast about a dozen times asking for help, but of course McAfee needs to support their product (Which they won't!). I am livid!. I have sent Registered letters to McAfeee and Comcast. Here is their info. so you can all give them a piece of your mind!. Dale L. Fuller CEO McAfee 5000 Headquarters Dr. Plano, TX Siobhan MacDermott McAfee Corporate Headquarters: 3965 Freedom Circle Santa Clara, CA 95054 Any Comcast Users, I would make sure Comcast knows about it too. If enough of us cancel their service maybe they will get the message! Brian L. Roberts Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Comcast Corporation 1500 Market Street Philadelphia, PA 19102

  • 48 An ANGRY Comcast Customer // Jan 05, 2007 at 07:54 PM

    I am still waiting for a call from McAfee support. I think everybody should check out the McAfee SUCKS! video on U-TUBE.

  • 49 Misery Loves Company // Jan 06, 2007 at 03:25 PM

    I got rid of Norton/Symantec because SystemWorks did more harm than help. McAfee shows signs of being just as stupid. Despite eliminating my DVD-R and CD-RW drives from the interminable weekly virus scan, I discovered that my settings are ignored. When I tried to find information or report the problem, I gave up after I had six tech support windows open and I was asked to pay to talk to these fools. Amazing how many hits you get when you google "mcafee sucks." Looking forward to seeing the YouTube video.

  • 50 Hendrik // Jan 08, 2007 at 02:52 PM

    After 5 years I dumpt mcAfee. Now I've installed Kaspersky and my workstation has its performance back!!

  • 51 Hendrik // Jan 08, 2007 at 02:52 PM

    After 5 years I dumpt mcAfee. Now I've installed Kaspersky and my workstation has its performance back!!

  • 52 Buzzpack // Jan 13, 2007 at 08:22 PM

    McAfee really sucks, billed me twice for the same coverage, won't rebate anything. They had my credit card and renew automatically then sent popups saying I needed to renew, so I did, so was charged double. They won't rebate anything, so folks do not give your credit card to McAfee they might take your money who knows how many times for the same coverage. Took 1/2 hour to get ahold of them by phone, there is no email to write. It's a scam. Who do I write or call on this?

  • 53 procyon lotor // Jan 16, 2007 at 08:51 AM

    It's a complete piece of horse shit (at least horse shit can be used as fertilizer) designed for a user who is an absolute moron. POS one button interface. This, along with IE7 , destroyed my machine. I have 2x 10,000 rpm hd's, 2gb ram and a 3.2ghz cpu but my 80486 laptop runs faster. LINUX!

  • 54 kimfalconer@bellsouth.net // Jan 17, 2007 at 01:57 AM

    Please help....anyone who knows how to remove Mcafee. Please just tell me what to do. I've got a child who need to use my pc but is so slow because of this software. please help, thanks kimfalconer@bellsouth.net

  • 55 john // Jan 17, 2007 at 06:02 PM

    mcafee is a fucking piece of shit. without a doubt the absolute worst program for trying to troubleshoot or find help.

  • 56 john // Jan 17, 2007 at 06:03 PM

    mcafee is a fucking piece of shit. without a doubt the absolute worst program for trying to troubleshoot or find help.

  • 57 adrian // Jan 19, 2007 at 11:29 PM

    Mcaffe has cost me a fortune. After a year of reasonable service I renewed for this year and updated the program. Now it has locked me out of my outlook express. I can not receive or send emails. This alone is costing me business add the cost of premium calls to hardware, software and service providers on premium lines for hours at a time With no luck. I will be lucky to see any change form 1000 euro. Thanks mcafee you bunch of ……

  • 58 James B Brown // Jan 20, 2007 at 06:28 PM

    McAfee JUST SHUT MY WHOLE NETWORK DOWN. THIS IS VERY INTRUSIVE SOFTWARE!! This morning McAfee asked to do what I thought was an update but installed a whole new product then informed me that I had been charged $49.99 to my Visa. What is worse is that none of the computers on our network can get past this new software to access email or the Internet. After spending hours trying everything from going back to a previous date (Which shut the servers access down) to trying to access support from them I did a search of the Internet to try and find a solution. Their sites are useless as when you click on support links it takes forever to download any of their pages. One of their pages suggests that you update all the computers on your network via a web address? How, they don’t access the Internet website any more. It MAKES ME WONDER how many others users woke up to the same issues with their auto updates. This appears to be a upgrade instead of update? Their automatic yearly charge increased 400% and when I emailed them back as their email said I got no response. HAVE TO GET BACK TO WORK AND FIND A SOLUTION. I wish Microsoft would get involved with all this add-on software that comes with XP and makes life unbearable for the small business users! I wish I’d have never purchased the first product. James B Brown

  • 59 Professor // Jan 22, 2007 at 07:06 PM

    McAfee is such a beast. I made the unfortunate mistake of upgrading a basic (yet working) mcafee antivirus program to the full Security Suite 2007 (from Comcast), and it just slowed my laptop to a painful turtle speed (and my laptop has specs I can boast about). I used to open up Windows XP in less than 60 seconds (from complete shutdown mode). Now, it takes me over 7 minutes for fully functional mode. I will uninstall the damn thing and will not touch mcafee until they get their acts together. I hate Comcast, and I hate McAfee!!!

  • 60 An ANGRY Comcast Customer // Jan 23, 2007 at 04:54 AM

    See history.... 30 days later and McAfee still won't call me back even after sending letters to the CEO's of both Mcafee and Comcast. At least Comcast is trying to resolve the problem. Their new product "Falcon" should be called the "VULTURE" or the "TURKEY", it basically shits all over your computer. McAgee does not care and they won't clean up their mess. We Definitetley needs a U-Tube "VULTURE" video!

  • 61 anetspar@aol.com // Jan 25, 2007 at 12:34 PM

    In the past week, I have been referred to at least 10 other telephone numbers and was charged $35.00 on my credit card for no service. I was unable to get on a website. After talking to US support (McAfee referred me) for 10 minutes ($3.50 per minute) I gave up with help from McAfee. A friend helped me get on the website with 2 cllicks on the personal firewall. There is no help with anyone at McAfee if you have a problem.

  • 62 Hibernator // Jan 27, 2007 at 08:23 PM

    McAfee just crashed during uninstall, leaving itself partially installed. Now we can't uninstall, nor can we upgrade. Time to switch to something else.

  • 63 Cerberux // Feb 02, 2007 at 06:35 PM

    I am a technical support engineer currently working for one of McAfee's competitors. I have worked just over a year for McAfee enterprise support before resigning in despair over the sheer amount of customer complaints and the awful working practices of McAfee. I have worked out that staff turnover is over 80% in a year, terrible products, stressful working conditions and an idiotic, out-of-reality management (only an absolute idiot would progress at McAfee) all contribute to this depressing situation. I am no longer bound to confidentiality so I can now speak freely about McAfee and their products. Virusscan 8.0 was indeed an awful product that needed to be patched at least 5 times in order to get it to work (just about) decently until some genius after a year found out that the patches could be cumulated in a SP. Even after applying it however the CPU use is considerably higher than other antivirus McAfee claim that it's because the product is so much more powerful and offers a complete security solution and this is more than arguable for many reasons, but I don't want to digress. There were many issues concerning compatibility with other (totally unrelated) products which made VS 8.0 practically unusable in its first unpatched release not to mention totally random and obscure blue screen issues which baffled even developers and were solved only by uninstalling the product. The patches were not available from the standard web site but from some obscure https site which worked very badly and required users to register in a very complicated fashion. Sometimes I would get so sorry over the users' frustrations that I would mail the patches to them, even though we were formally forbidden to do so. Previous Virusscan versions installation files were buried deep in the registry and sometimes under names different from McAfee so that even an experienced user would have had problems uninstalling them. Needless to say lots of calls were generated by these stupid issues that should have never occurred in the first place. More often than not one of the McAfee Windows services in charge of the automatic .dat update would for unknown reason become corrupt and a new version had to be downloaded. Obviously users would only find out when realising that their AV .dat files were at least one month old. Talking of which, after outsourcing their ftp .dat download to a third party company, the automatic download failed to work for about two weeks. This means that for two weeks companies were exposed to security risks including possible massive virus infections. Needless to say users were furious and a massive amount of angry calls was generated. I could go on for ages about how truly awful McAfee is but all I can say is, trust somebody who has worked for them: avoid their products like the plague and choose one of their competitors, any one. They are miles better than McAfee

  • 64 Luis // Feb 03, 2007 at 08:04 PM

    Mcafee 2007 sucks.

  • 65 Waynio // Feb 06, 2007 at 07:01 PM

    Thank You mptwo7@aol.com: I was going nuts with McAfee Security Center, making the internet just a waste of time. I did as you suggested and uninstalled McAfee using MCREM, and downloaded AVG virus and spyware, and the internet speed is back to where it should be. The time of downloads, virus scanning, etc. took a couple of hours but was time well spent. thanks again

  • 66 Waynio // Feb 06, 2007 at 07:02 PM

    Thank You mptwo7@aol.com: I was going nuts with McAfee Security Center, making the internet just a waste of time. I did as you suggested and uninstalled McAfee using MCREM, and downloaded AVG virus and spyware, and the internet speed is back to where it should be. The time of downloads, virus scanning, etc. took a couple of hours but was time well spent. thanks again

  • 67 Waynio // Feb 06, 2007 at 07:02 PM

    Thank You mptwo7@aol.com: I was going nuts with McAfee Security Center, making the internet just a waste of time. I did as you suggested and uninstalled McAfee using MCREM, and downloaded AVG virus and spyware, and the internet speed is back to where it should be. The time of downloads, virus scanning, etc. took a couple of hours but was time well spent. thanks again

  • 68 Waynio // Feb 06, 2007 at 07:04 PM

    Sorry for the trigger finger........not used to the speed.

  • 69 isell4you@verizon.net // Feb 09, 2007 at 01:36 AM

    Recently received an email from mcafee, letting me know they had just renewed my account $39.00... Problem is, I uninstalled Mcafee in 2003. Contacted customer support and discovered they've been updating my account every year since 03... tried to get a refund for prior years, no go... Customer support said they would forward my request to a supervisor and i would be contacted, not yet. I sent a letter to customer support in Plano TX. no reply after four months... Called today and they said, no refunds. Mcafee SUCKS and they are thieves... That's what i call it when take my money and give me nothing in return.

  • 70 isell4you@verizon.net // Feb 09, 2007 at 01:36 AM

    Recently received an email from mcafee, letting me know they had just renewed my account $39.00... Problem is, I uninstalled Mcafee in 2003. Contacted customer support and discovered they've been updating my account every year since 03... tried to get a refund for prior years, no go... Customer support said they would forward my request to a supervisor and i would be contacted, not yet. I sent a letter to customer support in Plano TX. no reply after four months... Called today and they said, no refunds. Mcafee SUCKS and they are thieves... That's what i call it when take my money and give me nothing in return.

  • 71 info@masterfulspaces.com // Feb 12, 2007 at 05:36 AM

    Today I got a message on my browser stating that McAfee had denoted that an urgent update was needed. And I was to select "Next" or leave my computer at risk.... What a mistake! Before I knew it, four selections were filling in and a download began before I new it the monitor had blue download bars and then suddenly...the monitor began blinking.... Everything visual went off, then came back, except the browser window. And a very ominous message that A vital error had occured and can be resolved by re-installing McAfee...... Ok, so I go to IE...but no browser!!!!! I get yahoo chat, gmail but no IE no firefox... Cannot reinstall, software came with computer..!!!

  • 72 kalmorgan@cox.net // Feb 13, 2007 at 08:02 PM

    UUGH Well Mcaffe just auto billed my card for another year, and then like a fool I did the new update-now I can't do group emails for my business or get onto my website info. From what I am reading I guess I have no shot in getting a tech person. Any ideas on what I can do here--- besides scream.

  • 73 ddorsey@sunflower.com // Feb 19, 2007 at 01:59 AM

    Yes, Mcaffe both sucks and blows. It failed me and kept me in an endless loop so I never could contact them. I replaced Mcaffe but found new, unauthorized, charges on my credit card! I still cannot get through to them. There are no addresses or phone numbers that I can find. Any suggestions?

  • 74 a.chewie@gmail.com // Feb 24, 2007 at 10:26 PM

    McAfee support is located in Malaysia - those tech morons are not bound by any laws except Malaysia and McAfee supposed company policies. Malaysian internet law and consumer law are very lax and having spoken to the support centre, have found that it is the consumer's fault for everything and including unauthorized charges on your credit card. Support sucks I when with AVG which is much better.

  • 75 retro // Feb 28, 2007 at 03:31 AM

    What a sap I am - bought a 2-year subscription to this piece of crap. No way to keep the spam killer from processing my entire inbox.

  • 76 sue@lowerydesign.com // Mar 05, 2007 at 07:39 PM

    McAfee QuickClean is both dangerous and destructive. When I upgraded last, McAfee Security bundle was forced onto my system. Part of the Security Upgrade is McAfee's QuickClean. It deleted my whole email sent folder where I archive important correspondence with clients. Tried to fix with their outsourced Tech Support comedians. It is permanently gone. Thought I could use system restore, huh-uh. McAfee QuickClean, in all it's cleverness, wipes that out too. And once it gets going it does this fun feature for you regularly! These "features" of wiping out the mail folder and sys restore are documented on their site. Well, in the words of their "tech support" ...."The steps I have told you to follow, once it would be done. Our issue should get resolved." But there is NO resolution, all that data is GONE@! Run away from McAfee, AVG is great.

  • 77 Anon // Mar 08, 2007 at 10:46 PM

    I'm not happy either.

  • 78 droehm@wse.biz // Mar 10, 2007 at 04:59 AM

    I bought McAfee because Norton had gotten to be such a pain for internet upgrade - dear Lord - did I make a mistake! I can't do anything on my computer anymore without dealing with this intrusive, abhorrent program! It scans, DEMANDS attention, and doesn't 'FIX' anything! (Note: the 'Fix" function doesn't do anything!) Right now, the McAfee display says that I have problems with "Computer and Files", "Internet and Network", e-mail and IM" and "Parental Controls". I live with a little (! - in bright yellow) in my system tray - FOREVER! I have performed EVERY update, every scan, every #$% thing that this program asked for - NO IMPROVEMENT! THIS PROGRAM IS TRUELY A PARASITE. I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT IT CAN BE SOLD COMMERCIALLY! I am going to EAT my $29, unInstall it, and find another program, damn them...

  • 79 droehm@wse.biz // Mar 10, 2007 at 06:29 AM

    Wrote McAfee - Very Angry - Don't like being USED! - Here's the email to press@mcafee.com Dear McAfee Ripoff Artists: I am a staunch political conservative...and therefore have never taken much stock in the internet 'HATE' blogs - UNTIL I bought your program. I was at wits end with your product - I did a Google search on 'McAfee' - LOW AND BEHOLD..., half of the sites in the top ten item of the very 1st search (!) were 'McAfee Sucks' sites! All of them expressed the SAME PROBLEMS THAT I AM HAVING...and more. Example: Your application had 'built up' a list of 'Problems' that neither your updates, your scans, or your website 'Help' (I vomit to call it that) could fix. It was like a self-fulfilling prophesy - "McAfee: I'll identify problems - but...I can't actually FIX those problems...just build up a list of them and continue to complain until you can't do anything but try to 'fix', scan, 'fix', scan, 'fix' - ad nauseum... " I'm a computer programmer - not an expert - but pretty good with most everything, I can always figure it out...but You've created a SCAM...not a SCAN! I finally just uninstalled the entire McAfee app tonight - after only (approximately) 2-1/2 months of use... it was useLESS. I just ATE MY SUBSCRIPTION COST SO I COULD DUMP THAT PIECE OF CRAP THAT YOU SOLD ME! Don't write me, mail me, or call me- I just feel USED. McAfee is a parasite on the computer scene...I expect either to hear about your demise in a lawsuit or just simply never hear about you again (that's Kharma...). Funny, when dealing with your program, I just kept thinking about the old 'Bevis and ButtHead' cartoon..."McAfee; you DumbAth..." (said with a lisp...) THANKS A LOT. I just love to get ripped off! I guess that 'There's a Sucker Born Every Minute' is the "Mission Statement" in McAfee's hallways - in Thailand or Mailasia they don't understand English...Right? Well I'm going to try to warn the rest of the dumbAth's out there --- "Don't Buy McAfee---DumbAth!" Have a nice day, Dan .... Melbourne, FL

  • 80 tim young derspinna@intergate.com // Mar 10, 2007 at 03:48 PM

    I had mcaffee on my computer when I bought it. it ran out of sub, and I waited six monts to get updated as I did not use this computer on line, I updated when I started using it on wifi as I am south for the winter, as soon as I did, the email out look started to run slow, or not downloading mail at all. I fianaly found that it is mcafee, and it is a comon problem when you do not uninstall the old virus scan first. I have cleaned my computer of all mcafee products and it helped but my email still runs slower than it did. I called mcafee and they wanted a credit card to work with me on it. when I told them that I would be cancling my sub, they offered free help and half price on the sub, I worked for two days and went over the min, on my cell phone to get it right and nothing they did worked. I will have to reinstall my op system when I get back home this spring. everything works but the email works slow. I installed avg free and have no problems. I got my $ back from mcafee but I am out 25$ for the cell phone, they screwed me up and did not offer any real help. I advise people to stay away from mcafee they are junk and will not help. AVG is free and works fine.

  • 81 seventeenharington51AThotmail.com // Mar 21, 2007 at 12:28 AM

    So, I did a google search for "Mcafee sucks" and opened the first 8 or so links. (Avant Browser is so much better than IE, ie: opening more than one page in the program, and many more wonderful features) This is the first one I read, and saw that it was from a few years ago, but read on, and by the time i got to the bottom, saw that the last one was only 10 days ago. I was only wondering how i could get it to register instead of just turning white with no text in the window. or why when i click fix, it still says "attention", you know simple shit, now I see that there are much more complex issues with it. It was "free" after staples in-store rebates, discounts and a mcafee rebate (Which I hope I get now, after reading some of the above posts) And my norton had expired (never had problems) so I got the Mcaffee i figured they were the same and i could get a free year out of it. I had to uninstall norton, and now this thing has 100 windows opening all the time for stupid reasons, like real player looks for updates, even though i "always allow" it always, and it's just been a pain in the balls in general since i got it. Now i will find a free anti-virus through some reviews or forums or somewhere out there. atleast i never gave them my credit card #.

  • 82 Mcafee Hater! // Mar 21, 2007 at 04:04 PM

    If anyone would like the email address to the president of Mcafee... here it is: David_DeWalt@McAfee.com

  • 83 persefone33@aol.com // Mar 22, 2007 at 11:35 PM

    perhaps the BBB bbbonline.org or http://www.ago.mo.gov/consumercomplaint.htm or some other mail fraud or local/federal gov site like fda recalls might help hold these bastards accountable for their scammy slamming and disservice on line?

  • 84 prisitne white // Mar 29, 2007 at 08:03 AM

    guys, i insatlled mcafee virusscan plus couple of days back,now my computer doesn't shut down,i have to turn off the power everytime...aaaargh.I was doing so well with zone alarm security suite, what was i thinking?

  • 85 stephieb // Apr 04, 2007 at 07:49 AM

    Used McAfee a few years ago, got fed up and switched to Norton. Time to update and McAfee Total Protection 2007 looked really good. Stupid decision. Now I can't open my e-mails, half the web sites I try to get to say "done" but the screen is blank, my dial-up keeps shutting down. Went to McAfee's helpful (????) web site and found absolutely nothing helpful. And this outfit is rated highly with PC Magazine?????!!!

  • 86 Dr. Pinderschloss // Apr 04, 2007 at 03:34 PM

    Try Norton 360. www.norton360.com Works great for me.

  • 87 Dr. Pinderschloss // Apr 04, 2007 at 03:35 PM

    Try Norton 360. www.norton360.com Works great for me.

  • 88 persefone // Apr 12, 2007 at 04:43 AM

    I really appreciated this site and all the fellow posts... after much more time and effort....I finally got this stink'n mc'garbage hostile takover program off my system... I had to go through the entire system and manually delete every program related to mcafee (uninstall or remove program function in control panel was ineffective)...otherwise the popups would start resurfacing and bogging the system then the crashes...you know the routione...in addition ...i went through the registry and removed all mcafee...(be careful though and make certain that you are indeed removing mcafee and not something you might need!) as well as the system config utility... after this tedious and labor intensive process...I was feeling a little more anti mcafee...so with lttle effort...i also found numerous suits, investigations, and the like on the more official governmental-type better business and consumer complaint websites...so you are not alone fellow mcafee haters!! the BBB in your area will investigate these guys for their less than wholesome and fair practices....So...if you really want to be avenged for your mcafee induced pc pains and problems ...this is a way to give them some hell and demand some accountability! The squeaky wheel gets the oil...

  • 89 Peter Maranci // Apr 24, 2007 at 07:12 PM

    McAfee is a nightmare, no question. I made the mistake of buying their Spamkiller program, and only after months of trouble did I discover that it had a major conflict with McAfee's virus scanner. A McAfee tech finally told me that he needed to find someone at McAfee who was an expert on SpamKiller (their OWN PROGRAM!) and get back to me. That was on October 21st, 2003. I still haven't heard from them. Of course, I cancelled the service in 2003, too. If you want to read about my fun times with McAfee (including a transcript of a session with one of their typically useless technicians), here's a link: http://bobquasit.livejournal.com/tag/mcafee As for replacing McAfee, there are far superior programs available for FREE! I personally use these: Anti-Vir - recently found to be the most effective program to detect new, unknown viruses. Updates frequently, and has a much lighter footprint than McAfee - it doesn't slow down your system, and it's very effective. If you also use Ad-Aware, Spybot-Search & Destroy, SpywareBlaster, and keep your Windows Update up to date, you'll be in great shape. Of course you should update all your security software at least once a week, and use them to scan your system once per week too. If you're using Internet Explorer I'd suggest switching to FireFox for additional security. If you're using Outlook or Outlook Express, you're really asking for trouble - try switching to a good online service such as Gmail. Alternatively, try a decent email program like Thunderbird. Good luck!

  • 90 Peter Maranci // Apr 24, 2007 at 07:17 PM

    I forgot to say: every program I recommended above is absolutely free. Anti-Vir shows you an advertisement for the commercial version when it updates its detection files every day, but it's just a single screen and can be closed with one click. And since I started using those programs, I haven't had a single problem with my system. I've installed the same set of programs on the computers of several family members and friends, and they've all been really happy with the results.

  • 91 Brian // Apr 27, 2007 at 05:47 PM

    I actually punched a hole in my wall (never ever did that before in my life) because McAfee actually did more to slow down my computer than any virus ever has. Iin fact, I thought McAfee had actually fried my computer, because it was running so slow. I finally uninstalled everything when it took more than five minutes just to launch my Outlook and another five minutes just to get my computer booted. Without McAfee, my computer is up and running in 30 seconds and my outlook is up in less than 10 seconds. Glad I am not the only one who has had issues with that awful company.

  • 92 keepacho@bellsouth.net // Apr 29, 2007 at 08:39 PM

    And I thought by paying the money to actually buy Macfee's "Total Protection 2007" CD instead of the usual download that I would have no problems. WRONG!!! While there are shortcut icons on the desktop for various aspects of the software, none work or at least they don't tell you they are working. The "Site Advisor" program locks up every attempt to access the internet no matter whether it is enabled or not. I could not find the uninstall. I could not access the tech help, and I could not for the life of me figure out how to resolve the problem using the website. Finally, by using Google, I found that Macfee has a super duper uninstall that cleans out any vestige of it. I am not a novice, having been using/building computers since the mid-70s nor am I Mr. Fumble-Fingers with software. I use and like very much the FREE version of AVG and ZoneAlarm Pro for the firewall. I do not know how a company can stay in business with a product that causes so much grief. Thanks for allowing me to rant. Keepacho

  • 93 Richard Clark // May 12, 2007 at 05:35 AM

    I only read about an eighth of all these posts, and I already have a good response. First, I totally agree that McAfee sucks. It is horrible. I don't know if I'd rather have it or Norton. Can't decide which is worse. So you people who say you're going to uninstall Mcafee and install Norton... NNNOOOOOOOOO! Don't do that! A V G. AVG is great. It is easy to install and deal w/. I do not know if it is easy to uninstall, as I have never needed to. That's a great testimony right there. But I do imagine it would go smoothly if you did have to. I use AVG (only one antivirus on a computer!), Spybot Search and Destroy, Lavasoft AdAware, and TrendMicro anti-spyware. Something else for ya: General customer support line for McAfee (free), 1-800-338-8754 McAfee tech support ($2.95 per min.): 1-800-644-8144. Sorry I couldn't tell you about the free way to get it. :-D 00======D

  • 94 Richard Clark // May 12, 2007 at 05:36 AM

    I only read about an eighth of all these posts, and I already have a good response. First, I totally agree that McAfee sucks. It is horrible. I don't know if I'd rather have it or Norton. Can't decide which is worse. So you people who say you're going to uninstall Mcafee and install Norton... NNNOOOOOOOOO! Don't do that! A V G. AVG is great. It is easy to install and deal w/. I do not know if it is easy to uninstall, as I have never needed to. That's a great testimony right there. But I do imagine it would go smoothly if you did have to. I use AVG (only one antivirus on a computer!), Spybot Search and Destroy, Lavasoft AdAware, and TrendMicro anti-spyware. Something else for ya: General customer support line for McAfee (free), 1-800-338-8754 McAfee tech support ($2.95 per min.): 1-800-644-8144. Sorry I couldn't tell you about the free way to get it. :-D 00======D

  • 95 Tim Ryther // Oct 04, 2007 at 03:58 AM

    Hey man, you are right on the money. McAfee sucks big time. They catch your viruses, but the user interface is total crap, confusing and hard to use. It's slow as all getout, to load your settings or to do anything at all. I have the McAfee Security Center, because I wanted a firewall that's supposed to be better than the Windows/Norton default. I always complain about Norton/Symantic ever since Norton sold out to them (ancient history) Haven't bought one of their products since. Supposedly some viruses get past Norton, made me want to switch. McAfee used to have a good reputation and was simple and it worked. Now they put in loads of useless features that I don't need, and can't delete off the application. Example, Spamkiller. I don't want it downloading updates for that crap every day, hogging my bandwidth when I'm trying to do something else. My email program has a spam blocking application built in and it works fairly well, and it's free. (Pegasus Mail) a I'm one of the few still on dialup and I had McAfee hogging my bandwith without telling me or asking me. The firewall works, but you can't configure it without going through a bunch of windows. they can't just show you the advanced options, you gotta click through some dumbed down interface. I was trying to view a friends webcam last night and frikken McAfee blocked it. Still don't know if it will work next time. McAfee didn't say it blocked it, says Yahoo Messenger has full permission too. If they need to unblock a port for that it should ask you and do it automatically when you agree. Stupid thing makes you try and figure out how to add a port. Not even in the options that I could find. Had to find that on the web too. I tried to turn the friggen firewall off, said it was, cam still didn't work. Could have been another windows problem, but I think it was McAfee. Those guys also charged me for the new version without asking me, gotta make them take your credit card off your file to prevent that. At the time I still wanted to use it so I just went along and kept using it. I'm ready to dump McAfee and install something else. I found your blog looking for something better. Thanks for the rant, because now I know lots of people out there feel exactly the same way I do about this money grubbing company that sells crappy buggy products and supposedly has a good reputation. I think they have a bunch of lazy programmers, that don't care how slow and cumbersome their product works. Most people upgrade to a faster computer every year, and probably don't notice, but I do, and I hate software bloat. Almost every product out there is like that today. You really have to search for stuff that works fast, only does what you want, and is not a memory hog crashing your machine or taking down other applications when it does crash. Windows XP is much better about that than the older versions were, but it still is not able to handle crappy applications like McAfee. You just can't kill it with Windows control alt delete, when you need to . End up having to reboot to fix something. Got to be a much better geek than me to find out how to fix this stuff.

  • 96 Will H // Oct 07, 2007 at 10:43 PM

    Yes - McAfee does indeed suck. I can't count the machines I've had trashed by it over the years. Guaranteed to slow your PC to a crawl and f*ck it up when you try to uninstall it. STAY AWAY. Sad too - back in the day they actually had a good product...

  • 97 Sherry Weeks // Oct 25, 2007 at 10:13 PM

    My husband purchased McAfee for his business a year ago online with our bank card. That card expired in May, but yet they(McAfee) changed the exp. date and charged our account. How can they get buy with changing that? We never updated the billing info on their website, so what gives them the right to do that? Does'nt this violate the Privacy Act? I would appreciate any feed back.

  • 98 Rick Butler // Oct 28, 2007 at 12:52 AM

    I have Trend Micro on two computers and McAfee on this one. Time to renew and I wish to run the same protection on all my machines. These articles and writings have opened my eyes W I D E ! What is the answer, I am naive to all this, I just know what I need a computer to do for me, it is my workhorse. why every one feels they must corrupt each others computers, and obstruct the work force, is far beyond me. All I want to do is keep my computer clean, free of virus's etc. . . Again, what is the answer? ? ? rick butler brknbenz@msn.com (primary email) brknbenz@gmail.com (secondary email)

  • 99 Sam // Nov 12, 2007 at 11:51 PM

    I should have gone to a strip club and not waste money on McAfee. "lgbpd.exe" a trojan backdoor virus, and FuckAfee doesn't even recognize it, it says you fully protected lmfao.

  • 100 Patrick // Nov 29, 2007 at 07:48 PM

    mcafee sucks cant talk to a human unless you pay 40 dollars or 4 per minute mcafee need to feel the heat of the market what goes around comes around

  • 101 Jim // Dec 14, 2007 at 10:12 PM

    I am very upset and angry about McAfee's business practices which I feel are deceptive and predatory. McAfee Security Center came with my computer and I chose to renew it last January with my debit card --somewhere in the small print they must have disclosed that they would automatically renew it on my debit card with no warning almost a year later at a price they choose --this is the first time a company has done anything like this to me. I did not have to actively click any box for the automatic renewal --nor, did I receive any advance warning that $74.99 would be grabbed from my bank account. This is incredibly upsetting --especially, coming from a company that one is suppose to trust to provide you with SECURITY. I clicked the link and it said to contact the company by e-mail, chat or phone --but nowhere did it give the phone number. I had to spend time finding that on their website --another hoop to jump through (stoking the anger). The person who first took my complaint said she disabled automatic payment in the future --and offered me the package for $49.99 instead of the $69.99 (not including the tax). I agreed, but asked her to run the credit through first, then the payment. To me that implies that because I asked, the processing order was important to me. Next thing I know I have $127.18 grabbed from my account ($74.19 + $52.99) and NO REFUND!!! She told me the refund takes 3 to 6 days, but I was NOT told of this when I approved the additional charge. I sent a return-receipt registered letter complaining, but haven't received a response back yet. I wonder how one goes about initiating a class action lawsuit. Nobody should be allowed to grab money out of my checking account without me ACTIVELY agreeing.

  • 102 me // Dec 28, 2007 at 02:16 AM

    you should watch your money better jim. companies like mcafee are out to turn a quick buck. im switching to AVG. mcafee is slowing down my computer and plus it goes into my private stash and removes files. They just think everyone is too stupid to have certain programs. Another thing about mcafee is it wont remove FBI spyware. Yeah looks like mcafee wants to kiss butt more than anything.

  • 103 me // Dec 28, 2007 at 02:24 AM

    oh yeah and if your worried about spyware, Mcafee makes all kinds of internet conections. i can see all my internet conections and found this out. I think mcafee might be the spyware there supposed to save us from!

  • 104 Richard // Jan 11, 2008 at 03:51 AM

    They screwed me also... buying two different updates but nothing will download. They have my stinking money though. They have to pay for this. Any ideas ?

  • 105 Forrest // Jan 16, 2008 at 12:06 AM

    There's a BIG difference between McAfee's Enterprise SW and their home-edition crap. That's probably true of ALL of the antivirus SW out there, by the way. I had Norton Symantec (home-edition), and it SUCKED - it really slowed down my internet access, email, etc., and continually interrupted my session with useless little messages and warnings. I then got McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.5i, and the difference is amazing. I have a "perpetual" license (no $ ever again to update), and the program is simply transparent! It catches the viruses, trojans, etc., but leaves genuine .exe's alone. All in all, I've become a HUGE fan of McAfee ENTERPRISE VirusScan (although I'm willing to concede that their home-edition SW is probably a complete POS).

  • 106 .. // Jan 16, 2008 at 12:18 PM

    Hello, I worked for McAfee Corporate (gold) support for a few years ending about a year ago as I fancied a move abroad with a Microsoft consultancy partner. Believe me if you knew of some of the monumental cockups ive witnessed in my time there you would probably vomit. I cant really give details I dont think, ill recheck my contract.. ;-) however some of the poeple working on the corporate desk really do know less I.T than many of you posting here, and I mean that to be taken literally... Ive never worked at an I.T help desk before and been given a blank stare by one of my colleagues when I asked them to open up the registry..., I have had to call the same support in order to obtain hotfixes and S.P´s for my customers here since I left, and even knowing exactly what you need and not needing any other help it is still a monumental task getting the fixes. be it that your case needs to be escalated and never is or any number of incompetencies.. blah, blah pretty much nothing has changed since I was there. Its what you get when a bunch of people are doing a job they dont really want to do.. but anyways enough bitching, this message is to tell you that you should not buy the retail (home user) programs, instead buy one or two licences of the Enterprise version,when I say enterprise version I mean McAfee VirusScan Enterprise not McAfee Managed Protection aka. McAfee ASAP. McAfee VirusScan works well and everything besides the telephone support is very good, ie. the Knowledgebase and Mcafee Virtual Technitian.. Also a quick fact, if you feel obliged to buy the anti spyware module .. DONT. its a rip off, all the spyware is detected with the VirusScan application alone, the only difference is that with the AS module it will also clean your cookies.. something that should´nt be necessary with a decent Internet Explorer configuration... hope it helps..

  • 107 George // Jan 24, 2008 at 05:22 PM

    McAfee is a disater!

  • 108 Mia // Jan 25, 2008 at 10:33 PM

    I finally fixed my computer after I uninstalled the free mcafee from Scottrade. Mcafee is very intrusive, it will at least change the following system files: svchost.exe spoolsv.exe, explore.exe in a way exactly like a trojoan will do. After the normal uninstall of Macfee, it does not return the user a clean original version of those system files, thus causes the OS not stable..It is really sucks, period.

  • 109 S Clev // Jan 30, 2008 at 03:08 AM

    I have Mcafee Viruscanplus 2007. The only problem I seem to have is that I am not receiving some emails (using Microsoft Outlook) that come through another website or server. Thanks for the info on how bad Mcafee is.

  • 110 B Mac // Jan 30, 2008 at 05:16 AM

    I updated my McAfee on the 25th; yesterday, my system was infected by the Zlob Trojan and tons of spyware. I thought that was an interesting coincidence.

  • 111 Coolgra101 // Feb 23, 2008 at 07:54 PM

    I hate McAfee they are all assholes. I have the parental controls (Thank god we dont have the anti virus too) and it seems to think it owns our internet connection, it wont let me use MSN because it says it is "secure/encrypted", in fact coming on to that point McAfee parental controls thinks almost every site/IM/email program is "secure/encrypted". So every time i connect to one of these oh so few sites *sarcasm* i get this ridiculous barking noise almost every 5 minutes until i disconnect from the site. Plus when it thinks a website is innapropriate it will block the website (no problems there), so when it comes up with the popup to say the site is blocked you have an option to not show the pop up again which in short means it will permanently ban the site. Now sometimes for no apparent reason at all it will automatically check the do not show this popup again box, youtube is now permanently blocked on my computer because of this. I am fed up with being screwed over by this heap of crap that came from McAfee's labs.

  • 112 Coolgra101 // Feb 23, 2008 at 07:55 PM

    I hate McAfee they are all assholes. I have the parental controls (Thank god we dont have the anti virus too) and it seems to think it owns our internet connection, it wont let me use MSN because it says it is "secure/encrypted", in fact coming on to that point McAfee parental controls thinks almost every site/IM/email program is "secure/encrypted". So every time i connect to one of these oh so few sites *sarcasm* i get this ridiculous barking noise almost every 5 minutes until i disconnect from the site. Plus when it thinks a website is innapropriate it will block the website (no problems there), so when it comes up with the popup to say the site is blocked you have an option to not show the pop up again which in short means it will permanently ban the site. Now sometimes for no apparent reason at all it will automatically check the do not show this popup again box, youtube is now permanently blocked on my computer because of this. I am fed up with being screwed over by this heap of crap that came from McAfee's labs.

  • 113 coolgra101 // Feb 23, 2008 at 07:57 PM

    sorry about the double post, McAfee parental controls decided it wanted to try and block this site while i was posting which resulted in a double post. Sorry :(

  • 114 JMonkey // Mar 21, 2008 at 05:59 PM

    I didn't even get this POS installed yet. Cox switched to Mcafee instead of their own security sweet. I can connect to every place, but their download center. I bet it would be different if I had to pay for it, but after reading these post I am not sure I want to get the download running. I have always hated mcafee and now I know why. I just keep imagining "Sum Beach." Cause that is what Mcafee makes me think of.

  • 115 ez1 // Apr 05, 2008 at 08:54 PM

    Wow thanks guys I have been so pissed for the last few years but I didn't know what to do about it. Mc....ee always slows my computer down a few times a day and then says a major update click to continue what your doing or activate it. I tell you it is so annoying just update it and don't tell me I believe you just stop slowing down my computer. I just learned how to build websites and with the editor up and then mcafee slowing things down I just want to punt mcafee off my computer. Is AVG the best way to go???

  • 116 rpg2007 // Apr 15, 2008 at 04:09 PM

    McAfee truly does suck, ive got it and it says every time i start up "Please renew your subscription to McAfee" so i clicked renew it then brought me to mcafee website saying please sign in. I tried to but it said i dont have any McAfee products on my computer. So i thought screw it and i got COMODO Antivirus and Firewall. PS McAfee help service guys can go to hell!

  • 117 rpg2007 // Apr 15, 2008 at 04:16 PM

    Quick update on my last post, mcafee just popped up saying theres an update for it well yeah i click on it and it it said "McAfee has blocked intrusion attempt from file c:/programfiles/mcafee/virusscan/update.exe" how stupid can you get!

  • 118 rpg2007 // Apr 15, 2008 at 04:34 PM

    ...very intresting, sorry but ive got another update for my post. McAfee (Stupid Idiots) has now blocked not just the update but its now blocked its own bloody self. Heres What it says: McAfee has blocked "McAfeeclient.exe" due to the program attempting to access files without Permission from Admin account. Allow Block ...this is how much mcafee sucks

  • 119 McaCrap // Apr 20, 2008 at 05:08 AM

    You can get alot of free antivirus softwares. (CRACKED ones) Meaning it's hacked so that it would be free from http://www.dl4all.com/category/antivirus_software/

  • 120 McAfee Unauthorized Auto Renewal // Apr 27, 2008 at 10:57 PM

    McAfee.com, McAfee Antivirus Software charged my credit card $39.95 for a Auto Renewal which I did not authorize. I purchased the software 11 months ago and at the time I purchased it there was no notice that I would automatically be charged again a year later (it hasn't even been a complete year). They will NOT get away with it because I am filing a complaint about this to my credit card company and I will demand that they reverse the charges to McAfee.

  • 121 ejames // May 03, 2008 at 11:52 AM

    I was actually trying to download the year free subscription of McAfee included with Comcast, but was unable to get the free download because the( site had error or no longer available) so I was browsing around to put it in to this computer and then perhaps luckily saw everybody's stories of how terrible they are ,now I say F.. that IT AIN'T GOIN IN TO MY SH.. and thanks to you all !!!