In this day and age, it pays to have your computer protected by antivirus software. So, when I was given an opportunity to review McAfee 2012, I jumped on it. Between the two of us, we have 5 computers we use on a regular basis, plus a couple more in storage, so I really liked that this software was licensed for 3 computers.
We loaded it on my husband's desktop first, since he recently ran into issues with a virus. The installation was pretty simple. You do need to make sure any other antivirus program is removed, so that this one will properly load. He says this is typical, but for people who have not encountered this, they may be surprised, so be prepared. Installation was a snap, the only issue was an erroneous dialog box that claimed the licensed expired in 10 months, not 12. However, when Hubby looked at the actual program info on the computer, the correct expiration date was shown.
The next day, we installed it on one of my laptops. Again, I had to remove my previous program. Otherwise, installation was painless. I did not get the erroneous dialog box (I actually never got one at all) and the program info on my computer shows the correct expiration date.
So far, so good, on both of our computers. The scans seem non-intrusive, and I have not noticed a slow down in the performance of my computer. The only mildly annoying this is that the program checks the validity of all the links people post on Facebook, and displays green checkmarks next to them in my Facebook feed to alert me that the links are safe. And really, that is probably a very good thing, given the number of garbage/virus infested links that get posted with titles like "see what happened when this dad walks in on his daughter, OMG so embarrassing!!!!!". While I know not to click those, clearly other people do not, because I see them all over people's pages. This software seems like it would help someone not so tech savvy to determine what is or is not safe.
Is this the best antivirus software out there? Probably not. This is not actually the full McAfee suite, so it gives very limited protection. But for me, it seems to be adequate.
