Software Review McAfee Protection (Plus Plans, Total Protection, LiveSafe)

[piquiteco]

maybe it country specific?

Did you purchase the license from McAfee?

 

[ForgottenSeer 94738]

Weird, can not check for you now, since i switched to Trend.

Yesterday, after an unpleasant experience with McAfee, I switched back to Trend Micro. I tried to activate the VPN with McAfee, but the connection wouldn't connect even after five minutes. I couldn't cancel McAfee's attempt. As a result, I lost all internet connection. I restarted the PC. That didn't improve the situation, though, as McAfee immediately tried to establish a VPN connection again. I couldn't stop McAfee via Task Manager either. I had to restore a system backup with Macrium Reflect to get my PC working again. Then I uninstalled McAfee and reinstalled Trend Micro.

 

[TuxTalk]

Yesterday, after an unpleasant experience with McAfee, I switched back to Trend Micro. I tried to activate the VPN with McAfee, but the connection wouldn't connect even after five minutes. I couldn't cancel McAfee's attempt. As a result, I lost all internet connection. I restarted the PC. That didn't improve the situation, though, as McAfee immediately tried to establish a VPN connection again. I couldn't stop McAfee via Task Manager either. I had to restore a system backup with Macrium Reflect to get my PC working again. Then I uninstalled McAfee and reinstalled Trend Micro.

Must be a bug, maybe @Trident know something about it. I never use the VPN from McAfee, i have NordVPN.

 

[Nightwalker]

Sometimes about your registry needs to be fixed or do a smartscan, use vpn now , etc . . . upselling popups.

I got those too, even a do a smart scan after reboot popup.

Just why McAfee?

 

[Nightwalker]

I dont have automatic billing enabled, i use a serial number bought with another company, not McAfee.
I never encounter any pop ups. I think @Trident has the same, no pop ups.

Same thing here, but I still encounter those popups.

 

[Moonhorse]

Did you purchase the license from McAfee?

purchased from third party site, and asked are the licenses legit from mcafee and they confirmed theyre legit and fine to use

 

[Sorrento]

I only tried the McAfee VPN once as I don't need it as it was somewhat slower than Express, but when I rebooted express didn't work any more & no easy resolution so I restored an image, maybe a unknown conflict - Not an issue for me but as I am who I am I've recently reverted to Emsisoft for a while, though not because I abhor McAfee but I still have an affinity to Emsisoft??? And I still live on

 

[stonjean633]

My McAfee has expired since July and still my VPN is working.

This is one of the rare times that a bug is useful.

 

[Trident]

My McAfee has expired since July and still my VPN is working.

This is one of the rare times that a bug is useful.

It’s not a bug, I believe TunnelBear offers some amount of traffic for free as well.

 

[Digmor Crusher]

I dont have automatic billing enabled

I tend to stay away from products that have this especially if its auto opt out.

 

[stonjean633]

It’s not a bug, I believe TunnelBear offers some amount of traffic for free as well.

I see. I'll try to download a 10gb+ file. That's the monthly allowance for Tunnelbear for free accounts if I remember correctly.

Can't change servers but still working.
McAfee still keeps giving back. Love it!

 

[ForgottenSeer 116559]

maybe it country specific?

That's a thought I've had, too. In my case, McAfee seems set on barely making itself known unless there's a life-threatening situation.

 

[ForgottenSeer 94738]

I only tried the McAfee VPN once as I don't need it as it was somewhat slower than Express, but when I rebooted express didn't work any more & no easy resolution so I restored an image, maybe a unknown conflict - Not an issue for me but as I am who I am I've recently reverted to Emsisoft for a while, though not because I abhor McAfee but I still have an affinity to Emsisoft??? And I still live on
View attachment 291311

After uninstalling McAfee a few weeks ago, I also encountered an issue where I could install the F-Secure VPN, but couldn't establish a VPN connection effectively. This only worked after I restored a system backup without McAfee. Despite using the McAfee uninstaller, a fatal setting still remains.

 

[stonjean633]

Anyone knows if the McAfee internet Security has VPN?

What about the McAfee mobile? Does it have VPN too?

 

[Pat MacKnife]

I got those too, even a do a smart scan after reboot popup.

Just why McAfee?

When i told this here no one believed me. I had a chat with customer service and said that i'm not happy with that, now they have my mail adres for my account, perhaps they can fix something from their HQ to reduce this .
McAfee is installed on 4 computers with all the same behaviour. Now a few days of silence.
Latest popup was this one :

 

[Nightwalker]

When i told this here no one believed me. I had a chat with customer service and said that i'm not happy with that, now they have my mail adres for my account, perhaps they can fix something from their HQ to reduce this .
McAfee is installed on 4 computers with all the same behaviour. Now a few days of silence.
Latest popup was this one :View attachment 291327

Lets see if it's going to be quieter now.

I posted about those popups some days ago here:

Software Review Post in thread 'McAfee Protection (Plus Plans, Total Protection, LiveSafe)'

Sep 4, 2025

How can I stop this kind of ad (for its PC Optimizer) ? I have seen it sometimes and it is getting annoying.

• Nightwalker

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[Sorrento]

I would find that annoying esp on a bought product, no doubt about it...

 

[simmerskool]

Lets see if it's going to be quieter now.

I posted about those popups some days ago here:

Software Review Post in thread 'McAfee Protection (Plus Plans, Total Protection, LiveSafe)'

Sep 4, 2025

How can I stop this kind of ad (for its PC Optimizer) ? I have seen it sometimes and it is getting annoying.

• Nightwalker

• 
• 
• 

I got a few of those pushy ads right install but they went away by themselves after a day or 2, fwiw. (I don't run the McAfee VM everyday though)

 

[Sunqfu]

This is really interesting. Even though I've been using it for a few months, I haven't received any pop-up messages. I only received a few emails, and I unsubscribed from them.

 

[ForgottenSeer 116559]

Here's hoping that support did resolve the alerts for afflicted users. I like many things about McAfee, but the constant nagging would drive me crazy. Cheap license or not, I wouldn't be happy.

Having heard of bugs and other subpar experiences with McAfee's VPN, I can fortunately report that it's worked reliably for the most part on my end without much for snags. I gave it a good run and found the speeds using US servers satisfactory. For what I paid, an unlimited VPN as I experienced it is a great value. It sounds like the software could still use refinement, however.