Serious Discussion New McAfee and what is wrong with it

[Game Of Thrones]

hello everyone, some old MalwareTips members know me was an active member but now I'm mostly silent and read our member's posts and opinions.

I installed the new McAfee and want to point out some weaknesses in it. everyone talks about how light it is and it went to first place in AV-C performance test.

the new McAfee does not scan the files on sight! it just does that if the user scans it manually or the file is executed. for example, if you download a malware in zip so the web protection can not see it you can extract the file, can copy and paste it anywhere even on external drives(USB, external HDD) and the new McAfee does not react.
so in reality you can pass malware to others without any action and prevention from the new McAfee antivirus. their real-time detection is on execution only and not on access. For me, this is a huge security risk, a normal antivirus should react when you access a new file, or if they want to be like McAfee it should at least react on copy-pasting to/from USB and external drives.

from detection apect in my tests it is good but not at the same level of big boys(kaspesky,bitdefender,checkpoint etc)

@Shadowra your opinon would be appreciated.

 

[Bot]

Hello! Your observations about McAfee's real-time detection are indeed concerning. It's crucial for an antivirus to react on access, not just on execution. This is a significant gap in protection that could potentially allow malware to spread. Hopefully, McAfee will address this in future updates. As for detection, it's always a challenge to match the efficacy of industry leaders like Kaspersky or Bitdefender. Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

[SeriousHoax]

This was also true for the old McAfee, even for Emsisoft by default but it can be changed in Emsisoft unlike McAfee.
I also don't like this behavior.

 

[Shadowra]

@Shadowra your opinon would be appreciated.

Hello

Indeed, McAfee no longer scans files when they arrive on the machine, only at runtime or in contextual scan.
McAfee has done a lot of work on detection and RAM consumption, but I think it's a shame that their residents don't react beforehand.
I can understand that it's a question of saving system resources or whatever, but competitors do it very well...

It reminds me of Avira (when it doesn't know with SDK, it only reacts at launch with the Cloud) or Intego or even MalwareBytes... behavior I don't like either.

 

[lyldz]

not to get off topic, what are the security software that only scans when run like this? Is there a short list etc.?

 

[Shadowra]

not to get off topic, what are the security software that only scans when run like this? Is there a short list etc.?

From memory:

- Avira
- Intego
- MalwareBytes
- McAfee

 

[Divine_Barakah]

MalwareBytes

In case of a malware pack, right? Not when you download a piece of malware for example.

 

[simmerskool]

This was also true for the old McAfee, even for Emsisoft by default but it can be changed in Emsisoft unlike McAfee.
I also don't like this behavior.

what's the optimal setting for this in emsisoft? I just put it on VM last night. Shadowra had a good test except for its heaviness, which I am not seeing yet...

 

[Shadowra]

In case of a malware pack, right? Not when you download a piece of malware for example.

Malwarebytes does not scan when copying or downloading...
Only at runtime.

 

[Oldie1950]

what's the optimal setting for this in emsisoft? I just put it on VM last night. Shadowra had a good test except for its heaviness, which I am not seeing yet...

Thorough - Every file is scanned when it is created or modified, for example when it is downloaded to your computer or copied from another computer via a USB stick. This makes it easier to find inactive malware.
This is the translation of the German help text. I don't know what the English name for this option is.

 

[Trident]

McAfee scans only on-access and it has been doing so for quite some time. There is no way to change this behaviour. It does compromise your system very little. If you copy or move the file, then this is access — it will be scanned. Same goes if you try to open it.

 

[Game Of Thrones]

McAfee scans only on-access and it has been doing so for quite some time. There is no way to change this behaviour. It does compromise your system very little. If you copy or move the file, then this is access — it will be scanned. Same goes if you try to open it.

in the recent version, it does not scan with a copy or move the file! only with a manual scan or executing it will scan the file.

 

[Trident]

in the recent version, it does not scan with a copy or move the file! only with a manual scan or executing it will scan the file.

Yeah, no need to sugar coat, this is not amazing.
Malware, even in the so called latent state, should not be left on the system by anti-malware solutions.
Furthermore, although very very rarely, malware can exploit vulnerabilities in preview generators, icon viewers and other parsers.

I would suggest that you switch to security software that better covers latent malware.

 

[SeriousHoax]

Avira

Avira scans on file creation and access. Only the cloud-based APC detections are triggered on execution and scan.

 

[Pat MacKnife]

So a right click on the downloaded file (malware pack) and scan with mcafee should be giving an alert ?!

 

[Game Of Thrones]

So a right click on the downloaded file (malware pack) and scan with mcafee should be giving an alert ?!

well yes, the only way to trigger McAfee to scan a file!

 

[nickstar1]

I personally love mcafee and feel very safe with it on a family members computer it offers just the right level of protection with little false positives and has virtually no bugs. Mcafee has been doing it right this past year. Mcafee is very stable compared to some of its competitors.

 

[Game Of Thrones]

I personally love mcafee and feel very safe with it on a family members computer it offers just the right level of protection with little false positives and has virtually no bugs. Mcafee has been doing it right this past year. Mcafee is very stable compared to some of its competitors.

it seems this new overhaul which they did last year and started the versioning of their apps from v1 is a really good choice for the home environment although I have a problem with this new scan policy that it only scans files on execution and not on access. one of the reasons that its the lightest suit out there is this on execution scan policy which for normal users seems is alright and does the job.

but man this new version is light!! lighter than Eset Kaspersky and others, and seems they have good pricing too 35 for 5 devices is a win-win.seems someone in mcafee understood that they have problems in some aspects and are going down and they started with a clean sheet from the ground up and created this new v1 series, balancing protection with performance and no bloatware

 

[roger_m]

I don't like McAfee, just because there is very little to configure. But for those that don't care about that, I'm sure it's a good option for those looking for a very light antivirus, even if some other big name antiviruses provide slightly better protection. It's a shame that McAfee still has a reputation of being a terrible product based on very old versions.

 

[Moonhorse]

I don't like McAfee, just because there is very little to configure. But for those that don't care about that, I'm sure it's a good option for those looking for a very light antivirus, even if some other big name antiviruses provide slightly better protection. It's a shame that McAfee still has a reputation of being a terrible product based on very old versions.

I guess it has bad reputation also because malware spreaders use mcafee ui as scareware and people getting those pop-ups because they dont have average computer using skills it makes them think that McAfee is the worst

I have reddit account and i have posted few comments about new McAfee and how light it is there and all i get is like 20 downvotes per comment

Meanwhile people on reddit praise malwarebytes free + common sense, when malwarebytes isnt that good and common sense is invalid reason since there are many users without knowledge about viruses/Frauds they are unable to use common sense and need to have some kind of protection online

I have installed McAfee few times now, its install and forget, zero pop-ups. Light on system resources, one of the best web protections, i can only praise the product, one can harden windows to make more stronger combo