New Update The new cloud-based McAfee

[Trident]

This is not a promotional post and does not encourage trial, purchasing and usage of McAfee.
It is an informational post.

McAfee has been upgraded to a new cloud-based architecture, as well as bloatware from before has been cleaned up.

https://www.mcafee.com/support/?articleId=TS103324&page=shell&shell=article-view

https://www.mcafee.com/support/?articleId=TS103345&page=shell&shell=article-view

https://www.mcafee.com/support/?articleId=TS103342&page=shell&shell=article-view

The UI looks like this:

It now has only 2 processes.

Local databases are stored in C:\ProgramData\McAfee\wps (total size about 350 MB)
rpdata and content

As for effectiveness, I've not tested in depth and I don't expect much. Might test and update this thread.

 

[Bot]

Thanks for sharing this information. It's great to hear about the improvements McAfee has made with their new cloud-based architecture. Looking forward to hearing about your testing results.

 

[TairikuOkami]

McAfee Free Cloud AV was great before they discontinued it, light and effective, almost like PandaAV, but this is nothing like that now, it is a full suite bloatware, like every other AV.

 

[Jonny Quest]

When I reset my Dell notebook, McAfee reinstalls and in Apps, showed (last time) ~1.2GB

 

[Trident]

When I reset my Dell notebook, McAfee reinstalls and in Apps, showed (last time) ~1.2GB

This was the previous one. The new one is about 500 MB in total.

 

[Jonny Quest]

This was the previous one. The new one is about 500 MB in total.

Much better. The last time I downloaded BD Total Security, it was at about 585 MB.

 

[nickstar1]

Does mcafee still have 50,000 different versions of UI’s they use for each different download lol?

 

[Trident]

Does mcafee still have 50,000 different versions of UI’s they use for each different download lol?

No, the new version now has only one UI, it is mentioned somewhere in the support articles.

 

[Shadowra]

Interesting.
I especially like the idea of the Cloud. It could be interesting with its JTI and Artemis detections...

(and lighten it up, I've seen that it uses the Windows firewall now)

 

[Trident]

Interesting.
I especially like the idea of the Cloud. It could be interesting with its JTI and Artemis detections...

(and lighten it up, I've seen that it uses the Windows firewall now)

It now uses Windows firewall to control inbound communications and their own firewall + IP/Domain reputation to control outbound communications. I haven’t seen that blocking in action, they were one of the few vendors to offer no system wide connection blocking.

I saw that JTI detections are now renamed to TI. There are some new detection names like Trojan:Office/CVE. From my quick test I wasn’t very satisfied but it wasn’t a proper one.

That version has no local base whatsoever, local machine learning rules are supplied for JTI (which was always a mixture of cloud + ML) and Real Protect (which will be used if the system is offline). Other than that, everything is in the cloud.

 

[Jonny Quest]

@Shadowra good point about the Firewall. You provided some nice links, @Trident It would be nice if F-Secure could provide some of these advanced Firewall controls with Windows as well.

https://www.mcafee.com/support/?articleId=TS103342&page=shell&shell=article-view

Also some comparisons...I'm almost intrigued to try it

 

[Trident]

@Shadowra good point about the Firewall. You provided some nice links, @Trident

https://www.mcafee.com/support/?articleId=TS103342&page=shell&shell=article-view

Also some comparisons...I'm almost intrigued to try it
View attachment 281902

It was super quick to install and uninstall so it’s not a lot of hassle to try it. Additional cloud features such as breach monitoring (which is way better than Norton and Bitdefender) and account scanning are available at protection.mcafee.com and can be accessed even if product is not installed. I did not see Web Advisor, not sure what happened there.
@Shadowra may be time to test it.

 

[Shadowra]

@Shadowra may be time to test it.

yep

 

[roger_m]

McAfee Internet Security is one of the antiviruses I've got installed on my test PC. I had seen the new UI, after updating a few weeks ago, but didn't realise it was a major change, as for some reason, McAfee regularly change the look of their products. So every now, I then I boot from my McAfee partition, check for updates and see if they've changed the UI again. One obvious difference I noticed, was that it had context menu scanning again. This was something that was removed in the previous update. I like the new look, but I don't like that as before, there is very little that you can configure.

 

[Trident]

McAfee Internet Security is one of the antiviruses I've got installed on my test PC. I had seen the new UI, after updating a few weeks ago, but didn't realise it was a major change, as for some reason, McAfee regularly change the look of their products. So every now, I then I boot from my McAfee partition, check for updates and see if they've changed the UI again. One obvious difference I noticed, was that it had context menu scanning again. This was something that was removed in the previous update. I like the new look, but I don't like that as before, there is very little that you can configure.

They mentioned on a thread that McAfee believes in automated configurations that provide acceptable level of security with minimum level of false positives.

Re: McAfee has different versions (McAfee GW Edition, Skyhigh, McAfee)

Our next generation threat protection (v160100+) has improved next generation threat intelligence capabilities. Most customers, though not all yet, have received this update (check your version). As far as SkyHigh/MGW Artemis detection, GTI uses sensitivity levels to balance protection and false...

forums.mcafee.com

I am not a fan as well but it works for many.

 

[lyldz]

@Trident
how can we test the new installer.when I download it from the official site it downloads old versions.

https://www.mcafee.com/en-au/antivirus/free.html

 

[Trident]

@Trident
how can we test the new installer.when I download it from the official site it downloads old versions.

https://www.mcafee.com/en-au/antivirus/free.html

I just got it from my account.

 

[Kongo]

effective, almost like PandaAV

Yeah... i don't know

 

[roger_m]

@Trident
how can we test the new installer.when I download it from the official site it downloads old versions.

If you check for updates, it will update to the latest version.

 

[lyldz]

I thought about it too, but it didn't happen.Those who received the old update continue to receive updates in the form of R53,R54 etc.
Unfortunately, there was no update to the new version.