VirusScan Home Edition 7.0

McAfee VirusScan 7.0 protects your PC against a wide range of viruses, Trojan horses, and other rogue programs. With so many viruses being transmitted by e-mail, you absolutely need an antivirus program to protect your PC and, more importantly, your data.

McAfee VirusScan 7.0 installs easily from the CD-ROM and immediately checks your PC for any viruses that may already have infected it. As soon as you connect to the Internet it downloads the latest updates to ensure you are up-to-date with all the newest virus signatures.

To enable it to work effectively, McAfee VirusScan 7.0 operates on many levels. The new Hostile Activity Watch Kernel (HAWK) constantly monitors your PC for viruslike activity and integrates well with many different e-mail clients. The VShield feature runs constantly in the background, checking files as you open them. Even if you choose to disable VShield, the program still protects Microsoft Office files by checking them before you open them.

Another common way hackers infect PCs is by using scripts in e-mails. McAfee VirusScan 7.0 works well here, too, by looking for suspicious behavior in scripts such as those trying to open, write, or delete files. Anything suspect is stopped immediately.

For users running Win 98, 98 SE, and Me only there is a Safe & Sound function that makes copies of your documents and keeps them safe in case they get damaged by data corruption or virus activity. Note that this does not work on Windows 2000 and XP.

Some of the latest viruses can stop antivirus programs from working properly once they have infected a machine. If you suspect this has occurred, you can boot your PC directly from the McAfee VirusScan 7.0 installation CD-ROM, ensuring a clean environment for it to work in. You can also create a boot floppy to do the same thing.

Like the other products in McAfee's security range, McAfee VirusScan 7.0 uses Instant Updater, which constantly checks for product updates and automatically downloads these when you are online. Of course, any antivirus product is only as good as its ability to stop viruses from infecting your system. Happily, McAfee VirusScan 7.0 has been given a 100% rating by Virus Bulletin (although this assumes you do keep your product up-to-date with Instant Updater).

McAfee VirusScan 7.0 is a worthy update, and existing users will appreciate the improved security this release offers. --Iain Laskey, Amazon.co.uk