McAfee VirusScan 2005 version 9 review

This month McAfee launched a new version of VirusScan.

We've run it through our strenuous tests (the same is we used in last month's group test of anti-virus programs) and can report that McAfee VirusScan 2005 version 9 is almost exactly the same as McAfee VirusScan Home Edition 8.

The new version is just as capable of detecting viruses, Trojans and harmful scripts as its predecessor, and the e-mail scanner deleted nearly all our e-mail viruses automatically. Any files that were labelled as suspicious were left intact, and the real-time scanner deleted them when we saved them to the hard disk.

In previous versions of VirusScan, as well as its main competitor Norton AntiVirus, the e-mail scanner had a small problem. By default the software would pop up an alert box whenever an infected message was downloaded. It would also pause the download, only allowing your e-mail program to continue to drag further messages down from the server once you'd clicked on the pop-up to confirm you'd seen the infected file. This setting has been changed in VirusScan 2005, and the program will quietly remove the viruses without showing off about it. If, for some reason, you want to hobble your e-mail downloads you can change the settings so the software works as before.

You can use the program to generate a rescue floppy disk that could help rescue a PC rendered unbootable by a virus. If you create this regularly you should stand a fairly good chance of resuscitating a badly infected computer. Be aware though - as with many such rescue disks - that it will only work on disks formatted using FAT16 and FAT32 file systems. NTFS, which is the default for Windows XP, is not compatible.

The SecurityCenter, which is the main way of getting into VirusScan, provides you with access to other McAfee security utilities, should you have them installed. It also presents you with a Security Index, which displays a very simple indication of the threats your system is protected from, and which ones are still posing a problem.

As with the previous version, available with VirusScan Home Edition 8, if you enable Windows' own firewall the AntiHacker Index rises to 10 (good). If your virus updates are out of date the AntiVirus Index will drop from 10 to seven.

The SecurityCenter puts you just a few clicks away from installing 30-day trials of other McAfee utilities, and you'll need to install these if you want your Security Index to be 100 per cent green. Naturally, you should take this marketing feature with a pinch of salt - there are plenty of non-McAfee security products out there that work well but won't improve the Index page.

McAfee assured us that this latest version of SecurityCenter had an 'updated user interface... even more closely integrated to Windows XP'. It's hard to tell the difference from previous versions, though, as aside from the colour (it's red, whereas the older version was blue) and some redesigned icon buttons, there is apparently no difference in look, feel or function. The VirusScan screens are spookily similar to the previous version, too.

Costing less than £32, McAfee VirusScan 2005 won't break the bank, and an annual subscription is only £10. However, the previous version is still available from Amazon for £24.49 inc VAT and, considering the incredibly close similarity, there doesn't seem to be any good reason to buy this latest version if you can still find version 8. Amazon was still selling copies of the older package as we went to press.