What to expect from McAfee 2009
At face value, McAfee 2009 seems much the same as the 2008 version but take the time to give it second glance. This year, McAfee has taken huge strides in terms of speed, ease of use, and the number of features - delivering an over all good security software suite for 2009.

Installation
Although this version is slow to install, it is a simple process, and it is has much fewer issues during setup.  What we have heard is that the overall setup process for users is simple. You shouldn’t have any issues during installation unless you are using a beta Internet Explorer.

Interface
McAfee integrates all of its tools into one interface, which is a continuation of previous years. To the faithful McAfee users, this type of interface will cater to you and will no doubt be more than adequate for your day to day use.

Features
McAfee has the most features of almost any security suite out now, including two-way firewall, anti-virus,  anti-spyware, anti-spam, and anti-phishing.  The firewall protection has great user options, the malware protection and anti-spamming is excellent and highly rated.  Lastly, the Shareware trial is excellent and almost a prerogative for any who are undecided on this software and would like a chance to try it out before purchase.

Bottom Line
If you’re a McAfee fan - you’ll want to pick up this version - and if you are still trying to decide what type of internet security to go with, this is a good choice.  The best aspect of this ‘total protection’ software from McAfee would be the features. As stated before, it has the most features of almost security suite on the market now. We give McAfee 2009 four out of five stars.

You can get a copy of McAfee 2009 here

Let the games begin!

Every year computer security becomes more of an issue then the year before.  As virus’ seem to pop out of the wood work more often, and seemingly are undetectable, many people are now investing more money then ever in anti-virus packages.

As the internet become more of a desktop application instead of a browser simply viewing files on a far-off server, users’ computers are more vulnerable then ever to attacks.  Free downloads, file sharing, and instant messengers are also to blame for the trend in virus infections.  For the business world virus’ cause upwards of $70-100 MILLION in damages and IT costs every single year, and the totals do no seem to be getting better any time soon.

The home computer is no different users need to be protected, and stay protected.  Virus infections are the number one software-related repairs problems among non-commercial users; and every year the total grows staggeringly higher as more internet users are skimping on Virus protection.

Below we will be reviewing the main players in the anti-virus world; so that you can make a much more informed decision next time you decide to buy security software.

We will be reviewing:
Kaspersky 7.0


Norton Anti-Virus 2008


McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008 with SiteAdvisor

What to look for?

There are so many things to look for when choosing your anti-virus program, but obviously one benchmark stands out from the rest; “how well does it detect virus’?”.  This is the major benchmark most important to most users but we will also be reviewing scan speed and boot speed; these three metrics are very important for most users.

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Scan Speed:
Kaspersky 7.0: 3
Norton Anti-Virus: 4
McAfee VirusScann Plus 2008: 3.5

Boot Speed:
Kaspersky 7.0: 4.5
Norton Anti-Virus: 2
McAfee VirusScann Plus 2008: 3

Virus Detection:
Kaspersky 7.0: 4.5
Norton Anti-Virus: 4
McAfee VirusScann Plus 2008: 4.5

Conclusion

All three packages have more then enough virus detection for 90% of users.  Users whom have kids which feel the need to download and install everything they find, file share over KaZzaA, Napster, and (Name your program) will probably need to go with Kaspersky 7.0 to get the top protection.  However it comes with a price, with slower scan and boot speeds this package will slow your computer down a bit when it’s running.  Also, it’s very typical of most “good” anti-virus programs to be a hit heavy on RAM when all protection features are activated, so which ever program you choose be sure to have adequate hardware resources.

Virus scanners are neccessary in todays world; there’s no getting around it.