The fact that it can be had for such a low price makes it almost irresistible. McAfee Total Protection partners slick and effective malware protection with a tempting array of genuinely useful add-ons. Again, it didn’t quite keep up with F-Secure SAFE, which whizzed through the test in 27 seconds, but many other suites took longer and Windows’ own scanner left us waiting around nearly ten minutes. McAfee Total Protection fully scanned an external hard disk containing 55GB of assorted data in well under two minutes. Windows Defender meanwhile weighed in at a ponderous 12.5%. That’s an excellent score of the packages we’ve seen, only F-Secure SAFE did better, nosing ahead with 6.1%. In a range of different usage scenarios, and reported it slowed down their test PCs by an average of 6.3%. It’s also one of the nimblest security suites around. The 11 providers that matter most and how they stack up The Forrester Wave: Top security analytics platforms The current release of Total Protection is nicely responsive and neatly organised, with tabs along the top and sensibly labelled controls in the main pane. In the past, some McAfee products were burdened with a sluggish, overcomplicated front-end thankfully, that’s now been completely overhauled. McAfee Total Protection review: User interface By contrast, in the same test, F-Secure SAFE and Eset Internet Security made no mistakes at all. Once you get into the habit of manually unblocking safe items, it becomes far more likely that you’ll end up unblocking something dangerous.

While McAfee successfully blocked every nasty sample it was exposed to, it also wrongly flagged seven innocent items. McAfee’s malware engine is regularly put through its paces by both and and, in the most recent tests carried out in the first half of 2021, Total Protection achieved a flawless 100% protection rating.

McAfee Total Protection review: Protection This could prove costly if you forget to cancel at the right time, as the price goes up significantly in the second year. The catch is that to use it you have to keep the automatic licence renewal option turned on. You can even set it to kick in automatically whenever you connect to a new network too – a very nice touch. Most unusually, your McAfee subscription also includes a complete VPN service, with selectable servers in 23 locations around the world and no data caps.

Mcafee total protection 2021