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[ Go to March 1997 Table of Contents ]
WinLab Reviews
-- by James E. Powell
Half of McAfee's VirusScan Deluxe, VirusScan, is worth the $69 price tag. However, the Deluxe part of the package, a backup program called QuickBackup, is perhaps the most frustrating piece of software I've reviewed in a long time. VirusScan adds a Scan for Viruses option to many right-mouse menus, including the Start menu. That's a great reminder to perform scanning regularly, since the program has no built-in scheduler. If a virus is found, the program prompts you for action-clean or delete the file, or move it to a separate folder. For constant protection, run VShield, which scans files as they are created, copied, moved or renamed. VirusScan is fast-it examined 13,400 files in 1.36MB in under 5 minutes. While VirusScan worked well, QuickBackup proved painfully flawed on each system I tested. It's supposed to work with SCSI tape drives, but failed to handle my Conner internal SCSI unit. I could never resolve the trouble, even though my copy of Seagate Backup worked fine with the same drive and configuration. The slim list of supported devices doesn't include model numbers. Because the program is trying to trick Windows into thinking a tape drive is a drive letter, it can't work with an Exabyte Eagle Next TR-3 IDE tape drive, my other test unit. If you're looking for a scanning program, the scheduler in Norton AntiVirus 2.0, our Recommended List product, remains on top. For backups, our current recommended backup program, Seagate Backup, is a much better choice.
Copyright (c) 1997 CMP Media Inc.
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