McAfee puts out its VirusScan 2004 in two versions - boxed or downloaded and managed from the internet. Whatever way you do it, the installation is simplicity itself with no difficult questions to answer or confusing choices to make.
The user is asked only two simple questions – do you want a desktop icon (it is recommended you do) and do you want to send copies of suspected viruses to McAfee’s Virus Center


Installation is over in a couple of minutes and once you have filled in the mandatory registration details (so you are eligible for anti-virus updates) the program will update itself as soon as you connect to the internet.


There is no need to schedule updates or system scans as VirusScan will automatically scan for updates every 12 hours if you are online and it is scheduled to scan your system every Friday at 8pm if you are using your machine at that time.


You can edit the scan schedule to suit your usage through the options menu, which is accessible through the Security Center, which not only gives you  a security index indicating how secure your setup is, but explains in very simple terms how to access the functions of VirusScan.


This package was the second best tested product for detecting the test files, with an impressive 99.13 percent detected.


The only thing some users may find confusing is that the Security Center also has icons for McAfee’s Personal Firewall and Privacy Service, neither of which is installed if you only have VirusScan. However, by clicking on the icons you will access a link to download and install a 30-day free trial of each of them.