Compared to other basic antivirus software, McAfee Antivirus 2012 has built a software firewall. In terms of protection abilities, the actual antivirus protection was enough with McAfee 2012 to stop the threats. The top features included in this software include adequate real time antivirus, decent anti-phishing, good USB scanning. However, the user interface is complicated to use when you really want to dig in the settings.

The interface is small and does not resize so you have no choice but to scroll through very tiny windows and some of which have a number of scroll bars and others open new windows. It is not that impressive in the navigation ranges. There were also some issues with the firewall software.

On the brighter side, McAfee Antivirus 2012 features real time protection that helps in stopping threats from entering your computer in real time. It also scans adware and spyware already on the system that also scans and blocks spyware from affecting your computer. Its firewall software is capable of monitoring, scanning and blocking unwanted intruders such as Trojans and viruses. The anti-phishing feature stops malicious websites from stealing personal and confidential information.

The antivirus and antispyware protection offers real time protection. Once the McAfee detects the virus, it shows a simple warning but you can navigate still to the infected site. McAfee Antivirus 2012 identified the most dangerous threats and clean or delete them. McAfee also features the pre-installation scan. However, it was only a light scan on the core folders. However, it did not immediately detect files infected with viruses but the real time scanning acted in immediately and then started cleaning up the computer with no trouble.

Viruses are not only attached in email but they are coming as well on USB devices. Malware threats could hide in various USB devices, cameras, MP3 players and almost anything that can be plugged into your USB port. Although McAfee did not initiate automatic scan of the USB drive so you need to run a full system manual scan. On the other hand, the manual virus scanning of McAfee Antivirus performed well enough in the detection and removal of majority of threats on the thumb drive. The USB detection and scanning is proactive and it scores well enough in most tests.

The adware and spyware protection was not that impressive but this did not outweigh the features of the software. Finally, the McAfee virus definition updates were also fine but the installation process is a little bit confusing.