Firewall Settings by User Account

[philk13]

I have some rather basic questions/requests for my McAfee software. I hope someone out there can help me or at least confirm that the basic functionality I seek is not, in fact, offered by McAfee. I am using Win10 Pro 64-bit and the paid McAfee Antivirus Pro.

1. How do I set Firewall settings individually by Win10 user account? It is just logical to have different Firewall settings for my Administrator account, my basic everyday account, and my girlfriend's account. This is functionality that used to exist in McAfee, and other (much less expensive) antivirus/firewall software provides. A McAfee agent by chat told me this isn't offered. Please tell me this basic functionality is in fact still offered and he was incorrect?

2. For scheduled scans, there appears to be no option to enable/disable "wake from sleep" or "wake from hibernation" to run the scans, nor an option to prevent the scan if system is not idle. These are options that existed in antivirus software for the last two decades. These options don't appear next to the scheduled scan option (where you set the days of week and time) at least. Can someone explain how to set these options? Or, at least how McAfee handles scans by default if the system is a) asleep, or b) in hibernation, or not idle? Again, extremely basic functionality, so I sure hope I'm just missing the option somewhere -- for the UI/UX people at McAfee, if these options exist, why aren't they next to the schedule scans configuration?

3. In several places throughout the software, there are long lists (e.g., rules for programs, recent events, etc.) but there's no way to SEARCH within those long lists?! I grabbed several basic textbooks off the shelf and did some quick searches on "UI/UX best practices", and making long lists searchable is rather "UI/UX 101" -- if kids in community colleges learn this, why not a multi-billion international company like McAfee?

4. When I run scans (and complete them, to include the results screen), and then later check My Info --> See Security History, McAfee doesn't report any scans in last 24 hours, 7 days, etc. It shows recent network events, just not scans. This happens consistently on two machines, not just one, and for different users. Is this bug? Seems, again, like rather basic functionality.

I paid money for McAfee protection, but so far this software isn't exactly living up to expectations. I've used free versions of similar software that performed better. Can someone help with the above? Perhaps point out that I missed something, and I'll admit my errors. So, very disappointed with what I'm seeing.

[siddharth_r]

Hi @philk13 

Please let us know the version of McAfee installed on your computer.

[philk13]

McAfee AntiVirus Plus

Version: 16.0

Release Name:  16.0 R26

VirusScan

Build: 23.2.199

Version: 23.2

Personal Firewall:

Build 19.6.193

Version: 19.6

[philk13]

Any assistance or suggestions?  Or just confirmation that the McAfee doesn't provide the functions I'm seeking? 

[philk13]

These should be remarkably easy to answer.  Can anyone at all give me anything to go with?  Any type of response or confirmation?  I'd appreciate even "that's not an option with McAfee software".  Anything?

1. How do I set Firewall settings per Win10 user?

2. Completed scans do not show up under My Info --> Security History. Why?

3. How do I set options for the Scheduled Scans, such as to run/not run if the computer is asleep or if it is idle/not idle?

[philk13 · Accepted solution]

In case this helps even one person in the future, after 7 hours total time at McAfee Tech Support Level 1 and Level 2 and Level 3, I can report the following:

1.  Despite it being a basic, logical function (and exists with other Firewall software, and that existed with McAfee before), you cannot set  different Firewalls settings  for different users, even Administrator vs. standard user.

2.  Despite it being a common option in antivirus software for 1-2 decades, McAfee does not let you select basic options such as "Wake/Don't Wake from Sleep" to run a Scheduled Scan.  The option to run/not run if system is not idle is in a different page of the settings, far away from where you Schedule a Scan.  [Tip: if someone out there wants to run a virus scan in the middle of the night, you can use Windows Task Scheduler to wake the computer prior to the scheduled scan time.]

3.  Some scans that you perform will not show up under "My Info --> Security History".  This has been observed on multiple computers running the latest antivirus (and off and on for at least 5 months).   McAfee Tech Support (Levels 1, 2, and 3) cannot explain it.  It might be a bug, but they won't admit it.