Is McAfee no longer appropriate for XP systems?

[jack_aubrey]

I have been a McAfee subscriber for a long time but am increasingly unhappy with its performance on my XP dual core system (however, it works just fine on my new newer Windows 7-based i5 laptop).

First, a full scan now takes so long that I just don't bother. I mean 24 hours or more, as compared to about an hour on my W7 laptop. I noted a considerable amount of discussion about this issue in the McAfee forum. I have learned to live with the problem by excluding ZIP and other compressed files from the scan. This reduces the scan time to about 10-12 hours, which is still extremely slow.

Second, during the past month or so, I have been receiving frequent Windows error messages that a Synchronization Application had to close (mcsync.exe). These messages are annoying, but worse, make me concerned that part of McAfee may no longer be protecting my system. There was a lot of discussion about this issue on the forum a couple of years ago.

Just this morning, there was a new Windows error saying that McAfee 32-bit helper encountered a problem and had to close. This now makes me even more worried that some or all McAfee components are no longer active and, hence, the system is not protecting me.

So, I would like a straight answer: Do the Windows error messages mean that some or all of McAfee has been disabled and, hence, my system is not fully protected in real time?

There are still many millions of XP-based systems in use, so I wonder if these problems are mine alone.

[exbrit]

XP SP3 32-bit is still supported as long as you keep it completely up to date (64-bit XP never was supported).   I've seen similar errors in XP, Vista and Windows 7 and have for the most part, ignored them, especially if when opening the SecurityCenter all is reported OK and green.

There have been some issues reported with slowness on dual-core machines however and perhaps you may benefit from having Technical Support take a look at your XP setup.  It's a free phone call and linked under Useful Links at the top of the page.

Before doing that you could try running the Virtual Technician (you'll have to anyway when contacting support):  http://mvt.mcafee.com/  - it may repair whatever is wrong, if anything.

McAfee's policy on operating system support coincides with Microsoft's so there is quite a while yet before XP falls out of support.

Message was edited by: Ex_Brit on 22/06/12 8:00:32 EDT AM