There used to be a time when a user could:
- Define which volumes, files and folders to include OR exclude from a scheduled scan.
- Define exceptions for real-time scanning (like pagefiles, hybernation files...
- Get actual detailed information about blocked /quarantined files, specific web sites that were blocked, and set exceptions and turn off / on the "[SPAM]" string addition to email subject lines.
- Find detailed security reports / logs from scans or other protective actions ON THE LOCAL MACHINE THROUGH THE McAFEE UI.
I cannot find where any of that is available in current version of "Total Protection." The configurability and details of protective actions, scan results etc. rapidly declined once Intel took over the product, OR they have just done an excellent job of hiding it all in a "secret" location known only to "power users".
At the same time, I am now pestered with multiple McAfee pop-ups daily with that contain no useful information but are more of a "McAfee Brag" window than anything else.
I don't need McAfee using resources to tell me they are "speeding up your app - Screen Blanker" or that I have to go online and login to my account to see the result of a scan that found no issues, or pop-ups warning of phone scams (this is a works station, not connected in any way to a phone, cell, VoIP or landline.)
What I want, and what McAfee gave me when I first started using it in the '90s was a configurable, low-resource using malware protection suite, that kept all my info ON THE LOCAL MACHINE. I only needed to login to an online account for the purposes of upgrade or tech support. Instead I now have bloatware that runs in excess of 20 threads, adds 5 mins to boot from a spinning disk, and seems to have taken away my ability to say which files / folders / volumes to scan or not on a schedule of my choosing and which to exclude from real-time scanning. (Yes you can pick files for this, but only one at a time, and cannot multi-select or use wildcards to define a batch of files to scan / skip).
Does McAfee offer such a product anymore? Am I missing some obscure menu that offers me these controls? Or is it time to move on to another vendor's product?
