Between laptops, smartphones, tablets, we live connected every minute. And when you spend a lot of time online, finding the right protection makes the difference. It’s not just about having an old, classic antivirus: you need to navigate safely and check your data. And above all, do it without compromising the daily use of our devices. We have been testing the latest version of for some time McAfee+ Ultimate, a security suite that aims to provide comprehensive protection for all devices and, above all, do it in a simple way. Even advanced (but not too advanced) features such as using a VPN or scanning your online accounts are easy to put into practice. But not all options work as we expected: we explain everything in our review of McAfee+ Ultimate.
McAfee+ Ultimate review: security made simple
McAfee+ Ultimate offers a truly complete package when it comes to protecting our devices and online accounts. First, there is the option to install the security app on all devices in the family. This includes PCs, Android phones, macOS and iOS devices. The version we tested, the Family package, also has some parental control features: you can block certain sites, apps or services on the kids’ smartphones or when they use the PC with their own account. This package costs money 114.95 euros per year, against the individual package from 104.95 euros per year.
Simple installation
Installing the suite is really simple. Just purchase the antivirus and register your account. Once your email has been verified, you can access the download, double click on the installation file and then wait a very short time (depending on the connection) to start the first scans. Also mobile installation is child’s play, thanks to the possibility of using a QR code (but just download the app and enter the password.
Once installed, McAfee+ Ultimate is ready to protect you. The main window offers a summary, reporting whether everything is in order or offering recommendations to improve your privacy and security. The suite features six main panels: Security Control, Antivirus, Secure VPN, Tracker Removal, Multi-Device Protection and Identity Protection.
With an intuitive menu on the left side, you can access all divided protection features easily. Which is very convenient, also because the features are many.
The Key Features of McAfee+ Ultimate | Review
Among the salient features, you will find:
- Multi-Device Protection: The suite allows you to extend protection to all devices in the family.
- Antivirus: McAfee+ Ultimate+ offers robust antivirus protection to detect and remove online threats.
- Secure VPN: Unlimited VPN allows you to browse the Internet safely and anonymously, protecting your data.
- Tracker Removal: This feature helps preserve your online privacy by removing trackers that monitor your activities (although, admittedly, many browsers already allow this in their settings.
- Identity Protection: McAfee+ Ultimate offers monitoring of your online presence, checking your accounts and allowing you to delete those you don’t use.
- Password manager
- File shredder
- Firewall
- Online assistance
Effective protection, which is little noticed
The most important feature of any security suite, without a doubt, concerns protection from dangerous files on your computer. McAfee has scored practically perfect results in the tests from different security labs: it is as safe as any other antivirus you can use.
In everyday use, scheduled scans and checking of the files you download do not slow down your operations. We often kept the McAfee+ Ultimate app open to write this review, but most of you you will soon forget you installed it. You can customize scans and how the software quarantines suspicious files. But after the initial settings, we never had any conflicts or problems using our devices, both PCs and smartphones and tablets (both Android).
One of the main changes compared to the past concerns the integrated firewall. Now works with the Windows firewall instead of replacing it. This means it has fewer settings, but it works just as well at blocking dangerous sites and activities. We were satisfied.
McAfee+ Ultimate review: how the VPN works
A VPN is included to protect your data in transit over the Internet. The connection is encrypted between your device and the VPN server, protecting your data from prying eyes. McAfee offers connections VPN from 46 countries, this allows you to access Italian services even abroad, for example.
The connection remains equally fast, although it becomes safer. We used it every time we connected the laptop to a WiFi network during the events we followed in recent weeks. Even during a large event in a crowded conference center, where the connection was already terrible, the VPN was able to connect and protect my data without too many problems.
Just right-click on the connection icon on your PC, or access from the app on your smartphone. You don’t find any particularly advanced features, but ugreat simplicity of connection: for many, the best recipe. Advanced users will prefer a dedicated solution, but for most users this is fine.
Protect your privacy and your data
In this review we noted that McAfee+ Ultimate often places an emphasis on privacy. With simple features like Tracker Remover, which basically cleans elements of your computer and browser that could be used for profiling your behavior. While certain browsers do this too, having everything in the security suite is an added convenience.
The suite offers a scan to detect any data breaches via data brokers. These brokers collect public information to create personal profiles. McAfee+ Ultimate scans to see if your information is present at those brokers.
Il ID Protection component in McAfee+ Ultimate analyzes both the Dark Web that the normal Internet network looking for signals that the your personal information has been exposed and helps you manage detected exposures. To get started, check for any data breaches in your account emailverifying account ownership via a code sent via email.
After that, you can investigate and resolve violationsobtaining details and adviceand clicking to increase your protection score. With the addition additional personal information for tracking you can, such as email addresses, phone numbers, identification documents and more. And for each of them one is required verify by code sent via email or SMS.
Mitigate breach risks
We verified that, although our work email is pristine, our personal email suffered some minor breaches (also on accounts we no longer used. McAfee+ Ultimate provided us with suggestions for improving the situation, although in reality in our case it was a simple I recommend changing the password.
However, we found the service less useful Online account cleanup. If on the one hand it immediately found all the accounts associated with our email (with the various tests we do, they were a lot), indicating the most dangerous or obsolete ones, on the other the solution is not exactly perfect. When you choose to delete an account, McAfee+ Ultimate sends an email on your behalf requesting the deletion. Convenient for you to find the address for you, but then you have to delete the account yourself. Although it must be said that McAfee sends notifications to remind you.
Finally, to delete files on the device there is also a tool to permanently delete files, for safety even offline.
The password manager
Those of us who are constantly online probably already use a password manager (or it needs to improve its security practices). But to offer a complete package, McAfee+ Ultimate offers premium access to True Key password manager.
True Key works as a browser extension on Windows and macOS, and is available as an app on Android and iOS. Offers synchronization between devices and supports various multi-factor authentication options, but it does not support physical security keys. If you lose your master password, you can reset it using other authentication factors, preventing the loss of all your data.
A good product, and having it included in the security suite is undoubtedly a plus.
McAfee+ Ultimate Review: Is It Worth It?
With a price above 100 euros, McAfee+ Ultimate has a good price compared to similar solutions, but perhaps it is not the ideal solution for everyone. It is undoubtedly complete: give it scudo antiphishing up to the possibility of contacting security experts for restore your identity or recover your banking credentials (options that, fortunately, we didn’t have to use), it really has everything. And we really liked the fact that it’s so simple to use: the suite is intuitive and the skills needed to use it are…