Virex 7.5.1 pulls mail scanning feature

Apple's .Mac service comes with a downloadable version of McAfee's Virex, an anti-virus software application for Mac OS X. The software was updated to version 7.5 and released to .Mac subscribers this past August, but was pulled from circulation and replaced with an older version soon after. Now an updated version, 7.5.1, is ready for download. The update removes a feature that apparently caused problems in that eariler release.

Apple did not offer specific details about what caused them to pull Virex 7.5 from .Mac, saying only that distribution had been temporarily discontinued "due to customer feedback and technical issues currently under investigation." Apple replaced Virex 7.5 with Virex 7.2.1 instead. User reports indicated that a new mailbox scanning feature present in Virex 7.5 could, under some circumstances, lead to those mailboxes being corrupted or damaged to the point where users would lose e-mail.

The Read Me file included with Virex 7.5.1 bolsters this analysis, as that particular feature has been removed all together. "Scan Contents of Mailboxes -- This Preferences feature of Virex 7.5.0 has been removed from Virex 7.5.1," reads the documentation. "This product is not meant to be utilized for scanning mails and mailboxes."

Virex 7.5.1 incorporates a number of new features, such as a console application, the "active scanner," which provides continuous protection over a network and through the Internet, background scanning, the ability to scan mounted volumes, on-demand scanning, a schedule editor and more.