Expert's Rating
Pros
- Simple, affordable anti-virus and malware protection
Cons
- Doesn’t scan emails and downloads automatically
Our Verdict
For just £5.99, VirusBarrier Plus provides a good basic level of virus protection for your Mac. It’s also quick and easy to use, so it’s a good choice for people who aren’t very technically minded. However, you might want to try the free VirusBarrier Express first, or similar free rivals such as Sophos Anti-Virus.
Macs have been blissfully unaffected by viruses and malware for many years, but the recent publicity surrounding the MacDefender Trojan suggests that it might be time to start taking things a bit more seriously. Apple has supplied its own update for OS X to block MacDefender, but if you want to take extra precautions then you might want to consider Intego’s VirusBarrier Plus, which is now available from the Mac App Store.
The original version of this program – called VirusBarrier X6 – is still sold through Intego’s own website, and costs almost £50. VirusBarrier Plus is a more basic version of the program that you can download from the App Store for just £5.99. VirusBarrier Plus scans for viruses, trojans and other types of malware that can affect your Mac; it also has the ability to scan for Windows malware files that you might download or receive via email in order to prevent you from passing that malware onto friends or colleagues who use PCs.
Using the program is very straightforward. It doesn’t scan incoming emails and file downloads automatically – for that you’ll need VirusBarrier X6 – so you have to tell the program when you want it to scan your Mac. It can perform a scan of your entire hard drive, or you can drag and drop individual folders into the main scanning window to quickly scan the contents of just that folder. You also have the option to schedule a regular daily, weekly or monthly scan if you want to.
There’s also a free version called VirusBarrier Express, which omits features such as the ability to scan for Windows malware, so that might be worth checking out before buying either VirusBarrier Plus or the full VirusBarrier X6.
VirusBarrier Plus is quick and easy to use and can prevent you passing malware onto PC-using colleagues
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