McAfee Virus Scan - Help and Information
Different versions of VirusScan
BU distributes McAfee VirusScan Enterprise Edition, which is slightly different from VirusScan Home Edition. The version numbers are different too. The version we distribute is the most recent version of VirusScan Enterprise.
Macintosh users: The McAfee anti-virus product for Macintosh has traditionally been called Virex. In late 2006, this was rechristened VirusScan for Macintosh. Confusing, eh? If you are looking for VirusScan for Macintosh help, please see our Macintosh page.
Installing McAfee VirusScan safely
Generally, you will not need to do anything special to remove any old versions of VirusScan before you install the BU version. Simply follow the safe installation instructions linked above.
Problems installing a new version of VirusScan
Note: if VirusScan installed fine but you are having problems updating your virus definitions, please skip to the "Updating VirusScan" section below.
If you see any error messages when you try to install VirusScan, here are some instructions that may help you get past these issues.
Uninstall solution 1 - use Safe Mode and remove McAfee directory. (Try this first)
Uninstall solution 2 - command line uninstall (Try if solution 1 does not work)
Updating VirusScan
Recommended: BU's VirusScan is already pre-set to do an automatic update daily.
If you have any problems updating, go to the VirusScan Console under Tools->Edit AutoUpdate Repository. At BU we generally use the NAI (default) http and ftp repositories, so if you see any other listings from former schools or workplaces there, see if you can delete them. If you do make a change, reboot your machine. If the update problems continue, you will need to try an uninstall and reinstall as described above.
Alternative: If AutoUpdate is failing, manually
download the definition updates.
This link is for the enterprise version
of McAfee, which is the version distributed by BU.
(If you need
updates for the home version, you must go to McAfee's
home user Web site)
Adjusting the blocking in McAfee VirusScan
The version of VirusScan that we distribute at BU is pre-configured to block certain types of programs. We've tried hard to strike a balance between safety and convenience. If you need to, you can adjust the programs that are blocked.
