McAfee Delivers Real-Time Virus Scanning for Windows NT Server and Windows NT Workstation

Business Wire, March 19, 1996

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 19, 1996--McAfee (Nasdaq: MCAF), the world's leading vendor of anti-virus software, today began shipping VirusScan 2.5 for Windows NT workstations and NetShield 2.5 for NT servers.

Both products, which have been awarded the Microsoft BackOffice Logo, extend McAfee's best-selling anti-virus software family by providing comprehensive real-time virus scanning and protection for Windows NT. According to IDC, McAfee commands a worldwide standalone DOS and Windows anti-virus software unit market share of 68%.

"Real time, on-access virus scanning implemented as a native NT service is a critical requirement for NT computing environments," said Scott Gordon, anti-virus product manager. "Without real-time scanning, viruses can spread undetected through a NT network. VirusScan and NetShield for NT stop viruses before their successful execution or transfer."

Comprehensive 32-bit Anti-Virus NT Service

McAfee's new NT releases take full advantage of Windows NT capabilities. Running as a native NT service, both VirusScan and NetShield have the ability to detect viruses in real-time as they are written to or read from the NT system. The true 32-bit implementation supports Windows NT's multi-threaded system services, access controls, and advanced file system.

An on-access scanning VDD (Virtual Device Driver) provides constant and transparent virus protection by automatically capturing viruses in real-time on disk insertion, file reads, file writes, file copies, file creations, file renames, program execution, system startup, and system shut down. Before the virus can execute, it can be moved, deleted or cleaned. Since McAfee's solution runs as an NT service, configurations can be modified and audited in real-time as well.

In addition to on-access scans, user-initiated on-demand scanning allows for the immediate detection of over 6,500 viruses. VirusScan and NetShield detect and eradicate viruses of all types, including known and new viruses, boot viruses, file viruses, mutating viruses, multi-partite viruses, stealth viruses, polymorphic viruses, encrypted viruses, and even the latest macro viruses located within files, folders, drives and diskettes.

Flexible scheduling options make it easy for end-users and administrators to automate the virus scanning process. VirusScan and NetShield can be configured to automatically scan or exclude certain drives, folders, subfolders and files at different times of the day. Upon virus detection, the file can be moved, deleted, isolated, or logged. Both products automatically notify NT's event log service of all virus events.

Innovative "Task Explorer" Interface

VirusScan and NetShield for Windows NT are the industry's first anti-virus solutions to support Windows NT's Task Explorer interface for point and click management. This task-oriented interface, which fully supports new Windows interface conventions such as context menus, property pages, browsers, long file names, bubble help and wizard mode, allows for immediate adoption by both system administrators and end users.

Support for the Task Explorer will prove especially useful when Microsoft releases Windows NT 4.0 with an 95 Explorer interface later this year. For example, to quickly launch, modify or view a task, users simply right mouse click and adjust available properties such as what to scan, where to scan, when to scan, and actions to take on detection.

VirusScan and NetShield also include a new Task Wizard which helps simplify the configuration process. Once a task is configured, it can be conveniently duplicated, modified, monitored and audited for both local and server operation. Since McAfee's NT solutions adhere to Microsoft NT communication protocol standards, administrators can remotely distribute, launch and monitor virus scanning tasks from NT server and NT workstations. All task execution and system incidents are logged within both McAfee's activity log and the Windows NT event log.

Enterprise Alerting and Updating to Deter Virus Threat

VirusScan and NetShield provide complete alerting for rapid notification of virus events. User alerting mechanisms include console and broadcast notification, alphanumeric pager, E-mail (SMTP), SNMP, and trouble ticket generation. The products can also be configured to launch a third party applications to further aid in viral response. Both NetShield and VirusScan support immediate or scheduled product updating though the Internet via FTP scripts or through a centralized network directory.

McAfee Delivers Industry's Most Comprehensive Anti-Virus Protection for NT Features

McAfee Symantec

NetShield and Norton Antivirus

VirusScan v. 2.5 v. 1.0

NT auto-scan on file read Yes No NT auto-scan on file write Yes No NT native scheduled scanning Yes No NT native event notification Yes No NT native protocol independence Yes No NT native uninstall Yes No NT server/workstation differentiation Yes No MS-BackOffice Logo Approved Yes No Windows Explorer interface Yes No Windows Wizard help Yes No