Firefox Advises Users To Disable McAfee Plugin

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Firefox Advises Users To Disable McAfee Plugin

Posted by timothy on Wednesday October 5, 2011 @02:01AM from the one-or-the-other dept.

itwbennett writes "Mozilla is advising Firefox users to disable McAfee's ScriptScan software, saying that it could cause 'stability or security problems.' ScriptScan, which ships with McAfee's VirusScan antivirus program, is designed to keep Web surfers safe by scanning for any malicious scripting code that might be running in the browser. But according to Mozilla, it has an unintended side-effect: It can cause Firefox to crash ... a lot."

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just go all the way and uninstall Mcafee by Joe_Dragon · 2011-10-05 02:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

It's just as bad as norton.
1. Re:just go all the way and uninstall Mcafee by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-05 02:08 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  If it is as bad as Norton then uninstalling it might not be the easiest task.
2. Re:just go all the way and uninstall Mcafee by Tsingi · 2011-10-05 02:11 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  If it is as bad as Norton then uninstalling it might not be the easiest task.
  Hmm, time to shell out for the anti-anti-virus software.
3. Re:just go all the way and uninstall Mcafee by Moheeheeko · 2011-10-05 02:13 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Or just dip your harddrive in battery acid. Best way of getting rid of Mcafee ive found.
4. Re:just go all the way and uninstall Mcafee by djl4570 · 2011-10-05 02:53 · Score: 2
  
  Removal is an option for most users of a managed corporate system. My employer gives us a lot of latitude in software and I am a local administrator but there are some things that are required. An approved antivirus and HDD encryption are required. I noticed a disabled extension last night on a freshly reimaged system after installing noscript. Didn't look for plugins.
5. Re:just go all the way and uninstall Mcafee by sconeu · 2011-10-05 03:06 · Score: 2
  
  Damn... that's saying a lot!
  
  --
  General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
6. Re:just go all the way and uninstall Mcafee by Runaway1956 · 2011-10-05 03:11 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Just upgrade your computer. Introduce your hardware to Linux - it's a match made in heaven.
  dd if=urandom of=sda1
  reboot
  install
  
  --
  "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Obligatory punctuation Nazi comment by John+Jorsett · 2011-10-05 02:13 · Score: 2, Informative

program, is designed to keep Web surfer's safe
Keep his safe where?
S'erious'ly, do people ju'st put in apo'strophe's around random s's the'se day's?
What??? by lennier1 · 2011-10-05 02:14 · Score: 3, Funny

A McAfee product which causes more problems than it solves?
I think you just destroyed my faith in the universe. ;)
It works! by Metabolife · 2011-10-05 02:16 · Score: 2

If you can't surf the web, you can't get infected. McAfee has done it again!
Let the truth finally come to light by MetalliQaZ · 2011-10-05 02:16 · Score: 4, Insightful

I say this so often it should be in my sig... There is absurdly little difference between so-called "anti-virus" and desktop "internet security" products and the malware from which they are supposed to protect you. When family members ask me how I manage to happily use a 5 year-old PC that seems to be faster than their 1-2 year-old PC, I simply say "I don't have anti-virus installed"

--
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
1. Re:Let the truth finally come to light by Zibodiz · 2011-10-05 03:22 · Score: 2
  
  Or, in my case, I've installed Ubuntu on all my family's machines. I'd rather spend time explaining how to use Software Center and Gnome quirks than spend even more time removing viruses. For my dad, who is particularly uninterested in change, i set up a VM running Ubuntu that automatically starts a fullscreen Opera instance, and that's his 'browser'. It does everything that he would do in any other browser (except copy & paste to his windows desktop -- which he doesn't care about anyway), and the startup time is about 8 seconds, so it really doesn't bog him down at all. One way or another, getting my family to use Ubuntu for their web interface has been the best decision I could have made. It's completely secure against online junk, and for those who boot Ubuntu, it actually makes their computer faster than windows without AV.
2. Re:Let the truth finally come to light by Just+Some+Guy · 2011-10-05 04:39 · Score: 2
  
  Everyone here knows how it goes: I ended up being the unofficial tech support for all my friends and family. Even after swearing that I didn't know much about Windows, I accidentally helped someone clean up their PC and word got around. Anyway, I have a patented plan for fixing two-year-old computers that run like molasses: 1) uninstall Norton, McAfee, AVG, and ever other antivirus program I find; 2) install MS Security Essentials; and 3) make them buy more RAM.
  MSE doesn't have a vested interest in visibly demonstrating that it's still running and that you should renew your annual subscription you last renewed a month ago. Upgrading from the seemingly universal stock 1GB of RAM to 3 or 4 (depending on their CPU and OS) makes an enormous difference.
  
  --
  Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
McAfee by Oswald+McWeany · 2011-10-05 02:33 · Score: 2

As one would expect of a security company whose name sounds like it belongs on the McDonald's dollar menu and served with cream.
* It is a greasy mess and will bloat your computer
* It will ruin your web-nuggets
* Not protect you from viruses. McAfee couldn't stop salmonella.

--
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Re:The best solution for Firefox stability problem by 0123456 · 2011-10-05 02:38 · Score: 2

Firefox leaks memory like a sieve and is extremely unstable. Chrome just works.
Firefox has been running here for over a week with seven windows and about twenty-five tabs open. It's using 190MB of RAM. Chrome hands your soul to Google. Hmm, which would I prefer?
Honestly, how do all these Google fanboys manage to get Firefox to crash regularly or eat RAM? I've rarely seen a crash and the RAM usage seems reasonable for the number of pages it has open.
Of course I do have noscript installed, but everyone should do that if they don't want their computer pwned by a remote exploit.
Re:Metrics on McAffe Pain ??? by dgas · 2011-10-05 03:04 · Score: 2

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/ou/proof-that-antivirus-software-makes-your-pc-crawl/327 >>The desktop Antivirus suites all appear to make your PC run slower than a 5 year old computer when it comes to slowing hard drive I/O down which is the biggest factor in PC wait times. Norton Internet Security 2006 was the worst resource hog, McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8 was the second worst, It's only the second worst! This is from 2006, but we both know they haven't improved since.
Re:Just try by Calydor · 2011-10-05 03:18 · Score: 2

Avast is no better, I'm afraid, so may as well be mentioned here.
On my old, clunky laptop I decided to uninstall Avast in the hopes of getting just a bit more power out of it. Oops. Avast won't uninstall, kills its own uninstaller as if it's malware trying to disable the antivirus. Won't let me disable it manually. Won't let me friggin' boot to safe mode.
End result: Turned off as much of the program as I could, but it's still sitting there with wide, paranoid eyes about being put to sleep.

--
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
Re:Just try by Calydor · 2011-10-05 07:42 · Score: 2

Instructions:
Download aswclear.exe on your desktop
Start Windows in Safe Mode
BEEP! No can do, the laptop just shuts itself off mid-boot.

--
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-