Today, McAfee released a virus update to their "Total Protection" package that targeted a vital windows component in Windows XP / 2000. Engadget and HardOCP as well as others covered it.
Engadget Coverage
This is not the first time I've seen this happen with McAfee and it's one reason I stopped recommending McAfee to customers at work. Right now at Directron we're not even listing McAfee for this and other reasons. Their corporate products are OK, but they and Symantec have had more bad press in the last 4 years than other rival packages like Kaspersky or Sophos.
The truth is that if you are a home user, there really isn't a great reason to buy anti virus software right now. Microsoft's Security Essentials package does a more than adequate job for most home users, and beats the free versions of both AVG and Avast in my experiance from doing virus troubleshooting regularly. Commercial AVG still has some merit if you've had some bad run ins with spyware in the past, and Kaspersky is decent if you have some of the odder infections but Security Essentials is a great place to start.
(Note: Security Essentials is basically the anti-virus/anti-malware package formerly known as Microsoft OneCare. It's free for home use and I believe also in some instances for small business. For businesses Microsoft offers ForeFront which also has domain snappings and exchange support.)
- end rant
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