What is mcshield.exe? Is mcshield.exe spyware or a virus?

What are you to do to fix mcshield.exe related problems?
1. Run Security Task Manager to check your mcshield.exe process
2. Run Registry Booster to fix mcshield.exe related errors
3. Run Spyware Doctor to remove persistent malware

Process name: NT On-Access Scanner service.
Product: McAfee On-Access Scanner
Company: Network Associates, Inc.
File: mcshield.exe
Security Rating:

"mcshield.exe" is the McAfee On-Access Antivirus Scanner from Network Associates, Inc.

Get more detailed information about mcshield.exe and all other running background processes with Security Task Manager.

Note: Any malware can be named anything - so you should check where the files of the running processes are located on your disk. If a "non-Microsoft" .exe file is located in the C:\Windows or C:\Windows\System32 folder, then there is a high risk for a virus, spyware, trojan or worm infection! Check it out!


Users Opinions

1712 users ask for this file. 6 users didn't rate it ("don't know"). 27 users rated it as not dangerous. 6 users rated it as not so dangerous. 16 users rated it as neutral. 10 users rated it as little bit dangerous. 10 users rated it as dangerous.


All comments about mcshield.exe:
Bendover-X It's On-Access Scanner service, by Network Associates, Inc. (VirusScan Enterprise)  See also: Link
bhlang Part of McAfee VirusScan ASaP (corporate virus scanner)
Lord Shitzu Better off with it than without it, as it will scan for malevolent controls and viruses.  See also: Link
grandaddydan@comcast.net This file runs as a service and uses lots of processor time even when the active virus scan is disabled. It's not worth it.
McAfee VirusScan
Doc This file is required by McAfee to run live, real time AV shiedling - as opposed to running periodic or scheduled manually. TuneUp Utilities 2004 tags mcshield.exe as the only file - on a brand new high-end XP box - which uses unusually high resources.  See also: Link
Alex Fernandez McAfee OnScan Internet checking process. If your antivirus solution is McAfee, keep it the way it is.
Mcafee Anti-virus
Lorraine Ampofo When the "NT On Access Scanner Service...." error comes up McAfee AntiVirus disables. Talk about out of the pot & into the fire!!!
Somehow blocks outgoing mail from echange server 5.5. Busy checking the MCShield configuration.... - To let mail go out, simply stop the MCshield service. I'm running Exchange Server 5.5 on Win NT4.0, servie Pack 6
NAI Anti Virus
DEEPWOODS This is part of McAfee Virus Scan. Mcshield.exe constantly monitors your computer's running processes, accessed file and registry to detect virus activity. It is one of the core components to the virus protection offered by the McAfee virus scanning software and should not be stopped. If it is stopped your computer will not be protected from viruses. Mcshield.exe is flagged as a system process and does not appear to be a security risk. However, removing McAfee Shield may adversly impact your system.
jv30344 On my machine at work. It can lock up your machine for 20 to 30 seconds at a time several times an hour. I wouldn't recommend it.
Part of McAfee virus scan
George Malvar It Must be used to keep Virus Protection Updated but can be a bit heavy and use more space than needed. I keep mine on and suffer the speed for the security.. Worth checking  See also: Link
M Naylor McShield.exe does more than slow me down. It completely disables my ability to do backups of an external drive with Acronis TrueImage. Only when I installed the latest version of McA did this begin, and it is driving me crazy. Also causes partition problems in my external drives, so that they are not recognized, from time to time. It has got to go, and I will either use on-demand McA or switch entirely to F-Prot (which has found viruses that McA missed from time to time anyway).
smalltalk Even if I have disabled on-access scan, this process still scans my incoming files as I download cygwin packages from the web, eating 50%+ of my CPU power. I'm getting rid of this stupid software.
Allen Lindaas from MSP when I place the mouse over the icon, is says "Downloading 59% updates" and it's been over 4 and half hours doing this. It must be updating the Mcafee AV software which Dell said was current
mosier40823 it seems to conflict with mirosofts new beta anti spyware or rather the antispyware is conflicting with mcshield, my processes runs near 100% when they are both running.
Dave Why does it show that it is able to record keyboard inputs??? Does this mean mine has a virus?
Dave Essential part of McAfee. Don't kill it. Antivirus doesn't work correctly without it
desmo integral part of Anti-Virus software from McAfee
Rams If you dont need virus in your system keep this
McAfee virus scan client service
Mike B mcShield used up so much resources, I could not ever surf the web, or do anything! It even intermittantly stopped my mouse from moving (VERY ANNOYING). It continued to eat over50% of processes. Note: Everything was fine for about a month, then all of the sudden BAM, mcshield.exe made my ps un-usable
Every time I start my PC I get this messsage. This is since I downloaded the latest version of McAfee from AOL.
Gramon It does take a lot of resources even when scanning disable. I remove and install once a month to scan and keep performance up
JackC Everytime I access my disk or our company network, this process pegs my CPU. It is having a major impact on my productivity. I would remove the feature of McAfee and scan manually often.
RB this wasn't happening until I updated Windows
Mr. Cranky This is 'legitimate' spyware... your company installs and controls it, not the user of the PC. And it periodically takes over the machine for a couple of minutes, allowing nothing else to function.
rainer1102 McAfee - On-Access Scanner service, wird gelegentlich oder auch regelmäßig (geplant) benötigt, Systemauslastung und Prozesspriorität können eingestellt werden und so die Auslastung des Systemes beeinflußt werden
abel tasman It keeps you safe from virusses but uses to much processor power
stentipede Can I delete this without compromising my security?
Ticked Off user In a corp. environment it slows you to a crawl. My XP acts like an old 286 machine. Production impacts are not seen as important to the company.
Mech U Highly recommended that you delete this file as soon as you see it
Shalianahe McAfee.com privacy service is part of McAfee internet suite
Tyrone Every Saturday afternoon, it effectively renders my pc useless by needlessly taking up 75-90% of cpu. After this subsciption is over, I will NEVER purchase another McAfee product.
Klaus McAfee virusscanner - uses a lot of CPU power I do not recommend it !
Essential but what a nuisance. It hogs resources for 20s or so at startup.
johnnie Microsoft anti spyware is the conflicting party. even when turned off it keeps on using processor time in combination with mcaffee. uninstall the useless microshaft program and your problems are over
This file slows down the compute a lot........
Madmaven AOL's MC Afee installes this file and uses up huge amounts of processor resources. I am going to uninstall MC Afee and use SYmantec. On older computers this almost entirely kills the machine.
FBYJ Uses a great deal of processer (up to 35% at times), but because of virus threats, afraid to do without it.
Rambo 45 Is integral part of realtime protection but shur is a resource hog
Alex An essential part of McAfee Security Software
Andymatt That it's part of McAfee's Antivirus package and uses up 100% of my CPU when scheduled scan is running. Even when scheduled scan isn't running it'll be responsible for intermittently slowing or freezing apps and mouse. A royal pain.
Gib my computer hangs when i try to shut it down since i installed this software
Bobby Bonanza The protection McAfee provides is not worth the CPU slowdown. I have a 3.4ghz 1gbRAM 256mbGPU and it still slows down my computer... simply, this is legal spyware
paulg It is as bad as any virus it can remove - get rid of this product AFTER you install another antiVrirus software agent.
Zulu1 It completely freezes up my system on every start-up. I recommend anything else but Mcafee.
Anon While I don't believe it to be dangerous, it is annoying when it uses so much of my CPU's resources. If it were on all the time, I would definitely disable/remove it.
Bobway This process ran my CPU at 100% and stopped me from even using my computer. While it may be important to keep this program going it is more important to have my computer work. I am switching to another anti-virus as this product is useless to me at this time.
danhollywood mcsheild is defenatly annoying Just try using your disk clean up utillity and whatch the cpu usage on the task manager...
Jan Brady MCShield (Anti)Virus - Has Same Effects On CPU as Most Spyware - Uninstall it and replace it with another anti-virus scanner  See also: Link
Lee This is crap, it conflitcs with my games causing the frame rate to be slow and some games will not even play, Id go with AVG
primrose This process hangs my machine with increased annoyance - I've done research and there seems to be no known problems posted with McAfee of Microsoft. Total mystery and very annoying, currently looking for new product that will not hang the system.
Found out about this process when my computer crashed over and over hopelessly. I need my computer to teach a video game class, and I downloaded an online game. After that McShield froze my computer over and over. What a freaking hassle. What's wrong with manual scans like the good ole' days?
ThsGuyRightHere Disabling On-Access Scan on both Read and Write is a bad idea. Instead consider configuring scanning exclusions. Also remember that a program that indexes files on your HDD (think Google Desktop) is going to trigger lots of On Access scans.
dreamer Even i exits out of Mc Afee, It takes over my cpu with 100% usage. It crashes my comp so often.
mac56soup I agree that it seems to have happened ever since Windows changed to the new data defender. My computer is continually running up 59 to 100% even when idling. Did not do this before the change -- usually idles at 3-12%. Very annoying and the fan is almost constantly running.
Chuck We are required to use McAfee at work and are denied rights to disable it. As a result, opening files over a network connection is a draconian effort.
Tiffany McAfee process of some sort, takes up lots of processing time. Don't know why. Very annoying. Wish I could delete it without compromising user's security. Why can't McAfee come up with decent anti-virus software? Is always interfering with something...
dolphin Important part of McAfee security package
yourmom McAfee - can slow PC down while it runs
xxmmdxx Just put nod32 on your computer, its light and offers the same protection
mshield.exe often freezes the whole system. after killing this process the pc continues working fine. same problem with games. so i always kill it before playing.
Matt I did a chat session with McAfee support after having a problem with mcshield hogging all my cpu time for extended periods of time. The guy had me clear out all of my junk files. I don't know if this will really do anything yet. Maybe I should remove all of my programs, clear out all of my files, and stop surfing the internet. Maybe then mcshield will be happy.
G MCSHIELD.EXE McAfee process that sucks back way to much processig power very hard to turn off or disable very poor coding for Antivirus. Stick to Trend or CA
Vincent Mcafee virus scan (will slow down your machine and sometimes freeze your it)

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