I am frustrated by the lack of CLEAR, TRANSPARENT statements in writing, at www.intego.com and here and in reviews of VIrusBarrier X4, as to the EXTENT to which VBX4 will or won't protect against PC viruses. Yes, I know that the product can detect SOME PC viruses, in addition to the few Mac viruses. But how MANY of the tens of thousands of PC viruses can VBX4 detect?? I just haven't found an answer to this question, and I've looked.

For instance, the following statement appears in several places, including in this review of the product: "It [i.e., VBX4] detects and eradicates all known viruses, including Word and Excel macro viruses, and even viruses targeting the Windows operating system." Excuse me, but what does this mean, insofar as protection against Windows PC's is concerned? Maybe I'm too cynical, but between "...detects and eradicates all known viruses..." and "...even viruses targeting the Windows operating system..." I sense a contradiction. It seems all too possible that "all known viruses" is referring ONLY to Mac viruses, with Windows viruses being detected in very limited numbers indeed (this impression is derived in part from a lack of unequivocally precise statements on this very point - as far as I can tell - at Intego's own web site, www.intego.com). I hope I'm wrong about this, and would be happy to be corrected on this interpretation.

In short: Will VirusBarrierX4 protect against ALL PC viruses -- i.e., does Intego maintain an extensive and constantly updated PC viruses definitions list, similar to the lists maintained by e.g. McAfee and Symantec, etc., which is provided to VBX4 users, and allows the product to identify a very high percentage of PC viruses? Or does VBX4 just attempt to use heuristics and other "pattern/activity identification" approaches which will only identify a fraction of PC viruses compared to the complete-definitions-list approach?

For users who are only Mac OS X users, this point may seem less than crucial. It's not for many folks like myself who are using Windows and Macs. With the totally chaotic lack of security for Windows computers on the Internet these days, I use my Mac as a portal to the Web for all Windows files. And increasing numbers of people will be doing the same in the near future, when they own Intel Macs and can run Windows using e.g. Parallels or VirtualPC etc. When both platforms are being used - or even if a person is just forwarding files from a Mac to a Windows machine - it's highly desirable that PC viruses be detected ON the Mac side (especially if they are headed for a virtual Windows machine on the same Mac!).

In researching various top-of-the-line Mac antivirus programs, I've yet to find one which both clearly attempts to detect and eradicate large numbers of PC viruses AND does not have serious problems (e.g., Symantec Anti-Virus and McAfee Virex both go after "all" PC viruses, I believe, but each program has serious problems making it less than desirable for me). Sophos has problems. The open source Clam... product has limitations. VirusBarrier in contrast seems to have no significant problems - but as mentioned above it is still unclear to me whether the product attempts to be truly comprehensive in its identification and eradication of PC viruses. At best wording on this issue at the Intego web site, and in product descriptions from various reviews, etc., has been unclear; and at worst such comments may have even been intentionally vague. Does ANYONE know exactly how thoroughly Intego's product VBX4 identifies and eradicates PC viruses - e.g., whether it maintains and provides a constantly updated PC (and Mac, of course) virus definitions list? Or is VBX4 only capable of identifying a portion of PC viruses, through heuristics and other inexact approaches? This latter approach would make the product of no value to me (and also would lead me to wonder whether VBX4's upfront purchase and annual subscription costs are arguably excessive - how much work can be involved in keeping abreast of the miniscule number of Mac viruses)?