Virus Advisories should not pop-up from the system tray when the user already has the latest virus definition files that would take care of the virus in question. Large, red messages like this:

…should only be reserved for serious issues, like when the virus was found, but not cleaned. Plus, the first option is comical — I already have anti-virus protection, why is it asking me if I want to “Get it now!”?

Users are busy people, we don’t sit here in front of our computers waiting to read about the latest viruses, especially those that we are already protected against! I knew that I was protected because McAfee already popped-up a message earlier today that the latest updates were installed…whoop-dee-doo!! That was yet another, unnecessary message shoved in my face. I really don’t want to know every time the software is updated.

Subscription-based software should always update automatically, there’s no need to bother the user with it. Only warn the user when the update failed or hasn’t occurred in a while. I bet you if you talk to your customer support people, you’ll find that there are a lot of customers who contact them when they see this informational message, thinking that they have a virus.

So making it so advisories don’t display if the user is already protected, will save you money!!! If there’s some crazy, architectural reason why this can’t be detected, then at least change the look of the advisory so as to not look like a virus was found. Here’s an idea:   Sorry for the diatribe, but I’ve become less tolerant of poorly designed software recently.