Mc Afee 8.0 annoying features

Having been satisfied with previous releases of Mc Afee antivirus
programs, I bought a copy of Mc Afee 8.0. However, I am very
disappointed with the product now. I am seriously considering to
switch to other anti virus programs.
Here are the lists of the annoying features that can't be turned off
with its settings:
1- The security centre is like an annoying advertisement every time
you start your computer, it is like a showcase for Mc Afee's other
products. I could not figure it out how to run vshield without loading
Mc Afee's security center.
2- Every 5 minutes, the program update is trying to access internet
although you have turned off the automatic update feature. From their
FAQs, it turns out that in Windows Task Manager, the autoupdate is
scheduled to contact their server for 'information about possible
virus outbreak'. The most annoying thing about this is that Mc Afee
restores this task when I deleted it from Windows Task Manager.
3- A Funny process of updating dat files. Rather than the efficient
update manager in 7.0, Updating your Mc Afee 8.0 is a painful process.
It will open your default browser, force you to log-in to a Mc Afee
account (and to open one) and install a browser plug-in in your
default browser (hmmm, no, thx you).

If you are using Mc Afee 8.0 and know a trick how to eliminate one of
those problems, please share it. It looks that I will regret my
purchase.