I bought a new laptop, it came with McAfee LiveSafe.
I heard only bad things about McAfee and apparently it just slows everything down.
Should I uninstall it and replace it with any free AV?
If yes, what Free AV is best (lightweight on system resources yet reliable) for Win10?
Hi there
for PRIVATE users McAfee is known as Mc AWFUL --horrendous resource hog and not very good anyway. Uninstall - and I know I have a difference with about 90% of people on this forum in regard to A/V software but IMO Windows defender plus safe surfing is good enough --however if you MUST install A/V software there's loads of better alternatives than "Mc AWFUL" which really is simply HIDEOUS in any way shape or form you care to name.
The best protection IMO is still HUMAN BRAIN !!!.
Cheers
jimbo
I have McAfee installed on my corporate laptop )no choice)... it's constantly trying to download or upload stuff. (I'm on my home network ATM but it's still looking for ePO... go figure)
I won't get drawn into what's the best, just giving some info to help you make a decision.
A link to help you uninstall McFubar
Knowledge Base
Download the MCPR tool from http://us.mcafee.com/apps/supporttools/mcpr/mcpr.asp and save it to a temporary folder on your computer.
Yep, @Borg 386's advice to use the MCPR tool is the way to go.
As a McAfee refugee/survivor from many years back, I always remove it from my OEM computers.
I just did so on this new Dell 8900 Win10 box.
A couple of "pearls" from the "been there, done that" camp:
1) It's not a bad idea to "activate" and "register" the OEM McAfee on the system BEFORE you uninstall it, as explained in the TS article for which @Borg 386 provided the link. That way, in the unlikely event that you do ever reinstall McAfee on that system, you will still have your download and activation rights.
2) If you plan to replace McAfee with a more robust 3rd-party AV/security suite, it's not a bad idea to get all of your 3rd-party productivity and other programs/apps installed first. My experience is that McAfee is far less "finicky" about software installs than -- for example -- the Kaspersky with which I replace it. So, as with this new system, I got most/all of my programs installed first, and THEN I replaced McAfee with Kaspersky.
3) It's a good idea to exactly follow the steps detailed in the TS article provided in @Borg 386's post, in order to get a proper, clean uninstall of McAfee. Occasionally, one needs to run the MCPR tool more than once (rebooting in between), and (rarely) it must be run from Windows Safe Mode to clean up remnants.
Cheers,
MM
When I uninstalled McAfee I found it hard to get rid off how I did it was.
Go to file explorer, then programs including X86
Then click on each folder that is named McAfee
I then used Revo Uninstaller
Clicked on the folder and that removed all traces of it
You will probably have to do it in both lots of Programs
Once done
Do a restart and you should find Windows Defender kick in
That is now what I use on all my systems and it does a far better job than McAfee and very light on resources
Thanks guys for your replies.
I will be removing it today.
Once I remove it, will Windows Defender start automatically? (got the answer)
Is there any free option of reliable and lightweight antivirus that you guys would suggest?
Yes it should start as soon as you restart your system you may have to update and then scan with defender
Windows Defender + Malwarebytes Anti Malware free is the best free option that many people use. Antivirus now these days render almost to the point that cannot protect you 100% all the time, but rather causing more harms.
Common sense = 90%
Keeps everything on your system up to date = 10%
If you use your common sense + Windows Defender that should be enough.
Here is the list of bad things about Antivirus:
1) System performance decrease
2) Antivirus vulnerability leave system unprotected, and it took vendor very long time to patch it.
3) Bugs
4) Software incompatibility.
5) Can't protect you all the times.
6) Annoying pop ups and ads.
Quote
