With McAfee or Without McAfee (Laptop Security)

I'm not making this topic to start a long discussion about stuff, so miss me with all that please

Its been a long while since I outfit the HP laptop I had used for linux stuff as a windows 10 laptop, with slightly better ram and a samsung 970 evo plus 1 TB drive as its main OS. One of the things I did after getting windows 10 on it was to put mcafee on there for added security, problem is, the sheer amount of resources it eats to run slows it down massively, and the laptop itself isnt that beefy, just enough for light gaming, primarily for video watching, some work, etc..., and i've been putting it off for a while, and I need some help

My mom knows enough on what to trust/not trust on the internet, and I don't know if the default windows defender stuff is enough for it, so can anyone tell me if all she will need for antivirus/firewall stuff is ONLY what default stuff is on it, or can I pair the default windows defender with something else that hopefully won't take so much processing power that it'll effectively be a potato?

I haven't used Windows Defender much, so can't talk about it. Why not go for Kaspersky free version & Malwarebytes free version along with it ? I have this setup for my dad's PC - it works great & doesn't impact much on the performance. MB works only when you open it, while Kaspersky does active monitoring - with firewall included in it.

If you wish to spend bucks - then MB premium might be enough, personally I like Bitdefender but I have seen good feedback regarding Kaspersky & Eset as well.

I was never McAfee fan, have always found it lagging & slowing up system whenever or whichever PC I've used in the past, don't know if they have improved or not though.

McAfee is terrible in my opinion. It doesn't even has got an option to EXCLUDE FILES/FOLDERS. It's also quite a resource hog.

Hi
I am a Winreducer and reduces Windows 10 19h1? THAT IS THE BEST OPTON FOR ME
i am digging for years into the windows registry , removing useless things
What a pity, Windows 10 has such a good core, but the crap microsoft incorporated into it,
what a pity !!
Conserning Windows 11,this is to early to winreduce and a lot of registries are not that
different from windows 10, this i do mayby in the year 2023
So I am not really fed up with microsoft, if there is a problem about this, You tell me,
I hope this is not a cesured forum under the wings of microsoft
Icy

You haven't listed the specifications of this PC. But certainly, if it seems to slow it down very much, you could consider a different security solution that is more lightweight.

I had good experience with ESET Security in this regard. That one is very lightweight yet effective. Try it, they have a free trial.

I do not recommend Windows Defender. It might have improved, but back a few years ago, that one, and its predecessor called Microsoft Security Essentials came out quite low in the comparions and lacked basic security principles. It even made the news, you could check. Once again, this was many years ago, they might have improved it, but even back then, the others were lightyears ahead, so I do not trust Windows Defender.

Defender paired with Malwarebytes for periodic scans should do it.

I'd leave the registry alone unless you really know what you're doing.

Current Microsoft Defender has almost nothing in common with old Microsoft Security Essentials.

Good to hear.