McAfee, Win Defender or A N Other?

[securespark]

I have laptop with McAfee on. Currently, Win Defender, installed as part of Win 8.1 is disabled.

Not a fan of McAfee but have installed AVG and MSE on previous Win 7 machines.

Would you leave it alone or change it? If change, what for?

 

[AronSearle]

Stop browsing porn securespark!

Seriously, you don't have to worry about viruses too much unless you start browsing porn websites, dodgy russian or asian websites, and torrents (personally viruses on torrents are mostly false positives anyway).

So just go for a free one, and don't worry about it too much, and keep backups for that 1/10000 chance you still pickup something really nasty on a legit site (which would probably get through any virus checker anyway).

 

[MarkBarl]

I do find that many AV software companies tend to go in waves of being Ok then being rubbish especially regarding how much system resources they use. I have found BitDefender to be good at the moment, scores well on tests.

 

[jeds]

I use NOD32. It costs a few quid a year but it does exactly what it says on the tin and doesn't bombard you with advertising crap and upgrade offers.

 

[Ricardus]

McAfee has been garbage since the late 1990s but unfortunately a lot of companies I've worked for use it - I'm guessing it's either very cheap per PC at a corporate level or it's sales reps are all hypnotists.
While it does occasionally stop viruses, it's a massive resource hog and far far less effective than many of the free solutions available.
Seriously, we have McAfee where I am at the moment and if a PC reports a virus it can't remove after a 12hour exhaustive scan, we rock up with Malwarebytes Free on a USB stick and clean the PC in a few minutes.
I run AVG Free, many others swear by Avast Free which has come out slightly ahead in some recent tests but AVG does less nagging about upgrading to a paid version.

Kapersky is normally pretty good, Norton had a rep almost as bad as McAfee but I understand the latest version is pretty decent.


TLDR ; McAfee bad. Remove and replace with freebie like AVG or Avast.

 

[wkdhd]

Agree that McAfee is junk, it was one of many tried at the company I worked for. The worst by far was a CA programme that didn't detect anything. We ended up with AVG Business which was fine. I use AVG free which is also fine. You will still need malwarebytes or similar from time to time.
Oh and don't even think about using Internet explorer or hotmail or whatever it is called now, they attract viruses.
You do need AV even if you don't look at porn sites, some phishing emails are very well done for instance and people do click on them

 

[EddieM]

Don't use any at all, never had a computer virus in 20+ years.

 

[longdogs]

Used AVG free for years and never had any problems. Used to have Norton but it cost an arm and a leg to renew.

 

[Whitespirit66]

Used to use free AVG on my previous desktop, which was fine for a couple of years but suddenly started causing me problems. Changed to paid for Avira, and have been very happy with it and no problems.

 

[securespark]

Yeah, I use AVG now. Last time I downloaded it, it came direct from one of AVG's own sites.

But now they come from partner sites and some are dodgy.

Just got to find a safe one, then work out how to delete McAfee!

 

[longdogs]

This a link from my installed AVG so should be ok

http://free.avg.com/gb-en/homepage?...5MzA3IEFJPTAgUFJUWVBFPTkwIExUPTEgVUlEPSBBSUQ9

 

[securespark]

Thanks, squeaky.

 

[JBR]

Used AVG free for years and never had any problems. Used to have Norton but it cost an arm and a leg to renew.

I used to have Norton too, a long time ago, but it takes over your computer and then when you try to remove it...

I use Avast free.

Also, I never trust these 'already installed' AV programmes, or those that want to install themselves when you download an unrelated programme (eg, Chrome) unless you uncheck a small, difficult to spot box. They invariably give you a few weeks' free use, then ask you to pay.

 

[tony1851]

Opinion here seems to suggest that McAffee is rubbish. It came with my new laptop when I bought it and I have recently renewed it.

What are the problems with it?

 

[gregers]

i use the free stuff thats out there,
avira does give a few pops up adverts every now and then but onlt to get you to pay for upgrade.
malwearbytes
and spybot

i run these every few weeks/months