Getting rid of McAfee

[Shane]

I've had similar issues with Norton in the past, but I've been running Norton Internet Security for the last year, and it's been great. Not slow at all. I ran PC-Cillin before that because it was faster/better than Norton, but then their newer version got REALLY slow. I have it on my kids' computer still, and it is horribly slow.

[mhundt]

wasn't won over myself by AVAST, but +1,000,000,000 on the removal of and hideous slowdowns of norton.....

never touch a norton product (nowadays) with a 10 foot pole....

black, what were your issues with Avast? It continually sends automatic virus database updates and plays nicely with my concurrent installation of SpyBot Search and Destroy. I notice since I got rid of Norton that since installation of Avast, SpyBot rarely even finds any kind of spyware and what it does find is marketing tracking bots, nothing seriously malicious - which tells me it's stopping the bad stuff pretty consistently.
BUT, perhaps I've missed some not-so-great thing about Avast so I'm curious why you didn't like it.

[blacksunshine]

I'm not knocking the free anti-virus at all, just my experience with them has never been good. Kaspersky has a built in spyware/malware remover that comes with the anti-virus sofware (2009 ver did), that was another reason I chose it. Instead of have two seperate softwares, which sometimes I've seen attack each other claiming each was spyware, its consolidated. The two mentioned above AVG and anti-spyware software (can't remember the name) may work great together. But from a company security standpoint, I'm not willing to rely and bet the work I've put in on freeware.

clarification, I do not use the free version on the work boxes....all commercial...but the free and commercial versions in reference to the back end, ie, the way the program functions and their ability to detect virus' and signature updates are the same....

black, what were your issues with Avast? It continually sends automatic virus database updates and plays nicely with my concurrent installation of SpyBot Search and Destroy. I notice since I got rid of Norton that since installation of Avast, SpyBot rarely even finds any kind of spyware and what it does find is marketing tracking bots, nothing seriously malicious - which tells me it's stopping the bad stuff pretty consistently.
BUT, perhaps I've missed some not-so-great thing about Avast so I'm curious why you didn't like it.

I honestly cannot recall since it was about 2 years ago...maybe nothing wrong with it now but back when I was surveying the field for AV programs for work, AVAST was one and for some reason, it did not work well or was problematic with the updates or something...I can't recall...

If I was not already happy with AVG, I might just try AVAST now to see if it would work for me....but I ain't one to fix what ain't broke....usually..

[Bill M]

Thanks fellas, it's gone including out of the registry. So far no problems.

[deerplanter]

I'm no computer expert at all but my step son is one of them geek guys and he recomended kaspersky to me but it wasn't free. I got it off of e-bay pretty cheap but you have to renew it every year.

[Bill]

AVG 9.0 now on my laptop and it's working well.
Also I have WinPatrol runing in the background too.


For scans and periodic cleanups, I use:
Advanced System Care 3
Ad-aware
Spotbot Search
Malwarebytes Anti Malware

all are available at downloads.com.

[Eagles1181]

I would uninstall it with Add and Remove programs. Then go into C:\Program Files and delete McAfee. Then run a registery cleaner (I like CCleaner). Do a reboot. After the reboot, install the Anti Virus of your choice. If you are using a download, know and trust your source before hand, because you are unprotected at this point. I recommend AVG. It is the same program as the paid version accept that it has a few non-anti-varus programs (like a personal firewall) removed. PM me if you have questions.

Eagle