McAfee question

[NickM]

OK I've had the 'vanilla' basic McAfee protective software for a while now (at least 3 years); recently I have begun to get 'invitations' to upgrade to a more 'extensive suite' that does more (just another 25 bucks on top of the annual renewal)

What all do 'You All' say about getting an upgrade?

TIA

NM

[Ssnake]

While I don't think that they are selling snake oil, I do think that the Microsoft Defender

a. has the widest installation base on the most frequently attacked OS platform

b. gets daily updates

c. seems to catch what it's supposed to catch

d. doesn't seem to create a lot of false alerts

 

Conclusion:

Chances are that MS Defender is good enough for the vast majority of users, unless you have specific reason to distrust it. The comparative tests that I read about virus scanners - admittedly, none of them was very recent, and things change - put MS Defender in the top tier of malware protection because of the reasons listed above. Back then, it also had one of the best detection rates, but I would consider that less of a long-lasting argument. Points a. and b. above, however, are "eternally true"; point d. seems to be no point of contention, and if c. was untrue, I think there would be no shortage of opinion from MS haters to point out how bad it was. I'm sure that there will be some that offer this opinion if you search the interwebs thoroughly enough. But it doesn't seem to be a widely held belief. A plausible explanation might be that it simply does what it's supposed to do and its users do not spend much thought about it simply because it is so unintrusive.

[NickM]

30 minutes ago, Ssnake said:

While I don't think that they are selling snake oil, I do think that the Microsoft Defender

a. has the widest installation base on the most frequently attacked OS platform

b. gets daily updates

c. seems to catch what it's supposed to catch

d. doesn't seem to create a lot of false alerts

 

Conclusion:

Chances are that MS Defender is good enough for the vast majority of users, unless you have specific reason to distrust it. The comparative tests that I read about virus scanners - admittedly, none of them was very recent, and things change - put MS Defender in the top tier of malware protection because of the reasons listed above. Back then, it also had one of the best detection rates, but I would consider that less of a long-lasting argument. Points a. and b. above, however, are "eternally true"; point d. seems to be no point of contention, and if c. was untrue, I think there would be no shortage of opinion from MS haters to point out how bad it was. I'm sure that there will be some that offer this opinion if you search the interwebs thoroughly enough. But it doesn't seem to be a widely held belief. A plausible explanation might be that it simply does what it's supposed to do and its users do not spend much thought about it simply because it is so unintrusive.

 

OK so no problem doing so then...as for MS Windows Defender, it had to be deactivated so McAfee could be used=one or the other but not both.

[Murph]

2 hours ago, Ssnake said:

While I don't think that they are selling snake oil, I do think that the Microsoft Defender

a. has the widest installation base on the most frequently attacked OS platform

b. gets daily updates

c. seems to catch what it's supposed to catch

d. doesn't seem to create a lot of false alerts

 

Conclusion:

Chances are that MS Defender is good enough for the vast majority of users, unless you have specific reason to distrust it. The comparative tests that I read about virus scanners - admittedly, none of them was very recent, and things change - put MS Defender in the top tier of malware protection because of the reasons listed above. Back then, it also had one of the best detection rates, but I would consider that less of a long-lasting argument. Points a. and b. above, however, are "eternally true"; point d. seems to be no point of contention, and if c. was untrue, I think there would be no shortage of opinion from MS haters to point out how bad it was. I'm sure that there will be some that offer this opinion if you search the interwebs thoroughly enough. But it doesn't seem to be a widely held belief. A plausible explanation might be that it simply does what it's supposed to do and its users do not spend much thought about it simply because it is so unintrusive.

+100 on Microsoft Defender being "good enough" for most people.  I use it on my few remaining Windows boxes, and it works pretty well.  Never run two AV software systems, it will cause problems.  Also McAfee can act as a virus itself.

[Ssnake]

Getting rid of an anti-virus system with built-in nagging functions can certainly be a challenge, given that this is the first thing a modern virus would try (disabling the anti-virus software on the target system); the AV coders certainly know how to protect themselves against removal. Which can certainly create the impression of being a virus, but other than the nagging, they aren't malicious, or self-replicating.

[NickM]

So do not deactivate the McAfee and the activate the Windows in house protection software 

I'm only asking because the "do you want to upgrade" GUI refused to go away in spite of my best efforts.

Edited February 26, 2024 by NickM

[Ssnake]

Yes, you'll need to uninstall McAfee. This may be more complicated than with regular software. I have no direct experience with it; if in doubt, ask a local computer dealer to do it for you.

[NickM]

On 2/25/2024 at 3:28 PM, Murph said:

+100 on Microsoft Defender being "good enough" for most people.  I use it on my few remaining Windows boxes, and it works pretty well.  Never run two AV software systems, it will cause problems.  Also McAfee can act as a virus itself.

Well... I  DO like skimming "corn" websites, IF that makes a difference 

[Murph]

LOL Windows defender should work just fine.

[Ivanhoe]

On 2/25/2024 at 5:28 PM, Murph said:

+100 on Microsoft Defender being "good enough" for most people.  I use it on my few remaining Windows boxes, and it works pretty well.  Never run two AV software systems, it will cause problems.  Also McAfee can act as a virus itself.

To be clear, its generally a bad idea to have two AV applications loading at bootup. I have yet to have a problem using either Bitdefender or Windows Defender as my load-on-boot AV and then doing manual scans with Malwarebytes (keeping in mind that when I launch MWB via the Start menu, it stays resident until I kill it from the Notification Area).

Aside from WD, the least intrusive AV I've used in the last 5 years or so is the free version of Bitdefender Home. I sprung for the paid version, which has more notifications and nags than the free version. I used to be a fan of Avast, but after the Avast/AVG merger they've got bloated.

For a non-techie, I agree with Ssnake; uninstall McAfee and let Windows reactivate WD.

[Murph]

Agreed, I keep Malware Bytes available, but not active at boot either.  I 100% agree on Avast which I also used for years.  

[JWB]

McAfee just popped up and I can't make it go away. Every time I close it Edge opens with a scare ware message.

[Ivanhoe]

Never run McAfee or Norton as a home user, they are like herpes. Costs outweigh the benefits.

There is the program, then there are Registry keys which are evaluated at boot time, then there are updater processes. You need to kill all three.

---

Even when you uninstall the AV while logged into an Administrator account, there are still processes running that will interfere.

I'd download and run Revo Installer Free and use it to uninstall McAfee;

https://www.revouninstaller.com/products/revo-uninstaller-free/

Then IMMEDIATELY launch Task Manager, go to the Processes tab, and delete any remaining processes with "McAfee" in the name. Then go to the Startup tab and make sure there aren't any sketchy programs that are enabled at boot time.

Then reboot.

 

[JWB]

Actually it is not McAfee it is zeus.2020.

[JWB]

Okay I deleted every thing for the last 24 hours in cache and so far so good. No more pop-up but will do a Malware Bites scan shortly.