New laptop with preinstalled AntiVirus-should I remove it?

mibaup

New Member
Messages
81
Hello,

I just bought a Lenovo IdeaPad and saw it came with presinstalled "McAfee LiveSafe Internet Security".
Is it really an Anti Virus? because it mentions more things about data theft rather than being an Anti Virus.
Should I maybe remove it and install Avast, which I've been using since I remember having Windows?

By the way, I also downloaded Malwarebyte Anti-malware and it came with 1 month of full version trial that includes real-time protection. Is it going to interfere with the Antivirus real-time protection?

Thanks!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64-bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo
    CPU
    i5-4210m
    Memory
    4GB RAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon R5 m230 2GB + Intel HD Graphics 4600 (Switchable Graphics)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6"
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
Yes, it is an AV. You can safely remove it if you want. Most notebooks come with preinstalled software. Malwarebytes realtime componenet should be disabled if you are planning on using Avast AV.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    INTEL Core i7-2700K 3.5GHz
    Motherboard
    ASROCK Fatal1ty P67 Main Board
    Memory
    HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte GTX 980 Ti G1 Gaming
    Sound Card
    On-board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Philips Brilliance BDM4065UC
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160
    Hard Drives
    SSD: Samsung EVO 250 GB
    Internal HDD: WD Black 1TB
    External: 2x2TB MyBook drives
    1x4TB MyBook
    1x1TB Seagate Freeagent drive
    PSU
    Corsair GS 700W
    Case
    Silverstone Kublai KL04
    Cooling
    Artic Cooling Freezer Pro
    Keyboard
    Logitech G710+
    Mouse
    Razer Mamba Elite 2012
    Internet Speed
    10/0.75
    Browser
    FF 39.0.3, Microsoft Edge, Chrome 44
    Antivirus
    Avast 10.0
I have seen too many troubles with McAfee to recommend it and if you are satisfied and used to Avast, I'm all for it. If you are going to uninstall McAfee, make sure you use it's removal program: Download McAfee Consumer Product Removal Tool - MajorGeeks but look here first: How to uninstall or reinstall supported McAfee products using the Consumer Products Removal tool (MCPR)
Full version of Malwarebytes is not going to clash with AV but a free version which is not resident should be enough.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
I have seen too many troubles with McAfee to recommend it and if you are satisfied and used to Avast, I'm all for it. If you are going to uninstall McAfee, make sure you use it's removal program: Download McAfee Consumer Product Removal Tool - MajorGeeks but look here first: How to uninstall or reinstall supported McAfee products using the Consumer Products Removal tool (MCPR)
Full version of Malwarebytes is not going to clash with AV but a free version which is not resident should be enough.

I have seen a case where Avast and MBAM Pro have clashed, so I do not recommend using both softwares at the same time. (It's OK if MBAM s RTealtime component is turned off, but otherwise, no.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    INTEL Core i7-2700K 3.5GHz
    Motherboard
    ASROCK Fatal1ty P67 Main Board
    Memory
    HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte GTX 980 Ti G1 Gaming
    Sound Card
    On-board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Philips Brilliance BDM4065UC
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160
    Hard Drives
    SSD: Samsung EVO 250 GB
    Internal HDD: WD Black 1TB
    External: 2x2TB MyBook drives
    1x4TB MyBook
    1x1TB Seagate Freeagent drive
    PSU
    Corsair GS 700W
    Case
    Silverstone Kublai KL04
    Cooling
    Artic Cooling Freezer Pro
    Keyboard
    Logitech G710+
    Mouse
    Razer Mamba Elite 2012
    Internet Speed
    10/0.75
    Browser
    FF 39.0.3, Microsoft Edge, Chrome 44
    Antivirus
    Avast 10.0
I would agree with CountMike to dump anything McAfee related ASAP. Even the creator, John McAfee, was doing a little happy dance when Intel announced they were going to dump the McAfee brand name. Never before have I seen such an inefficient AV program where just it's normal routine duties sapped the system's total performance by about 1/3. There's some unavoidable overhead with any AV program, but most keep it under the 10% mark.

I personally tend to favor Avast, since a few years back they went to the pain and expense of rewriting their scanning engine to be multi-core aware. I respect a company that is willing to make the tough decisions like that, where probably almost every other AV maker is still using the same basic scanning engine they developed back in the Windows 95 days when they were forced to make a 32-bit version. For the likes of McAfee and Norton, they probably did the minimum required to adapt their 16-bit engine and I'm sure they did the same thing again when Vista ushered in the era of 64-bit Windows for the masses. It's not cheap to write a virus scanning engine from scratch, so when a company does that instead of just try and use shoelace, bubblegum and copious amounts of foul language to keep the old one working a little longer, I sit up and take notice.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
McFubar should be classified as a virus. :p

There's a thread over on 7 Forums that has a list of AV's, you can weigh the pros/cons of each one.

Also, don't forget to add extra layers of protection, since one AV doesn't get everything 100%. Malwarebytes is a very good scanner to have. The free version will work fine.

What's the Best Anti-virus? - Windows 7 Help Forums
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7 32, Win 7 64 Pro, Win 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    It's a Dell, Dude.
    CPU
    Intel Caffinated Core Duo
    Motherboard
    Father is bored too.
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia something-or-another
    Monitor(s) Displays
    24" HD TV/Monitor/Alternative Dimensional Viewing Portal
    Screen Resolution
    Fuzzy after a couple drinks
    Hard Drives
    2 or 3, depending on if it's a night they're arguing about having a "split personality crisis" because I partitioned the drive.
    Case
    Don't get on my case....man
    Cooling
    Scotch on the rocks on the weekends..
    Keyboard
    Mad Catz Cyborg V7. Or maybe Cyborg Catz Are Mad At V7's??? I know it lights up...far out.
    Mouse
    currently being stalked by the cat...
    Internet Speed
    Never fast enough...
    Browser
    Defeated by Mario...wait...OH...BRowser...
    Antivirus
    Various
Thanks everyone !

I have seen too many troubles with McAfee to recommend it and if you are satisfied and used to Avast, I'm all for it. If you are going to uninstall McAfee, make sure you use it's removal program: Download McAfee Consumer Product Removal Tool - MajorGeeks but look here first: How to uninstall or reinstall supported McAfee products using the Consumer Products Removal tool (MCPR)
Full version of Malwarebytes is not going to clash with AV but a free version which is not resident should be enough.

Why did you gave link to the removal tool from majorgeeks, if you can download it from the official McAfee website on the 2nd link you provided? Is there a difference? (In the official website they say it updates periodically so I don't think it's a good idea to download it from a 3rd party website?)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64-bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo
    CPU
    i5-4210m
    Memory
    4GB RAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon R5 m230 2GB + Intel HD Graphics 4600 (Switchable Graphics)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6"
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
Thanks everyone !

I have seen too many troubles with McAfee to recommend it and if you are satisfied and used to Avast, I'm all for it. If you are going to uninstall McAfee, make sure you use it's removal program: Download McAfee Consumer Product Removal Tool - MajorGeeks but look here first: How to uninstall or reinstall supported McAfee products using the Consumer Products Removal tool (MCPR)
Full version of Malwarebytes is not going to clash with AV but a free version which is not resident should be enough.

Why did you gave link to the removal tool from majorgeeks, if you can download it from the official McAfee website on the 2nd link you provided? Is there a difference? (In the official website they say it updates periodically so I don't think it's a good idea to download it from a 3rd party website?)
Because I trust Majorgeeks more than McAfee or most any other place to download programs from.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Yep, good advice here.... Dump McAfee!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 10 Pro 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home built Intel i7-3770k-based system
    CPU
    Intel i7-3770k, Overclocked to 4.6GHz (46x100) with Corsair H110i GT cooler
    Motherboard
    ASRock Z77 OC Formula 2.30 BIOS
    Memory
    32GB DDR3 2133 Corsair Vengeance Pro
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce GTX 980ti SC ACS 6GB DDR5 by EVGA
    Sound Card
    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD, Corsair SP2500 speakers and subwoofer
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG 27EA33 [Monitor] (27.2"vis) HDMI
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB (system drive)
    WD 6TB Red NAS hard drives x 2 in Storage Spaces (redundancy)
    PSU
    Corsair 750ax fully modular power supply with sleeved cables
    Case
    Corsair Air 540 with 7 x 140mm fans on front, rear and top panels
    Cooling
    Corsair H110i GT liquid cooled CPU with 4 x 140" Corsair SP "push-pull" and 3 x 140mm fans
    Keyboard
    Thermaltake Poseidon Z illuminated keyboard
    Mouse
    Corsair M65 wired
    Internet Speed
    85MBps DSL
    Browser
    Chrome and Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, MalwareBytes Pro and CCleaner Pro
    Other Info
    Client of Windows Server 2012 R2 10 PC's, laptops and smartphones on the WLAN.

    1GBps Ethernet ports
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