Forums Forums Enthusiast Forums A - Z Gadgets & Tech Macaffe up for renewal...Time for a change?

And we're back to the old "free versus paid" debate again.
I've used free antivirus programs for years now and not had a single problem, not a single virus has ever infected any of my computers.

I also use this.

By the way McAfee always used to be a pig to uninstall !

By the way McAfee always used to be a pig to uninstall!!

If your going for free ones then I would still recommend AVG if it works on your machine, if not, uninstall and shove in Avira.

A company in the business of selling anti-virus is not intentionally going to risk its reputation with a naff free product.

Download the McAfee un-installer/cleanup program as detailed
HERE

If these anti- virus are free, whats in it for them.

I use Microsoft's Security Essentials as AVG free was slowing down the PC too much. All-in-all it's not a bad product.

(Never had a virus though, so cannot compare on that front.)


Don't know about the others but AVG used to irregularly pop-up adverts for the paid for version.

In the 12 months since you've had mcafee have you had any virus / security issues? Has it done its job? If it has done exactly what it says on the tin then how is any other programme any better??

Stick with what works for you. If the renewal is too expensive then by all means change...but if there is no difference in price....

Generally people offer things for free for a few reasons.

1. Free for personal use, they hope that if enough people use their products for free enterprises will purchase their software for commercial use
2. Donations, on average people will donate upto 70% of the goods value anyway, kind of a sales ploy.
3. Cross selling, companies offer really usefull tools for free hoping you may purchase some of their other products
4. Opensource, Software built by hundreds/thousands of people for free for free use (eg anti microsoft peeps.)
5. Nice people, like doing things for nothing.

Generally, as a business I would not rely on free applications due to complicated licence agreements and aftersales support etc.

i work for the nhs and our computers have Kapersky, seems to be doing the biz

I use McAffee/EPO on about 10,500 computers in work, but it suffers from bloat and does need about 512mb to run properly.

Depends a great deal on the version of Windows you have. Most important thing is to keep Windows & sun java updated as this will help prevent viruses spreading in first place.

I quite like MS security essentials on Win 7 myself.

If your comp does get a virus I found Bart's boot disk to be VERY useful. Viruses are very clever these days and will load as drivers on start up to stop Anti virus progs loading. Bart's boot disk will start your comp to a basic copy of Windows (PE) where you can run a full scan from a downloaded free super DAT (anti virus definition file).


See these tutorials:

https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB67088
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Don't give McAffee your money. They've just bricked hundreds of thousands of PCs with a bad definitions update.

Microsoft Security Essentials is free, no-frills, no-fuss and is very good. I also run Spybot Search and Destroy occasionally.

Trend Micro does a free on-line scan called Housecall which is good to run occasionally.

I went off AVG when it went to version 9. A resource hog and clunky to use. Tried Avast! but couldn't get along with it.

Used Avira for years, safe, quick, doesn't eat into your memory and has kept my PC virus free.
Best site to download from or search for others is http://www.majorgeeks.com
And to keep your PC at optimum performance try Advanced System Care, it has spyware removal, junk files removal, registry repair and a host of other goodies that keeps your pc running at top speed. It is quick and easy to use. Google 'Obit' and the link will come up

Thanks for all the replies peeps. I was surprised by a few of the suggetions!

We're runnig Vista at home. I've gone off Macaffee as the definition download seems to hog the system for the first 30 minutes or so on each power up. Also some of the automated scans....don't . I' have to kick them off manually when the computer says they haven't been done for a while

I've asked this question of two other large forums I use..... I was surprised to see MSE get such a high approval!

It's all subjective I know but the opinion across the sites was:

1. Microsoft Security essentials x 13
2. Avast x10
3. Kaspersky x10
4. AVG x7
5. Eset NOD32 x6
6. Avira x4
7. Bitdefenderx2
8. Macaffeeeee
9. Bullguard
10. norton 360
11. A fire Axe....to chop the wire

I am always cautious when it comes to Microsoft and security, they want to maintain Windows at maximum flexibility and marketability. Some of their policies on security are highly dangerous to end users, specifically some Windows default setting (ports open etc) and even Windows Firewall lets a lot of traffic go through that is open to abuse.

Whilst I realise most of my thoughts are concerning Firewall type security, I would not be surprised if their virus/spyware/adware policies are equally lenient.