Hello,
Brand new user.
a. The new PC came with McAfee anti virus.
Should I use it ?
Is it as good as AVG, e.g., which I used on my old W7 PC ? Use them both ?
b. And, how do I turn on the "Defender" anti virus which I understand is part of
the W10 package ?
Would it interfere with McAfee or AVG ? How good is it ?
c. How do I turn on the Firewall; I'm assuming there is one like in W7 ?
Much thanks,
Bob
McAfee, AVG and Defender are all anti-virus programs and you should only run one. In fact Defender will get turned off when another one is installed.
Right click the Start button and select Control Panel.
Then select Security and Maintenance and under Security it will show your the status of the Firewall, Virus and Spyware and which program is running what.
Control panel also has links to Defender and Firewall.
That McAfee is a trial version and at some point you will have to buy it.
Jim
a) You may use it, but since it came bundled with your new PC, it is likely a 30 day free trial and will require a paid subscription after that. As far as protection, here is a link that might help you.Hello,
Brand new user.
a. The new PC came with McAfee anti virus.
Should I use it ?
Is it as good as AVG, e.g., which I used on my old W7 PC ? Use them both ?
b. And, how do I turn on the "Defender" anti virus which I understand is part of
the W10 package ?
Would it interfere with McAfee or AVG ? How good is it ?
c. How do I turn on the Firewall; I'm assuming there is one like in W7 ?
Much thanks,
Bob
b) As was posted, Windows defender will be turned off automatically with the installation of a 3rd party anti-virus. To confirm this you can navigate in the start menu. Hit 'all apps' and scroll to Windows system, it's available there.
c) as a second option for the firewall, you can go to settings, choose 'network and internet' and you should see a link for firewall settings. It is automatically activated.
Enjoy the new PC
Some people find McAfee a bit buggy & somewhat draconian. It probably is a 30 day trial, either that or it comes with a 1 year service once it's activated. That depends on the manufacturer & the contract they have with the AV company. Nowadays 30 days is the norm.
I would caution you that, should you decide to remove McAfee, be sure to use the uninstaller provided by the AV company as this removes it cleanly (in most cases). Any leftover orphan files can cause havoc on a OS. You can find a list of uninstallers here.
ESET Knowledgebase
All good advice here already. I'm not a McAfee fan at all, and I would definitely tell you not to pay for it. There are plenty of quality free anti-virus programs that are better than McAfee. The advice to uninstall cleanly is great, because of there are leftover files, they could interfere with another AV software application.
If you decide to uninstall McAfee, you will need to Download and run the McAfee Consumer Product Removal (MCPR) tool at: to thoroughly get rid of it, as with all AV's they hook deeeeepin your system and simply uninstalling is not enough, there are also rootkits that need to be cleaned up(yes legit software also uses rootkits).
