Regarding Antivirus

1) Open the McAfee Control Center, and DISABLE any components you see running there.

2a) Via your Control Panel, locate the section to uninstall programs, and use this to UNinstall McAfee.  

2b) if the uninstall was successful, Windows 8 should detect this, and automatically turn-on Windows Defender [which is the default anti-VIRUS program on windows 8].

3) Reboot your system.   Confirm that Windows Defender is now running as your anti-virus.   If it is, you have a viable, FREE anti-virus program you can continue to use.   There are other FREE solutions, such as Avast, which you can consider (if you prefer).

4) There is a McAfee Consumer Product Removal (MCPR) tool.   But I don't know that it's Win8 compatible, nor whether it's necessary on Win8 [if Windows Defender is successfully running].   Perhaps others will comment here.

REMARK:   It is important to distinguish Windows Defender on Win 8 --- which is a full anti-VIRUS product --- from Windows Defender on Win 7/Vista/XP:  in these latter cases, it's "merely" an anti-spyware program.

You can download Mcafee by going to the Control Panel and to Uninstall Programs and find Mcafee there and uninstall it.

Once you do you can download a free antivirus, I suggest you do some research before your do like I did, because it's important to know that you're downloading a good program. I downloaded Unthreat Antivirus and I'm very happy with it, I haven't had a virus since I got it.

Thanks, RD. I almost downloaded it to test, but I noticed that it had been spammed to various forums. That is always a red flag when a vendor has to resort to spam.

I'd also like to thank RD for her investigative research offering us critical information about a product I'd never heard of.  :emotion-21:

Hi Red

Is there any free antivirus software you do recommend?

I've an i7 Inspiron 15R n5520 upgraded to Windows 8 and 8gb ram, yet McAfee can slow the computer to a crawl at times, and when I tried a scheduled scan it took 14 hours!

I used Avast on previous computers and am thinking of replacing McAfee with that, or just Windows Defender, in conjunction with Malwarebites. But if you or any others out there have any better ideas I'd like to hear them.

Thanks

Max

Hi Max,

I'm not Red, but as long as you have Windows 8, the built-in Defender (anti-virus) + realtime MBAM along with the Windows firewall sounds perfect.  If for some reason you are not happy with that you could go back to Avast!.

Hi Max.

I second BB's advice, but it sounds like you have McAfee installed so you need to uninstall it first. Remember to open McAfee and deactivate all its modules; AV, AS, FW, etc before trying to uninstall through Control Panel > Programs & Features > Uninstall. Afterward apply McAfee's own remove utility to make sure you do not have any remnants of it.

http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?lc=1033&id=TS101331

http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MCPR.exe

I am pretty sure that if McAfee is installed, you Have Windows Defenders deactivated so make sure WD is activated after you uninstall McAfee.

If you want to install Avast!, go ahead; However there is a small possibility you might find some problems with it. I would wait for March when the new program version, enhanced for W8, comes out.

You're most welcome, Max. Let us know if you have any other questions. :emotion-1:

Thanks, bugbatter and iroc, will follow your suggested strategy.

Max