Hello!! I have a windows laptop and it came with mcafee protection, and i kept purchasing a one year subscription for about 3 years. I havent renewed it this year because i havent had the money for it and ever since i stopped paying for it i swear my laptop has been running slow and lagging and then mcafee pops up and says how im losing protection or i have viruses and its making me mad. What antivirus should i use instead of mcafee.
EDIT: hello again!! thank you all so much for all the help and suggestions, it means alot! i learned how to switch to windows defender and its running a lot smoother now. i was not aware that my laptop came with it but now everything is all good!! you are all such wonderful people & i hope you all have a blessed week <3
Literally anything. Malwarebytes free. Bitdefender. Avast basic antivirus Windows defender is better also although some stuff gets through it so better to have one of the others as well
Yup Windows Defender is great and comes with Windows. You can also check Windows update occasionally → (Just search “Windows Update” from start menu) → there will occasionally be listings for “Security Intelligence Update for Microsoft Defender Antivirus” if that shows up in Windows update you just pick to “download and install” / make sure it gets listed as “completed” in windows update = updated virus definitions for Windows Defender and there’s no subscription $$ required.
As a reminder → any files you actually care about be sure to keep an extra additional copy on external drives as well as online “cloud” account(s) of your choice.
And then in general don’t go to sketchy websites & randomly clicking on links to unsafe pages like lol.
BUT anyway if you follow best practices for backing up your personal files and making your own Windows install USB drive, as well as familiarizing yourself with the Windows install process-> then if you did somehow end up getting some type of malware on your computer then you’d be able to just reformat option + reinstall windows on your laptop from your usb you made earlier → transfer your files from your external drive back to your fresh windows install on your laptop + from cloud account → re-download and install any programs. “light work no reaction”
Being prepaired in this way will minimize any potential downtime.
As long as you’re not going to silly sites clicking on silly stuff then windows defender should be fine. It’s been good to me for years now. Uninstall McAfee and save yourself some cash and maybe some performance too.
I’ve been using BitDefender for a bit and it’s very good. It does fasts scans so you don’t have to wait hours on end and doesn’t even use up too much power. It comes with a 30 day free trial which is awesome too
FREE built in Windows Defender + FREE OpenDNS account using their DNS servers in your network configuration(s) + FREE AD-Blocker in your browser(s) like UBlock Origin = Great FREE protection that is light on resources
Windows Defender is already best . Also if u are experiencing slow , lagging and perfomance issue . I suggest a software name - Glary utilities and its all free and best to make your pc better , fast and it also has many free features. i used it in my old window 7 laptop and also using it in my new laptop windows 11 . I suggest u to surely download it for Performance , u will surely like it.
Personally like Eset Nod, Kaspersky is good but made by Russians and now slowly getting banned around the world. Malwarebytes is good for running it once and then deleting. Rest from my experience are rather not worth it as Windows defender is decent enough.