Removing antivirus software « Giveaway of the Day Forums

Back to Giveaway of the Day

Giveaway of the Day Forums » General discussion

Removing antivirus software

(13 posts) (6 voices)

Started 7 years ago by Terri218
Latest reply from mikiem2

Terri218
Member

The software that came with my computer expires next week. I want to remove it and go with another kind. What is the best way to do that? Do I need to remove the old one first or install the new one first (assuming it lets me do that)? If I have to do it in Safe Mode how do I do that? I think I still have traces of Macafee which came with the computer on there.

Is the free version of Avast still a good choice or is there a better free antivirus?

Yet again I appreciate all you computer experts helping out someone who's not.

Thanks.

Posted 7 years ago #
ChrisS
Administrator

If you want to change anti-virus you should uninstall the old program via Add/Remove programs, run the developer's "clean-up utility", reboot, and then install the new program. If you're using something other than McAfee now then you should also run the McAfee clean-up utility. You should, of course, download all needed files before uninstalling the old anti-virus.

This list is a bit old but the links are probably still good: Comprehensive List of 26 Uninstallers and Removal Tools for Internet Security and Antivirus Software.

I use the Avast! Free version and haven't seen any problems. It also doesn't have to be disabled for GOTD installs (so far anyway). Avast! and MSE are generally tied for the lead in lists of market share. They're probably not the most aggressive but for the average user they are sufficient. If you routinely download from high-risk sites then a paid version might be better.

Antivirus by Product Market Share (2015)

Microsoft Security Essentials 17.8%
Avast! Free Antivirus 17.6%
Avira Free Antivirus 5.9%
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 5.0%
McAfee Virus Scan 3.6%
Symantec Endpoint Protection 3.6%
Norton 360 2.4%
Kaspersky Internet Security 2.2%
McAfee Virus Scan Enterprise 2.2%
Spybot - Search & Destroy 2.1%
Comodo Antivirus 1.9%
Other 35.8%

Posted 7 years ago #
ChrisS
Administrator

One other thing...

Do a full system scan, preferably including all external drives, before you uninstall the current anti-virus. Run another full system scan once you've installed and updated the new anti-virus.

One anti-virus program might flag a file that another won't. It's less stressful to get all of those "false positives" out of the way immediately.

Posted 7 years ago #
jgf
Member

When ranked by detection and removal, Avira and Panda are always at or near the top. Both have free versions and neither have any issues with this site (the main difference between free and pay versions is the latter have more options, such as email scanning, but the base system scans are identical).

If you are ever suspicious of a particular file, upload it to virustotal.com. They will scan it with about three dozen different AV programs and tabulate the results; rarely takes more than a couple of minutes.

FWIW, after using Avira for years (and being quite satisfied with it) I've been trying Panda the past year; once a week I shut it down and let Malwarebytes do a system scan; once a month I do an ESET Online scan (overnight, takes 8-9 hours to scan two 500gig internal drives and a 1tB external).

Posted 7 years ago #
Philipgreenwood
Member

Over at the Orange Shareware Sale site is good giveaway. System Mechanic version 16. It has an anti malware component. .Anti virus, to it. I don't know about that but I enjoyed all the other stuff the Mechanic did for my computer. You can turn off what yu don't like- for example I disabled the firewall stuff. This is not the 15.5 V but Version 16. I am happy and maybe GOTD might get it next week. Great is they do. If not then now is Failmid. Normally worth around 60.oo but can get it at times 50% off.

Posted 7 years ago #
mikiem2
Moderator

FWIW you can *probably* find McAfee LifeSafe on ebay cheap -- for new McAfee customers it runs $4 or $5, but they'll register an email that they'll send you along with the acct. password -- for a no strings physical copy of last year's license probably around $10 [just use the license key with the current version download]. LiveSafe allows 1 user to install their top security suite on an unlimited number of devices [including Android]. Other brands are often free in the US after rebate if you don't mind the rebate hassles -- if you do, lots of people buy multiple copies, claim the rebates, & sell the license on ebay. I can't say it'll work in the future for anyone, but I installed a Bitdefender giveaway from SOS -- when it got close to expiring they sent me a coupon to buy a 3 PC license for $15.

Note: Symantec &/or Norton [which aren't supposed to be so bad anymore] just did some major updating as Google found 20+ vulnerabilities, so if you get or have one of their security products please make sure it's fully updated -- not just the AV patterns.

symantec[.]com/security_response/securityupdates/detail.jsp?fid=security_advisory&pvid=security_advisory&year=&suid=20160628_00&SID=skim72705X1521812Xa74665cd0fc803be1ac5efd9df3c9596&API1=100&API2=7649589&cjid=7649589

Posted 7 years ago #
jgf
Member

McAfee and Norton, while decent security suites, are also renowned for putting their tendrils so deeply into the system that they often interfere with normal operation of some software; and it is often said of them, partially in jest, that the only way to completely remove them is to reinstall the OS.

Posted 7 years ago #
Dragonlair
Member

When I removed McAfee that was pre-installed on my laptop, Revo found over 1800 registry keys! Now that's just a little bit intrusive!

Posted 7 years ago #
mikiem2
Moderator

When I removed McAfee that was pre-installed on my laptop, Revo found over 1800 registry keys! Now that's just a little bit intrusive!

:) :) :)

I used to run McAfee for several years because it was very cheap -- before they came out with their uninstall tool I once found a bug where dozens & dozens of registry keys were protected, so the version update would fail [it couldn't write to those keys]. Before I knew about InstallWatch Pro, & before AFAIK Regshot, I monitored an install that worked in another copy of Windows using Sysinternals Process Monitor, then compared those several thousands of log entries with what I got when it wouldn't work. After a day or two of that, I'd found the keys were not getting updated, & spend another day or two changing permissions manually in Regedit.

Now their tool makes it easy -- run uninstall, then run the tool.

I stopped running McAfee shortly after Intel bought them, since *mysteriously* it started not working on our AMD PCs. I started running a copy of McAfee again a couple of years ago when it came with a rebate deal where I paid $25 for a SSD, but you had to actually install McAfee to get the rebate. I stuck it in a VM. Then I started having problems with Bitdefender with XP & then Vista -- too much going on before Windows fired up, so Windows wouldn't -- & out of several brands I tried, McAfee worked.

Then Bitdefender forced me to upgrade versions in win7, & their newer versions broke VirtualBox -- it ties up the Intel hardware virtualization so V/Box can't use it, though it works fine in 10. So I'm running McAfee in 7 too.

Anyway, mentioned McAfee because of the price -- I bought a couple of copies for $3 & $4 for our sons, & I'd rather pay a few dollars than wait for a $50 or $60 rebate. Otherwise the best deals I've seen most often are on the K brand, but didn't want to type the name because I figure by now Chris has an allergic reaction whenever he sees it. ;)

Posted 7 years ago #
Dragonlair
Member

Years ago, Comcast had a deal that if you used their internet, you could have McAfee for free. I took it -- for awhile. I was running Windows ME at the time. All of a sudden, I couldn't do anything. I couldn't get on the internet, I couldn't open any software, everything was grinding to a halt. I was working with Microsoft on the issue and they were wanting me to do a destructive restore (which I did not want to do).

I swapped out my anti-virus with AVG (I think that's what I switched to at the time) and all my problems went away.

Since that time, I will not have McAfee. They're too intrusive (as my experience with my laptop showed).

I used to like Norton before they sold out to Symantec. The old Norton Utilities that Peter Norton set up under DOS was great and even into Windows was good. They got TOO aggressive and intrusive under Symantec in my opinion. When they dropped support of ME a year before Microsoft did was when I decided to stay away (McAfee was the replacement at that time).

Posted 7 years ago #
Terri218
Member

I installed Avast and uninstalled Webroot successfully. I'm pretty sure I still have traces of Macafee which came on the computer. I can't remember how to boot up in safe mode to remove it.

Posted 7 years ago #
ChrisS
Administrator

If you're running Windows 7/8.1 then open a run box (Windows Key and r), type msconfig and press enter, click the boot tab, check the "safe mode" box and reboot the PC. Repeat the process but click "normal startup" on the general tab when you're done to boot normally.

If you're running Windows 10 then try this article: How to enter Windows 10's Safe Mode

Posted 7 years ago #
mikiem2
Moderator

The old Norton Utilities that Peter Norton set up under DOS was great and even into Windows was good.

I used to love Norton Utilities -- also a suite of apps called Nuts & Bolts -- and you're right about it going to pot with Symantec IMHO.

I'm pretty sure I still have traces of Macafee

If you didn't use their removal tool, probably. If it helps, the McAfee removal tool is here: us[.]mcafee[.]com/apps/supporttools/mcpr/mcpr.asp

To my knowledge it doesn't require Safe Mode.

Chris might find something just generally useful on their tools download page: mcafee[.]com/us/downloads/free-tools/index.aspx

If you're running Windows 10 then try this article: How to enter Windows 10's Safe Mode

The shift-click method they talk about is the easiest in a default 10 install, but it's no replacement for the ease of hitting F8 while earlier versions like 7 are starting -- if you've got a serious enough problem you're not going to make it to the log-in screen to shift-click restart.

You can use EasyBCD to add a fake Windows [or duplicate] option to the boot menu -- that will cause the boot menu to appear, & from there you can get to the other menus that will [if eventually] lead you to the Safe Mode selection... you go through a few menus until you get to a screen with a numbered list of options, select restart, then when the device restarts you press the number on the keyboard for the option you want. [with 7, F8 & then selecting Safe Mode was/is much easier]

If you're into the shortest possible time for Windows to start, you can remove the added boot menu item afterwards, or set the delay to 0. If the couple of seconds it takes to select Windows on that boot menu doesn't bother you, you can leave it. EasyBCD is a portable app that I've often run from a bootable USB stick/CD/DVD -- just make sure to Import the BCD stuff from the device, as by default it will use whatever's on the bootable USB stick [or CD/DVD].
neosmart[.]net/wiki/easybcd/

Posted 7 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.