Bitcoin and Antiviruses

[G3nijalac]

Hello,

Recently I've bought a new Laptop (windows11professional) that came pre-installed
with McAfee antivirus.

I spent some time reading reviews online and decided I want to use Windows Defender instead.

https://allthings.how/how-to-disable-or-uninstall-mcafee-on-windows-11/#:~:text=Now%20it%20is%20definitely%20better,imperative%20to%20uninstall%20McAfee%20antivirus.

https://nerdschalk.com/how-to-uninstall-mcafee-on-windows-11-5-ways/

To uninstall it I will use info from these two guides.
However I still have some questions they haven't clearly or completely addressed.

1. Should I turn off all McAfee services prior to uninstalling?

2. Should I set Windows Defender as the default AV before doing #1?

3. Should I be doing #1 or #2 or both online or offline?

4. Will Windows Defender and Firewall automatically take over the tasks or do I need to do something?

Those are the main ones for now.

And also I would like to know if there is any Win11Pro Antivirus you would recommend
that most importantly can be purchased by Crypto or even Skrill/Neteller and preferably has a one-time lifetime payment option.

I find that using credit cards online is super susceptible to fraud and am baffled as to why
any of these major companies don't have more payment options.
I guess because they cant push auto-renewal on those.

Thank You in advance for all your future help.

[Ucy]

I think I will turn on Windows defender first then turn-off/Uninstal McAfee antivirus & its services, assuming having both Windows defender & McAfee anti-virus running at thesame time isn't going to cause any conflict. Otherwise I would turn-off/uninstal McAfee anti-virus service and turn on Windows defender, but not without making sure my laptop internet access is turned off & there are no possible way of letting data into the device. So, after making sure data doesn't get into my laptop via internet or other means , I will then turn-off/uninstal McAfee antivirus and turn on Window defender.

For anti-virus that offers Bitcoin/crypto payments, you probably should check this out: https://www.avira.com/en/press/avira-selects-bitpay-for-bitcoin-and-bitcoin-cash-payments-processing
 I'm not sure if it offers one time payment.

Be safe.

[BADecker]

It's been my experience that McAfee doesn't like to be uninstalled. They leave little bits of McAfee all over your system to antagonize you so that you reinstall it. I had to search the registry for "McAfee," to find all the instances of it that remained after I tried to uninstall it. And I had to be careful that I wasn't deleting some other program that simply had the word "McAfee" in it.

I suspect there are programs that will clean it out of your registry safely. Find one and download it. But check that it isn't a virus itself.

[G3nijalac]

It's been my experience that McAfee doesn't like to be uninstalled. They leave little bits of McAfee all over your system to antagonize you so that you reinstall it. I had to search the registry for "McAfee," to find all the instances of it that remained after I tried to uninstall it. And I had to be careful that I wasn't deleting some other program that simply had the word "McAfee" in it.

I suspect there are programs that will clean it out of your registry safely. Find one and download it. But check that it isn't a virus itself.

Do you think they create those after the trial ends?

Would it be a good idea to uninstall while the trial is still active?

Maybe that would avoid the creating of the registry files?

[mich]

At all time if my computer is on and running I have McAfee and Norton both running for protection.

Many times I can be accidentally clicking links that may be harmful for my computer so its safer for me to use these programs at all times.

[DeathAngel]

I uninstalled Mcafee on my laptop & turned Defender on, I’ve never had a problem. I do all recommended updates although I don’t use this particular laptop for anything other than bitcoin (reputable exchanges & Bitcoin Core) so my risk for downloading something nasty is very low.

[nullius]

When I saw the topic title, I expected something like this:

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/17779

It's been my experience that McAfee doesn't like to be uninstalled. They leave little bits of McAfee all over your system to antagonize you so that you reinstall it.

Definitional malware.

(windows11professional)

Definitional malware.

But check that it isn't a virus itself.