Why You Should Remove McAfee from Your New Laptop Immediately

As an IT technician with over 14 years of experience, I’ve seen countless newly purchased laptops brought in by frustrated customers complaining that their device is either “not working” or is “slow.” More often than not, the culprit behind these issues is a third-party antivirus program—most frequently McAfee or Avast. In my professional opinion, McAfee is particularly notorious for being one of the worst offenders in the antivirus market.

The Problem with McAfee

If you’ve recently bought a laptop, you’ve likely noticed that McAfee is pre-installed by default. While it might seem convenient, I strongly advise against keeping it. Simply put, if you have McAfee installed, remove it immediately. This Software is designed to integrate deeply with your system, leading to substantial slowdowns and performance issues. Its inclusion is often a result of paid promotions between McAfee and popular manufacturers like Lenovo, Dell, Asus, and HP, resulting in users being subjected to this subpar Software without their informed consent.

Windows Defender, which you already have on your device, offers adequate protection for typical users. It may lack the flashy branding of paid third-party options, but it performs remarkably well against most security threats.

Why Do People End Up with McAfee?

You might think that having a choice in your Software installations is a fair approach. Unfortunately, McAfee’s strategy involves substantial financial incentives to manufacturers, ensuring that it comes pre-loaded on many laptops—even if the hardware struggles to run it efficiently. Avast employs similar tactics, though at least their software allows for a more straightforward uninstall process, despite leaving remnants behind.

A Frustrating Removal Process

As an IT professional, I can attest to the headaches involved in removing McAfee. The uninstallation process is anything but user-friendly. If you attempt to remove it, you may encounter obstacles that require specialized tools or methods—like using command prompt commands or advanced uninstallers such as IObit. However, even these tools fall short when it comes to McAfee, which has built-in mechanisms that complicate uninstallation attempts.

The reality is that users often find themselves locked out of the uninstallation process entirely or forced to download an additional uninstaller from McAfee’s website. Ironically, this uninstaller requires you to select which products to remove—but it often displays a blank list, leaving you to navigate a frustrating loop until you serendipitously manage to progress.