Why is McAfee sucking?

I'm fixing up my little sister's old Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop, running a celeron processor, using maybe 256 mb ram, pretty old, over 5 years for sure. She was complaining how god-awful slow it was running, so I reformatted it, reinstalled windows XP and the drivers, got the wireless card she bought working, her copy of microsoft office, got the windows updates and put all her backed-up files back on. It ran sweet as sugar, started within 30 seconds, where before it wouldn't settle down untill about 7 minutes had passed!

Then... I put on the McAfee software my mom swears by. I've long suspected that every computer my family has in this house has been slowed down by this software "suite", when I troubleshoot the computers in this house, over half the background operations are McAfee's little programs doing nothing but running the processor at 50% or higher. So, with my sister's, this time I didn't install the whole damned suite, I just put on the virus scan and the firewall, and security center (which it seems to need...), and that's IT. Now, this computer is slow as cold molasses again!

Since my mom's got a few subscriptions to McAfee, is there any good way I can cut down McAfee's bullshit so that this computer runs OK again? If not, anyone got any recommendations for a virus scanner and firewall combo that kicks ass without slowing the computer down?

Appreciate it everyone

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even now the processor is high and the hard drive is spinning like a top...

 

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McAfee is a pile, I think the only way to cut down on its bullshit is to get rid of it completely.

I'd use AVG Free for the anti virus, firewall isn't necessary if you're connecting to the internet through a router with a firewall built in (which most have). I haven't used one in years so I'm not up to date on which one is best.

 

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that looks kinda cool, but I'm trying to find a good firewall too. got a firewall that's not eating processing power?

 

It just sucks I'm afraid.

I'd recommend Kaspersky for virus scanning at least. I think they do a firewall too, but haven't tried it out.

I still use sygate for the firewall, even though they've discontinued it. I do everything manually so it should be ok, I think... hope.

 

McAfee is good, err nevermind. I tried it for awhile and eventually gave up, go get yourself something worthwhile and better.

 

McAfee is a resource hog, period.

Go for Kaspersky (as mentioned before) or Nod32, both low on system resources (better as yours is a low end machine) and has great protection!

 

I'm an AVG man myself........well....actually, I go totally 'raw dog' (I don't use any virus protection at all, or spyware removers). I'm relatively savvy about knowing what's safe to run, or safe to open.

Whenever I need to do a clean-install job on a client's infected machine, I always install AVG. From what I've seen, it doesn't take a big bite out of performance

 

We get alot of inspiron 1100's at work. I can understand how long it takes to load. I'll agree with d.o. and suggest AVG. Some virus checker set themselves up to "scan on startup"....turning your computer into a turtle on Zanex for the first 5 or so minutes after startup.

 

Both McAfee and Symantec for SOHO have become bloatware unfortunately. I have seen both cause otherwise decent machines to slow to a crawl. If you continue to use McAfee, there are options to tune the background scanning and startup scanning. Eg, you don't need to scan the boot sector, registry and system directory on EVERY bootup, simply schedule a scan that suits you. The interface has become unnecessarily bulky as well, something we can't do anything about.

I also suggest alternatives such as Kaspersky or NOD32.

 

i don't own any antivirus software and i don't use any antivirus software.

mcafee, like realplayer, cannot be gotten rid of after you install it.
with both programs you must edit the registry to prevent both from running their installed spyware, yes spyware.

i will NEVER use mcafee, realplayer or mediaplayer for that reason.

and another thing, stay away from p2p websites such as "free" movie and tv sites.
DO NOT, under any circumstances install codecs from sites that say you need codecs to play their stuff. that is nothing but a ruse to get you to install codecs that contain spyware and trojans onto your machine.

 

My laptop came installed with mcafee, it worked fine for a while and then got
slower and slower connecting to Internet, my daughter is an expert programmer and she tried every thing to solve the problem, in the end she dumped mcafee and installed a free one.

 

Leo is right. I just finished removing "virus protect pro"..a fake spyware program off a customer's computer. He got it dl'ing a fake codec.

 

Avast is better and AVG, and just as free. For a good firewall, use a router.

 

i forgot the firewall.
you absolutely need one.
if you have winXP then ditch the built-in firewall and go with a third party one.
a router is good, if you don't have the funds for one there are free ones out there. personally i use zone alarm.

another thing you can do is download a startup manager to keep an eye on what is starting when windows starts. a good one will allow you to disable a process before deleting it from the list. you would be amazed at all the garbage some programs put in your startup list. i currently have 7 processes starting when windows starts and i can reduce that another 2 because i don't need a graphics utility in the task bar.

 

Interesting thing: I tested ZoneAlarm Security Suite, and the software told me that MSN Messenger is attempting to monitor keystrokes...this is the first time I ever got a warning like that...I'm going to reformat the laptop later and try it again, but is the warning founded? Does anyone know?

Bear in mind that this laptop I just got rid of a couple viruses for the client...it may be that said virus escaped destruction and is using Messenger to do the keystroke monitoring...has anyone seen any virus/spyware do that?

PS Zone Alarm Suite seems to be quite light on system resources...that could be a viable alternative, but IMO the AV portion is a bit too new. It needs some more "field experience".

 

Yeah Messenger can cause that warning, it does monitor keystrokes and so some anti-virus programs mistake it for a keylogger.

 

Seriously...well THAT sucks, and that has hefty ethical issues for those outside the legal jurisdiction of the US government...who I imagine justify such an action for security purposes.

Well, ZoneAlarm says it's blocking that function so that's good

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router is like 40 bucks man! surely people can swing it considering that it works with anything but dialup.

and as for startup, why not just use msconfig?

 

True.

I use both - a router with firewall and a software firewall.

I like the ease of use with the software. I can block programs attempting to communicate with a couple of clicks. I (should, hopefully, fingers crossed) have complete control over everything that comes in and out. Also, you get nice graphs and stuff with a software firewall

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