Bought a new Windows 11 laptop to replace the ancient Windows 8.0 laptop I’ve been using for many years. New one came with a year’s subscription to McAfee Total Protection which appears to take over control of the PC’s firewall along with a bunch of other security type stuff (browser, trackers, etc). Is it worth keeping or should I just depend on the Windows built-in Defender firewall? If I get rid of McAfee, I’d probably add a subscription to Malwarebytes to the new laptop since that seems to be keeping another old desktop fairly well protected from intrusion for the last decade. Thanks for any advice.

I personally only use the built in protections that Windows has. The McAfee software is notoriously a resource hog and takes away from an enjoyable computer experience.

Built in is decent MWBytes is better, McAfee is too bloated, IMO.
Built in is OK if you are relatively competent in not clicking on everything under the sun and use common sense.
However, there are plenty of tricky bastards out there so more is always better.

As implied by smschulz, your personal habits are far more impactful on "security" than any add-on software can possibly be. Perhaps the most important thing is to pay attention, the most expensive add-on of all.

The risk of "intrusion" (a protocol-based over-the-network privilege escalation) is usually overstated, most system compromises are facilitated by ill-advised user actions. Don't download and run software that you are unsure of, don't visit sketchy websites, don't let your teenager go hands-on on the machine you want to protect, etc.

McAfee is bloatware that is mediocre in the security space.

I would remove it and use the built-in MS stuff.

If you make a mistake and do something you think may have infected your computer, I would use Malware Bytes and Super Anti Spyware to scan your computer.

It is not a bad idea to scan it periodically anyway to find something that might have slipped through.

I have been in the IT Business for almost 40 years. Malwarebytes has been my standard recommendation to customers for the last 10 at least. Not bloated, efficient, reasonably priced. effective. I also allow Microsoft Defender (included in supported Windows OS) to periodically run a scan in background as a second set of eyes watching out for the bad guys. Nothing is perfect, but this config has worked well.

The best security device you have is just inside your cranium. "Ifin" it don't look right or smell right, don't do it! Don't click it! If it was legit and harmless but you chose to ignore/delete it, they will come calling again if you don't respond the first time. Better to "Stay safe".

I'm in the "you are the security" camp. Windows built in security is sufficient.

Dump mcaffee and norton immediately on any new pc.
Windows built in is my mainstay and once a week i will run free malware bytes and adwcleaner.

Another vote for Windows Defender. Uninstall MacAfee and windows Defender should automatically takeover.

Zero problems with Windows Defender for well over 10 years.

Not mentioned but regular redundant backups give me peace of mind. If ever my computer should go tits up or locked up, I can just get a new laptop and transfer my data from several locations. The most I'll be is a week missing.

For protection, I use Acronis as it has built-in virus and ransomware protection plus it does my backups. But I also copy files in addition to the backups.

quote:

Originally posted by Skull Leader:
I personally only use the built in protections that Windows has. The McAfee software is notoriously a resource hog and takes away from an enjoyable computer experience.

I am not a Windows guru, but that is my approach. McAfee (and Norton) is a giant resource hog. People who know more than me have blessed my choice and say the MS protection is good-to-go.

One more thing ~ I have cleaned and repaired many, many malware infestations over the years but they were all mostly more of an annoyance than a true threat.
Now days the only thing that scares the shit out of me is ransomware .
There is no coming back from that - it is terminal.
I have had a few companies get hit but luckily, I had good backups in place and while still expensive to rectify, they were all able to get back to normal.
So don't forget about a good backup plan.

Appreciate all the suggestions. I’ve uninstalled all the McAfee stuff (two separate apps) and Defender did take over. Have been backing up to two different NAS systems for years, so will be adding the new laptop to that process in lieu of the old laptop it replaced.

The previous posters saying MS built-in anti malware is good enough seems to be working for me. But I also use a pay for vpn, the vpn companies are pretty good filtering out and blocking lots of crap that you wouldn't otherwise notice until it was too late. I highly recommend that. Not too expensive and you're generally given x number of machines to install it on. Also HIGHLY recommend you avoid clicking on stupid stuff and racy shit, that's where you get screwed. And clean up your machine and delete or disable software apps and services you don't need or use. Remember your computer on the internet is basically part of the finely tuned "surveillance economy", and you're on the plate.