Question about reinstalling Mcafee

RoachycaL

RoachycaL

RoachycaL

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I take PC repair jobs here and there for extra cash when I can mostly from advertising in my local area. I've done it loads of times before but I haven't touched a Mcafee product before!

Anyway I've been given a laptop which is running incredibly slowly. It's about 4 years old and it's running Windows Vista. I thought no brainer - I'll back up her favorites, documents, music etc. and reinstall the programs that she wants back on there.

Only problem is that she has Mcafee installed and she said she got it when she signed up with her bank (I think it was HSBC).

I made a full clone of the hard drive using Acronis as I usually do, in case I muck something up or lose anything but now I'm reading on the net that if I want to reinstall Mcafee - I should have connected the laptop to the internet and uninstalled it on the old installation first. Something to do with deactivating the license on their end?

What's the best option here guys? Do I restore the image using Acronis, uninstall Mcafee then reinstall Windows again or should I get her to contact her bank? She seemed confused when I mentioned that she should have an account with Mcafee, where she renews subscriptions etc.
 
Yeh to be honest I'm not a big fan of McAfee either but each to there own whatever works
for her.

I would probably be inclined to delete the install of it 1st but just take a look on the net
and see what you come up with see if you in fact do have to do this as I'm sure someone
has come up against this before.
 
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Show her this image if she kicks up a fuss..

It's crippling her machine.
 
Not answering your question, but ask if she has been paying for it as McAfee listed free for the first 12 months only, e.g. HSBC

If she has you could recommend a better product, or buy it cheaper elsewhere.
 
Ok thanks for the advice guys. The only issue I have - and I've had this issue myself is that I used to use MSE and it turned out to be no good. I recently reinstalled Eset Nod32 and it found a lot of stuff that MSE didn't.

Quite frankly that worries me especially if I'm putting it on a pc where the user doesn't know what she's doing.

Would it be safer if I stuck MSE and Malware Bytes on there too - but set Malware bytes so that it does a scheduled scan?

Any need for a software firewall either? I think it was the beefed up version of Mcafee.
 
Before re-installing, I would just remove McAfee to see if its the culprit. I've had numerous home pcs with it being the cause of a slow system, especially in the first 5-10 mins of it starting up.
 
Nod32 is what I put on people's machines if they manage to keep trashing them with MSE, at their expense of course.
 
You can just reinstall Windows. When you come to install McAfee, she can log into her account and it will say that it is still activated on another machine, but you have the option to deactivate it on there and then you can install it on the new one.

I've done this loads of times before, but like the others are saying, you should get rid of McAfee.
 
You have to come over all Pro in situations like this & Demand that the customer takes your advice, They have come to you for a Pro PC fix/help etc so give it to them.
Tell them that Mac Afee is ***** & is slowing there machine down so you have uninstalled it & installed a Better AV & they will see a noticeable improvement in performance & will have Better protection to boot.
Bit of confidence without arrogance should do it. :p
 
I'll stick MSE on there and tell her why I've done it. If she really wants to put Mcafee back on, I'll tell her that it will slow her machine down.

At least she has the choice of reinstalling it again herself. Thanks to Jordan for the confirmation on that one!

I really wish I had made a slipstream Vista disk. It's been installing hundreds and hundreds of updates this morning - then two service packs. Unbelievable.
 
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