How do I disable McAfee Security Centre?

madamebutterfly · 31-07-2007 2:14pm #1

Is locking down the firewall on McAfee Security Centre the same as disabling it? There is no way of disabling in options as far as I can see.

ActorSeeksJob · 31-07-2007 2:16pm

I'm pretty sure locking down the FW is the same as disabling it. You would do your PC a lot of good getting rid of McAfee though, it is truly a terrible program

Ruu_Old · 31-07-2007 2:18pm

I would sooner just uninstall it.

madamebutterfly · 31-07-2007 2:19pm

Really, why's that? Would you recommend Norton? I got McAfee this time as Norton stopped doing Parental Control. Any suggestions?

MarkR · 31-07-2007 2:32pm

Uninstall it and stick on avg free from free.grisoft.com. Add a firewall like sysgate or zonealarm and you've gotten rid of a lot of memory hogs.

ActorSeeksJob · 31-07-2007 3:39pm

McAfee is probably the worst protection you can get. It is a major resource hog, slowing your PC down so much. It will not protect your PC against spyware, and most of the time won't even detect anything even if your PC is horribly infected. There is not one good thing about McAfee Security centre, and the fact that it actually costs money is ridiculous.

And if you do try get rid of it, a lot of the time it doesn't uninstall properly, leaving lots of left overs on your PC that will majorly slow you down. So if you decide to get rid of it, follow the steps in this link
http://ts.mcafeehelp.com/displaydoc.asp?frames=1&docid=408302&CategoryId=107187

As for Norton, it's pretty much the same as above.

If you want good protection, AVG is the way to go.
http://free.grisoft.com/

brian_rbk · 31-07-2007 5:56pm

"Lockdown Firewall" blocks all inbound and outbound network traffic between your computer and the internet

To turn off the firewall, goto Security Centre, click on Internet & Network, Select Firewall protection and then click disable.

hitbit · 31-07-2007 9:44pm

Lockdown can be used to stop all in and outbound traffic in cases of emergency such as when a new and dangerous threath is identified. Some like to lockdown until a " cure" is found. To those here decrying McAfee out of hand I have been using McAfee products on two systems for years and years. One system with its own net access is used by my two teenage sons who frequent such places as UTube and Bebo. They generate huge amounts of traffic on MSN messaging and we have never had a problem in the security dept. So McAfee works fine for us. There are always those who will love a prog simply because its free, but I would ask if its that good why does its maker feel a need to offer a much better paid version. There are others who put themselves at serious risk by regularly visiting sites that should be avoided then blame all and sundry when the **** hits the fan.

hitbit

ActorSeeksJob · 31-07-2007 10:05pm

Of course McAfee is going to work well for some people, especially if the only dangerous things your PC is being used for is youtube, bebo, and msn.

But generally it is a horrible program that won't keep your PC clean if you accidentally do get infected with spyware. You would also notice a huge increase in your PC performance if you were to get rid of it. Why pay for it when you can get better programs out there for free?

There are always those who will love a prog simply because its free, but I would ask if its that good why does its maker feel a need to offer a much better paid version.

Generally the PC Security community won't love a program just cause it's free. Kaspersky is recommended by pretty much everybody despite the fact it's like 80$ a year, due to the fact that it is the best and worth paying for.

As for why programs also have a paid version, there isn't always a huge difference between the free version and the paid one. They of course want to make money, and hence why the paid version of AVG anti-spyware only gives you real-time protection, or why SpywareBlaster will give you auto updates, etc etc. The fact is that McAfee can't compete with even the worst free programs out there.

There are others who put themselves at serious risk by regularly visiting sites that should be avoided then blame all and sundry when the **** hits the fan

Of course when kids go download keycracks and use p2p programs they are to blame themselves. But if the Internet Security Suite protection that you bought(whether it is AVG, Norton, or McAfee) can't stop quite basic infections then you are not the only one to blame. I guarantee that anybody who knows anything about PC security won't recommend McAfee to a person, even if it was free which it isn't.

Long post but I strongly disagree with your own post. I've fixed up hundreds of PC's, some with major infections, and from what I've seen, programs like McAfee and Norton do nothing to clean PC's or stop you getting infected. AVG on the other hand does.

SeanW · 31-07-2007 10:38pm

To answer a question raised earlier, Lockdown Firewall doesn't disable anything - except your Internet connection.

Oh and BTW AVG isn't perfect either, it once missed virus I had that was painfully obvious to the user. I really don't understand why some people are so hard on McAfee. I've been using it all this year with no problems - not only has it not missed anything that I am aware of, McAfee Site Advisor helps you steer clear of dodgy crap altogether.

Norton is another story though >_<

How do I disable McAfee Security Centre?

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