McAfee is a world-famous software security company that can make a computer or online user’s life easy and safe by protecting their online data with the well-known antivirus software known as McAfee. The headquarters of McAfee is in San Jose, California. McAfee was previously known as McAfee associates Inc, network associates inc, and intel security group. This company is now part of the Intel Security division. Let us know “Does McAfee Slow Down PC?”
Does McAfee Slow Down PC?
Yes, Mcafee makes the PC or Computer slow. This is because the software always runs in the background to provide its services efficiently. Some feature that may slow down a computer or a PC’s performance is real-time scanning by the software and software updates that takes place automatically in the background. But there are several methods to overcome these drawbacks and make the system work smoothly.
McAfee company
Mcafee is one of the most popular software security companies in the world America. The headquarters of the company is currently in San Jose, California. Prior to McAfee, the company had three different names
McAfee Associates Inc (1987-1997)
- Network Associates Inc (1997 – 2004)
- McAfee Associates Inc (2004 – 2014)
- Intel security group (2014 – 2017)
- Now it is just called McAfee.
In 2011, the company was bought by Intel and became a part of the Intel Security Division. Intel and TPG capital had a joint venture in 2017 and the Intel security was converted to McAfee.
History
McAfee Associates was established in 1987 by John Mcafee, who was a British-American businessman and a computer programmer. He was the company’s CEO before changing his position to Chief Technology Officer and after that, he resigned from the company. After McAfee, Bill Larson was appointed as the CEO.
In 1997, a merger was initiated by McAfee associates, Helix software, Network general, and PGP corporation and the company was renamed Networks associates.
Initially, it was just providing client-based antivirus software. But after acquiring Alberta, Calgary, and FSA corporation (based in Canada) in 1996, it expanded its services to desktop and network encryption technologies.
Some of the well-known products of the company are McAfee antivirus, McAfee techmaster, McAfee safeconnect, McAfee pc optimizer, McAfee total protection, McAfee mobile security, McAfee total protection, and McAfee+.
Mcafee antivirus
The McAfee antivirus is one of the best antivirus software in the market with, many awards for its services. The McAfee antivirus is included in McAfee’s total protection by protecting the users from malware, adware, ransomware, phishing, and many online threats that take place in day-to-day life.
The software is available for different platforms like windows, ChromeOS, ios, android, and Mac. It is a premium software with a 30-day trial. It offers 24/7 customer service and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
There are various plans available for a customer. There are 2 plans Individual and Family. The individual plan has 4 categories Advanced, Basic, Premium, and Plus. The family has 3 categories advanced, premium, and plus. Each of the plans offers different functionalities and features and has different costs. The costs given below are just the first year cost, for regular costs visit their official website as they release all details there.
Under the Individual plan The advanced cost $89.99, The Premium costs $49.99, The Plus costs $39.99, and the Basic costs $29.99.
Under the Family plan The advanced costs $99.99, the Premium costs $59.99, and the plus costs $39.99.
There is another affordable plan that costs $24.99 for the first year and changes after that. But it has only limited features, but sufficient. These are the first-year prices, regular prices are released on their website.
Does McAfee slow down PC?
Yes, McAfee slows down the computer or PC as it needs to run in the background continuously for protecting your device. Some of the features that may reduce the PC’s speed are real-time scanning, automatic updates, etc.
These are done for the user’s protection, many users complain that McAfee slows down the computer, but McAfee has greatly improved its product to be good without affecting the speed. Some of the reasons that make the system slow are
Automatic scanning
This feature allows the software to automatically scan the PC or computer for viruses and malware. This process can consume a lot of RAM and CPU, thus affecting the performance of the system. It usually takes place once a week but there are options for weekly, hourly, monthly, and manual scans.
Full scan
Another task that slows down the computer excessively is the full scan. Automatic scan only scans the essential feature in the system but the Full scan checks each and every file until it covers the entire system
Real-time or Active protection
This feature can also cause the system to slow down. Real-time protection scans the computer as you are working on a computer or surfing the internet for active threats. It scans each process being carried out in the system and if a threat has been found it starts several processes to scan or protect the PC.
Automatics updates
This can affect your system speed but not as much as others. It definitely slows down your internet connection.
Old and inadequate system requirements
Another important reason that your computer is slow is that it may be an old computer or PC or your PC does not have the minimum requirement specified for McAfee. If this is the case, then even with automatic and full scans turned to manual your system may be slow.
More than one antivirus
If you have more than one antivirus installed in your system, it also affects the PC’s speed. Each software will scan the system and the software may be incompatible with each other
How to solve the performance issue?
To reduce the effect McAfee has on the PC or computer, try some of the common ways that are mostly used everywhere. The first one is that many people just uninstall the software and work without any protection, but it is not advisable but preferred by some.
The next method is to uninstall McAfee but use the default antivirus on the PC such as Windows defender. The next method is to try and disable real-time scanning as it can use a lot of resources.
The next method is to disable the automatic updates. This feature does not affect the system greatly but slows down the internet connection. But the slowing of the computer may be also because o the fact that your PC or computer may be old or you just have a lot of applications installed running in the background.
The problem caused by the automatic scan can be solved by setting the automatic scan to take place when you don’t use the system or disabling the automatic scan and doing a manual scan when needed.
A full scan can also be done at night or whenever you don’t use the computer and this can save your computer from slowing down while you are working.
To reduce the effect of automatic updates, you can disable it and update the software manually when you are not working.
In case of old and inadequate system requirements, you may need to buy a new system or if you are not interested in buying a new system, try to upgrade the RAM or the SSD. If you have multiple software uninstall one and use a single software.
Another way to speed up your PC’s performance is to disable Mcafee temporarily till needed. Open McAfee, go to settings and select real-time scanning and turn it off. Next, go to the firewall and now turn it off.
Use the latest version of the software or try to reduce the memory usage of the software. The last method is to use the in-built windows defender program. Though McAfee provides advanced protection it slows down the system. So you can use the windows defender program and since it is in-built it does not affect the PC’s performance.
Some of the other advantages of Defender are it is free, it uses very little system resource, and it can also reduce the windows boot time. Windows defender gets automatically deactivated when another antivirus is downloaded and it gets activated when the other anti-virus is uninstalled.
Conclusion
McAfee slows down your PC or computer but it also protects the system from various attacks like adware, malware, and viruses that can cause serious problems to your data and system. To continue using the Mcafee software some various tricks and tips may solve the performance issues.
Frequently asked question
- Is it necessary to update the antivirus software?
Yes, it is necessary to update software not only because it can improve its performance but also allows to protect the system against greater threats by increasing the features and virus database.
- Are there any free antivirus software?
Yes, there are many free antivirus software in the market.
- Which is the best paid or free software?
Though free software is our first preference it only offers basic protection but paid software can offer advanced protections.
