If you are using McAfee and cannot uninstall it properly, follow these instructions before uninstalling McAfee on Windows.
McAfee has a pretty bad reputation among the PC community, and rightfully so. McAfee is slow, uses a lot of memory for the simplest of things, consumes CPU like no other, and for whatever reason, takes up nearly 2GB of disk space. In addition to all this, McAfee is annoying because it often behaves like adware and makes it hard to uninstall it from Windows 10.
Generally, you’ll find McAfee on pre-built PCs where OEMs and PC manufacturers install either the trial version or a variant of the paid version. Once you reach the time limit, McAfee starts bugging you to upgrade or renew the product. There is no reason to use McAfee in a world where Windows Defender is doing pretty well, and there are many other good & free antivirus software like Avast and AVG. Especially, Microsoft is actively improving Windows Defender with new features like Windows Defender Sandbox, Ransomware protection, etc. If you want to remove McAfee from your Windows system completely, here is how to do it.
There are two ways to remove McAfee from Windows 10 & 11. The first method is to use the control panel and the second method uses the McAfee removal tool. First, try the first method. If you think McAfee is not uninstalled properly or want to remove all McAfee products at once from your system, follow the second method.
Recently, I’ve also shared how to uninstall any antivirus software from Windows.
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I’m showing this on Windows 10, but the below methods work on Windows 7 and 8.
1. Uninstall McAfee on Windows
McAfee uninstallation improved over time. Like any software installed on Windows, you can uninstall McAfee from the control panel. Follow the steps provided below:
1. Search for Control Panel in the start menu and open it.
2. In the control panel, click on the “Programs and Features” option. If you can’t find the option, make sure that the View by is set to “Large Icons.”
3. This is where you can uninstall programs. Find the McAfee antivirus, right-click on it, and select the “Uninstall” option. In my case, McAfee antivirus is called McAfee LiveSafe.
4. In the McAfee uninstall screen, select “McAfee LiveSafe” and “Remove all files for this program” checkboxes and click on the “Continue” button. If you look at the bottom of the screen, you will see that McAfee is not uninstalling its Web Advisor application. We need to uninstall it separately.
5. In this warning window, click on the “Continue” button.
6. As soon as you click on the continue button, the uninstall process begins. It can take some time to uninstall McAfee fully. So, sit back and wait.
7. Here, click on the “No thanks” button.
8. Click on the “Restart now” button to complete the McAfee uninstallation process.
1.1 Uninstall McAfee WebAdvisor
9. Remember, we still need to remove the McAfee Web Advisor application too. So, after restarting the system, go to “Control Panel -> Programs and Features,” right-click on the McAfee Web Advisor and select “Uninstall.”
10. McAfee can show false data to make you keep the application. In my case, it is telling me that it has protected me from identity and password theft, which is false. Click on the “No thanks, just uninstall it” button on the left side. Not the big blue button.
11. As soon as you click on the button, the application is uninstalled completely.
12. to make sure McAfee is completely uninstalled, restart your system.
13. Even after uninstalling McAfee, it keeps leftover files in the Program Files folder. So, after restarting, open File Explorer, go to C:\Program Files, select McAfee, and press the Delete key on your keyboard.
14. If you see a warning window, click on the “Continue” button to delete the McAfee folder on Windows 10.
That’s it. You’ve successfully removed McAfee from Windows. If you are unsure or unable to uninstall McAfee cleanly, follow the second method.
2. Remove McAfee Using McAfee Removal Tool
Like many antivirus software, it can be hard to remove McAfee on Windows 10 due to uninstallation problems or unclean uninstallation. In those situations, you can use the McAfee removal tool to uninstall McAfee on Windows 10. In fact, the McAfee removal tool makes it quite easy to remove all McAfee products from your computer at once. Let me show you how.
1. First, download the McAfee removal tool (direct link) called McAfee Consumer Product Removal Tool (MCPR). Once downloaded, double-click on the file to execute the application.
2. On this screen, click on the “Next” button.
3. For some reason (security?), you need to enter a captcha. So, enter the displayed captcha and click “Next.”
4. Now, sit back and wait. The McAfee removal tool will scan your system for any McAfee products and uninstall them automatically. It can take quite a bit of time to complete the procedure.
5. Once done, click on the “Restart” button to restart Windows 10 to remove any residual McAfee files.
That’s all. The removal tool will also remove leftover files from the Program Files folder in the C drive. So, you don’t have to bother to remove them manually.
I hope that helps. Follow the above two methods to uninstall McAfee on Windows 10 & 11 and share your experiences using or removing McAfee on Windows 10.
If you are looking to uninstall preinstalled store apps, then follow the — how to uninstall store apps on Windows 10.