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Questions on virus protection for new laptop

Hey all,

Just wanted to first note, that I'm not very computer savvy so if you could speak in more layman's terms that would make more sense, I would appreciate it! This past summer, I purchased a brand new Windows HP laptop with Windows 11. With it, I also purchased Microsoft 365 - Family, but I have not added that yet. I just had questions regarding what kind of virus protection the laptop already comes with and what's still active after a period of time, etc.? It's kind of confusing to me.

I know originally my laptop showed me having a free limited trial of McAfee that automatically came with it for like 30 days I believe, but that time period has expired. Yet, when I go into my Windows Security app on my computer and click on the sidebar to "Virus and Threat Protection", it shows inside a box that McAfee is turned on like I still am being protected by it along with status updates of current threats being none, etc.? If you scroll down, towards the bottom it also shows Microsoft Defender Antivirus options and you can toggle a switch to it being on for allowing it to periodically scan for threats. In addition to this, it shows a status of no current threats under "Current threats" and being able to do a quick scan for threats and it shows updates that have been done. If I click "manage settings" under "Virus and threat protection settings" it shows as real time protection being toggled off. Now if you go back and then scroll back to the top and click manage providers under "Who is protecting me?", it shows under "Antivirus" that McAfee is turned on there. It also shows Microsoft Defender Antivirus but this one shows as being off. Also on a side note, this laptop currently is not signed into anything dealing with a Microsoft account. From my understanding on what I was told when I made the purchase, Microsoft Defender for virus protection is only available with a purchased subscription of Microsoft 365, correct? I didn't think it came automatically free on the laptop?

In other words, I'm just confused what virus protections I currently have, how this all works, what is what and what I necessarily need. If my free trial of McAfee showed to have expired and if I haven't set up Microsoft 365 for the Microsoft Defender capability yet, why is it making it look like these two are both active and protecting me? And why is Microsoft Defender showing as active but also inactive in other spots?

Thanks in advance for your help!

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@bd3616 Microsoft Defender is a free antivirus bundled with all genuine copies of Windows 10 and 11. You do not need to purchase any additional products to be able to use Defender, and in my opinion, for most scenarios, Defender is good enough protection. It might be a good idea to also install Malwarebytes Free to double-check if you suspect you've gotten a virus that Defender can't pick up.

As far as McAffee, I would uninstall it. That should turn Defender back on as your default protection.

Let me know if you have any additional questions.

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Thank you! But I'm still confused. According to this link for what's all included in Microsoft 365 Family that I purchased, it says Microsoft Defender? How can it be included free with my laptop like you mentioned but then also it's part of this Microsoft office package that I purchased? Am I just doubling up on what my laptop already includes for free or is this something different, etc.?

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsof...

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@bd3616 I think that's for non-Windows devices (e.g. Microsoft Defender for Android)

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I agree. I'd uninstall McAfee if it were my laptop (turning on and enabling Defender as default and startup for sure), with an occasional extra scan using one of the lightweight freeware antimalware programs out there (Super AntiSpyware being one of them--disabled between scans). Despite some deserved bad press they got several years ago, I also regularly use CCleaner to eliminate unwanted tracking cookies and other junk. It's astonishing how many trackers are after OUR data.

Using duckduckgo as a search engine and the privacy-mode version of Firefox as a browser are also good self-protection. Some sites only run on Chrome, so Chrome can be started when you need it.

You can adjust your startup and default app settings to choose only those programs you want to use and when you want them active. They don't all deserve to be running every time you start Windows.

Good luck!

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Thank you! But I'm still confused. According to this link for what's all included in Microsoft 365 Family that I purchased, it says Microsoft Defender? How can it be included free with my laptop like you mentioned but then also it's part of this Microsoft office package that I purchased? Am I just doubling up on what my laptop already includes for free or is this something different, etc.?

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsof...

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bd3616 will be eternally grateful.