Q&A: Expiring anti-virus

Q My computer is telling me that my contract with McAfee is expiring in a few days. It can be renewed at a cost, but having read your comments in issue 268 about AVG, I wondered whether I should just ignore the McAfee renewal reminder and install the free version of AVG?
Lauritz Tvedt

A You certainly can switch over to AVG at any time. Contracts with anti-virus services are not binding – you can switch to another one whenever you like.

There are a couple of things to remember first. The free version of AVG won’t offer all the features of the paid-for McAfee software, so if you are using any of those extra features, you may lose them should you stop paying for the McAfee service.

You’ll also lose the settings you’ve made in McAfee (such as which programs should be allowed to access the internet through the firewall). If you’re happy, it’s easy to switch.

Make sure you have properly cancelled your contract with McAfee. You may have agreed to allow the company to charge you for an extra year automatically, so you’ll need to tell it you’re cancelling the service (practices vary between companies).

The only other thing to do is to uninstall the McAfee software before installing AVG.

Because this will leave your computer without protection for a while, the method we recommend is to download the AVG program first and save it to the desktop, then physically disconnect your computer from the internet by unplugging the network cable or the USB cable to your modem (if you’re using a wireless network, disconnect it in Windows or flick the switch to turn it off).

Then uninstall the McAfee software, reboot the computer, install the AVG software and once that’s fully installed, reconnect the computer to the internet.