# McAfee Application Installer Cleanup: legit or not?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcafee-application-installer-cleanup-legit-or-not/729873>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 4, 2015, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcafee-application-installer-cleanup-legit-or-not/729873 "2015-09-04T01:13:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2015, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcafee-application-installer-cleanup-legit-or-not/729873/1 "2015-09-04T01:13:20Z")

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So I did a search on this, and most of it tells me jackshit. It says it’s legit, but half of them are sites on how to remove it? (Note: this came up when I’m doing an adware cleaning, and it said, “check the items you want to keep” – I’m guessing this may just be bloatware?)

Thanks in advance.

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**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2015, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcafee-application-installer-cleanup-legit-or-not/729873/2 "2015-09-04T21:42:03Z")

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Definitely bloatware. Not malicious, but probably prone to consuming resources and/or crashing. I’d remove it. (I’d also remove anything McAfee related at the same time, unless you’ve intentionally installed it for some reason. It’s not great software, though.)

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**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcafee-application-installer-cleanup-legit-or-not/729873/3 "2015-09-05T03:05:15Z")

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Okay, good to know. (And for the time being, I’m fine with McAfee. I’ve got that, Malware Bytes, and AdwareCleaner.)

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**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcafee-application-installer-cleanup-legit-or-not/729873/4 "2015-09-05T08:27:25Z")

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It usually comes “free” with a new computer. It is free but you have to subscribe to get updates, and that is why people want it gone. It also hogs resources.