This week’s tip is on antivirus. One of the tricky things to deal with when you purchase a new PC is whether to uninstall or keep the antivirus software that came with the PC. Personally, I have advised users to install their own software for enhanced security. These preinstalled ones are mostly for advertising purposes.
One challenge however is how to remove these antivirus programs.
For some reason, antivirus apps can be difficult to remove with the Windows uninstaller. It almost seems like the antivirus companies make them that way to keep you stuck.
You must know that installing two or more antivirus programs is possible but not recommended and most often unnecessary. If you ever install more than one, they should not all run at the same time. For effective protection against computer viruses, worms, Trojans, rookits, etc., you should have only one antivirus running, properly configured to penetrate to a suitable level within the computer.
So how do you uninstall most antivirus programs from your computer without seeing a computer technician?
Most of the major antivirus vendors have a tool for removing their products from your system, and they are pretty easy to use too. Simply download the removal tool to your PC and run them.
For convenience, I have listed here some major antivirus programs and the links to their removal tools.
