I have cable internet. As of the past couple of days, my Win ME computer has slowed to a snails pace. I have the free McAfee through Comcast. I started a virus scan last night, and it's still doing it, real slow. It's been scanning all night. I'm wondering if it's McAfee. Are there any good free downloadable Anti-virus programs I can try, if I uninstall McAfee?

I'd appreciate any help.

Dani AI

Generated

Win ME plus a bundled ISP copy of McAfee often shows exactly this symptom: a full, on‑access or scheduled full‑disk scan can swamp a low‑spec, older machine and seem to run forever. and pointed toward AVG as a common alternative; switching AV can help, but first stop the immediate performance hit and remove McAfee cleanly.

Steps to regain control:

  • Try pausing or cancelling the active scan from the McAfee interface. If the UI is frozen, open Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and end the McAfee scanning process (look for entries labeled McAfee/VirusScan). Note: terminating the scanner leaves the system temporarily unprotected, so reboot when possible.
  • If the system is unstable, do a restart and boot to Safe Mode (F8) to avoid background services. From Safe Mode run cleanup utilities and free disk space before installing anything new.

Safe removal and replacement:

  • Uninstall McAfee from Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs, reboot, then run the vendor’s official cleanup/uninstall utility (available on the vendor support site) to remove leftover drivers and services, and reboot again.
  • For Windows ME, use AV builds that explicitly list Win9x/ME support (many current releases no longer do). Legacy builds from mainstream vendors or lightweight scanners are the practical path; avoid running two resident antivirus engines at once.

Maintenance and cautions:

  • Free at least 15–20% of the hard drive, run Disk Cleanup and defragment, and disable unnecessary startup items (msconfig) so scans don’t overlap with normal use. Consider a bootable rescue scanner for stubborn infections. Finally, note that Win ME is long out of support; upgrading the OS (or replacing the machine) is the only long‑term fix for ongoing security and performance problems.

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AVG. don't type in any www's
free.avg.com

EDIT=forget that i don't think it will work with ME ,and you amy have a hard time finding one does,most likely whats wrong with you mcafee

AVG 7.5 supports Win ME :)

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