When Apps become annoying...

Several applications came bundled with my new computer, and as I am finding out, the most annoying of those is the software package by MacAfee...

This package is from the good folks that have brought us MacAfee Anti-Virus, one of the most trusted anti-virus software apps on record.

A long-time Norton anti-virus user, I opted to use the free 15-week anti-virus coverage offered by MacAfee, with the intention of switching to Norton as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the good folks at MacAfee and their bundled apps are giving me intrusive, pop-up alerts that would make a spyware programmer envious. About every ten minutes or so, regardless of what I'm doing, or if I'm running a program that is supposed to ignore "system alerts" (i.e., a pop-up message), here comes MacAfee... A couple of examples:

After a full weekend of transferring Neverwinter Nights files from my old system to the new one, I settle down for a night of NWN fun. Ten minutes into my first dungeon foray, my screen gets all funny and the game crashes...
(ding dong!)
"An update to your MacAfee Anti Virus software MAY be available, do you want to check for updates now?" Hell no, thank you very little, I was in the middle of something.


After copying too many megabytes of data from my old computer to the new one, I started to go through the process of weeding out the wheat from the chaff. About every few minutes or so, I'd get another friendly message from MacAfee...

(ding dong!)
"A ciritcal update to MacAfee's Spam Killer (Pop-Up Killer or Anti-Virus) software MAY be available. Do you want to check for updates now?" Again, hell no. I'd check for updates when I want to, but MacAfee doesn't give me the option to do so. Meanwhile, I get pop-up messages at the worst possible times asking me if I want to do something that may not be necessary to the safety of my computer..!

Droyne had good advice when he said MadAfee should be uninstalled ASAP when getting a new Dell computer... Keeping it is a pain in the tuckus...