Be Excellent To Each Other

I've inherited the laptop I bought my wife last Christmas and the McAfee anti virus software that came free with the laptop is expiring in ten days and prompting me to purchase it for another year. Is it worth it, or is there a better alternative?

Personally, I use Windows Defender (built into Windows) with Malware Bytes (free). Shouldn’t really need to pay for antivirus tbh. It’s a bit snake oily.

If you’re wedded to the idea of third-party AV then AVG did a decent free offering last time I checked.

Excellent. Can I turn off the firewall easily on D&D nights?

Is it Windows Defender Firewall it's called?

Same here. I used to use Avast for a long while until it started causing problems on one of my PCs (nothing major if I remember - I think it just used to hammer the CPU while I played Rocket League), but then I just removed it and just use Defender now.

I think antivirus software has its place, but mainly for less experience computer users who might be more prone to downloading and opening dodgy attachments or accidentally visiting fake sites etc.

You can add a rule specific to Foundry that will allow access through the firewall for that program only

Like many people on this forum :-)

SDG make sure you have some AV software installed and that you keep it up to date - there are plenty of free ones out there but Microsoft's built in one (Windows Defender) is a good option (and easier to handle since the updates roll in along with Windows)

Also if you've not yet make sure you have some backup software to back your important files up to removable storage or to the cloud (ideally both)

I'll definitely need to do this and almost certainly need help with it.

Any recommendations for cloud storage as a backup?

I use Microsoft onedrive and dropbox. Both have free options, and then tired charging, depending on what you use..

I use OneDrive too. I have three accounts set up on my computers - one personal (which gives 30gb of storage for free), one for work, and one for ConsoleMAD (as those two are using OneDrive for Business, I get 1TB each) and they all coexist quite nicely. Also, when I take photos on my phone for ConsoleMAD products, the OneDrive mobile app automatically syncs that over to my PC, ready for me to edit (it's not unique with that feature, but it's still handy for me).

I have an Office 365 sub that comes with 1TB of OneDrive storage included.

I’ve used Dropbox in the past but they’re quite stingy. Google is getting stingier.