Ireview a lot of laptops and I’ve noticed many of them come with a “free trial” of McAfee antivirus preinstalled. I’ve clicked through so many warnings about how my PC will be “at risk” unless I pay up for extended protection, and those McAfee alerts are in a stark red color that’s surely designed to scare me. It’s too much!

It’s not just a problem on budget laptops , either. I even see it on high-end PCs, like the world’s first rollable laptop from Lenovo that I recently reviewed. That’s a $3,299 machine! Yet despite its lofty price tag and sci-fi-esque hardware, it still subjected me to scary messages encouraging me to pay for McAfee antivirus. What a bad experience.

But don’t take my word for it. I’ll show you screenshots of these preinstalled McAfee antivirus messages on brand-ne

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