Hey, guys.  This is more a DAW question than a SONAR question.  A couple of years ago I purchase an off-the-shelf Dell (see sig for techs). It's got plenty of power for my purposes and has performed excellently for me despite the fact that is was loaded with "Extras" that I really didn't need.  I figured (correctly) that I could just keep it unplugged from the Internet and not be bothered by automatic updates, updating just what I wanted, when I wanted then unplugging again.  It came, as all these machines do, with a third party virus protection program (McAfee) that normally caused no problem with SONAR if I disabled "real time protection" before each session.  I don't use this machine for anything other than SONAR and a couple simple audio editing programs. However, after it's two year "trial" McAfee is now starting to interrupt me often with "you should update your virus protection" messages even when in the middle of working on a project.  To make a long story short (too late…) I'd like to uninstall McAfee completely to stop this, but I'm afraid what this may do to my system. Has anybody actually tried uninstalling a program such as this without issues? These virus protection programs are so invasive that I'm afraid my root files may get screwed up by removing them… anybody have any experience with this or any suggestions?
 
As always, you guys are the best. Thanks for any and all comments.
 
Rob

I have a Dell computer that had McAfee on it. I un-installed it with no problem. I'm now running the free version of Avast and MSE with no problems.

I also had the McAfee trial subscription on my Dell which I removed when it expired. Didn't have any problems with that. Now I use MS Security Essentials which I think does the trick and is much less invasive than McAfee.

I build and fix computers on the side for lots of local folks.  I will generally, with permission, remove the bloat ware from pre-loaded computers, such as from HP or Dell.
 
I almost always get the go ahead to remove the trial antivirus software, and replace it with the free version of Avast, which runs with a nice small memory footprint, and doesn't interfere with Sonar - other than during initial download and install of Sonar.
 
I have literally put Avast on well over 50 computers over the last 2 years, and every one of the users is happy with Avast.
 
There are others out there as well that are pretty good - I just happen to like Avast.
 
Bob Bone
 

I would also suggest you keep your Windows up to date on maintenance, as some run-time Microsoft routines are needed to be at current levels for Sonar to work properly.
 
Those in particular being out of date has frustrated some folks with X3 - getting those routines current fixed their problems.  It would be far easier to just keep the OS up to date and you would not have the issues they had in the first place.
 
Bob Bone
 
 

yea, get rid of it.  Microsoft security essentials does great.

yea, get rid of it.  Microsoft security essentials does great.

yea, get rid of it.  Microsoft security essentials does great.

yea, get rid of it.  Microsoft security essentials does great.

I too have MS security essentials( MSSE) on my DAW. Every once in a while I drag it downstairs and plug it in to the net. First step is update MSSE until the little icon turns green. Then I turn on Windows updates and open Chrome, this seems to trigger the update sequence.  
Once it's all good to go, I unplug it and return it to the studio and turn off MSSE and windows update, I even disable the LAN port which is probably pointless, but I hate the little red X in the tray.