Press Win+S, which will bring up the search bar, and type “Customer Experience Improvement.” One of the top results should be to change the program settings. Click on that, and you’ll get a very simple window asking if you want to be in the program. Select “No, I don’t want to participate in the program” and most of the telemetry stuff that phones home to MS will be turned off.
Make sure Windows Firewall is turned on (Win+S > Search for Firewall), and turn on User Account Control (Win+S > Search for “User Account Control”) to either the second or third level. That will prevent anything from being installed on your system without your notification. Never turn it off!
McAfee is “okay,” but it’s free and will force you to upgrade in a year for a fee. If you’re using Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 (wasn’t clear on which you got), Windows Defender is MORE than sufficient as an anti-virus/anti-malware program. Matter of fact, Microsoft’s Defender keeps the pace with, and in the case of system performance it BEATS, third-party AV products. You can see if it’s running by searching for Defender.
Sounds like you’re already on the right path!
THANKS so much. I appreciate the advice. I just got back so I’ll follow all your suggestions. the new desktop has Windows 10. I may just do the upgrade on my laptop from 8.1 (I’m still getting prompts) now that I know what to do. I only used my old desktop for Word, printer stuff, ebay selling and photos, archiving family stuff etc. the new one will do the same. I had internet explorer 8.0 and after 10 years the XP just had to go. Some web sites did not work well and with XP I could go no higher than explorer 8. Finally ebay stopped working for me so I knew it was time. I have McAfee on my laptop and have had no issues with it. I am going to need some kind of simple photo editing software for the new desktop. I like to crop and adjust color and do some retouching on old photos I have scanned. I have been using an old version of Corel which I know well. Can your recommend something cheap and maybe even free so I can edit my photos. Looks like word 2016 is on there already I just need to purchase a product key. You have been very helpful! I also have some Roxio software that I purchased awhile back for my old desktop. I am in the middle of digitizing old VCR tapes of family stuff. I hope I can install it on the new desktop to continue otherwise I will keep the old desktop around for awhile.