A new customer in Meadowbrook asked me to look at his laptop. As soon as I opened it, AVG Secure Browser greeted me. The laptop was also running AVG Driver Updater, AVG VPN, AVG AntiTrack and AVG TuneUp, alongside McAfee software and a McAfee extension in Chrome.
Once I removed those extras, the laptop felt noticeably quicker and more responsive. Then we signed in to his AVG account and cancelled the subscriptions. That saved him $297 a year in recurring charges.
We also looked at what he was paying GoDaddy for Microsoft 365. He’d stopped running the business but still wanted to keep the email address. We found more room to save by reviewing which plans he was paying for and looking at email-only options.
The security check turned up something more serious. I found a ScreenConnect remote-control service tucked away in his Windows profile. The logs showed it had tried to connect that morning, and the attempts I found had failed. I removed it from the laptop.
Windows Update also said the laptop was up to date, even though it was still on Windows 11 23H2, which had already reached end of support. The update logs showed that the laptop was reaching Microsoft and completing its checks, but it still wasn’t being offered a newer version. I started the upgrade using the Windows 11 Installation Assistant from Microsoft’s website.
By the end of the visit, the laptop was more responsive and the AVG subscriptions alone were taken care of for a saving of $297 every year. That’s how a PC cleanup can pay for itself.
