For one, because they come preinstalled. I bought a normal Windows laptop for a relative recently, it came with a 30 day trial of McAfee (I think) pre-installed. Once you install any anti-virus, the MS one is automatically disabled, so new users are given the impression that they need to fork out for a subscription once the 30 days is up, or lose virus protection.<p>It&#x27;s an utter racket.