Malwarebytes has built an impressive fan-base around its free anti-malware application designed to fend off viruses, spyware, Trojans, worms, dialers, rootkits, exploits and malicious website as well as other web-based threats.
Anti-malware application with basic protection against viruses, spyware, adware and other web threats, wrapped up in a highly intuitive interface
Save $$ Up to 75% OFF Malwarebytes Coupon Code & Discounts. Get Malwarebytes Anti Malware Premium and Malwarebytes Anti Exploit Premium at the best price ever. Lifetime sale available as well as student discount. Get Malwarebytes cheap prices right now. Malwarebytes is one of the top leaders in computer security. Its industry leading anti malware software is installed on millions of systems.
The free version does not include scheduled scans, real-time protection, removable drive scans and malicious website blocking. These features and more are available in the paid edition, called Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium.
The main advantage of the free application is that it can be run as a secondary line of defense against online threats, by pairing it with the real-time safeguard of a traditional antivirus software.
Hassle-free installation and highly intuitive GUI
Setting up Malwarebytes Anti-Malware isn't usually a problem to any users, no matter how inexperienced they may be with antivirus applications. As for the interface, the tool is as intuitive as they get, thanks to large buttons and short descriptions that explain each option.
Two scans modes for basic PC protection
Threat Scan is the app's comprehensive scanning method, as it looks into critical areas of the system where malware is known to hide. The alternative is Custom Scan, which permits users to handpick the exact drives and directories to look into, along with the scan objects (memory, startup and registry settings, archives, rootkits). In addition, it is possible to personalize the tool's behavior when detecting potentially unwanted programs and modifications (PUMs).
Advanced scanner configuration
Users who want to further customize Anti-Malware's behavioral pattern may tinker with settings surrounding exclusions, rootkits, archives and advanced heuristics. It is possible to enable and examine scan logs, resort to a proxy server for virus database updates, disable notifications, integrate the app into the Windows Explorer context menu for quick scanning, and so on. Items sent to the quarantine can be examined before deciding whether to keep or delete them.
Performance and conclusion
Our most recent tests have shown that Malwarebytes Anti-Malware delivers very good results when it comes to virus detection. Its main downside, however, is that it frequently hangs during various operations (such as scanning or verifying the latest virus signatures) and it is generally very slow when it comes to removing the infected files.
To conclude, there are two sides to Malwarebytes Anti-Malware's story: hardcore PC users who often travel to the dark side of the Internet are better off with faster and more stable utilities. However, by pairing it up with a reliable third-party real-time guard, the program can become quite handy to casual users who want to double-check. Alternatively, look into the premium version (free trial available).
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Video Guide
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LIMITATIONS IN THE UNREGISTERED VERSION- Features such as real-time protection, malicious website blocking, anti-exploit, and anti-ransomware are disabled (available in Premium)
- 800MHz CPU or faster, with SSE2 technology
- 2048 MB (64-bit OS), 1024 MB (32-bit OS, except 512 MB for Windows XP)
- 250 MB of free hard disk space
- 1024x768 or higher screen resolution
- Active internet connection for database and product updates
- Performance/protective capability
- Improved detection and remediation
- Usability
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Malwarebytes 3.0 was a major update when it arrived in December 2016 -- and like many major updates, some aspects were a little rough, particularly stability within Windows 10. With version 3.2, the company claims it has corrected some major issues, so let's take a look at how this revision stacks up.
Pros
It's stable in Windows 10: With version 3.0, some users (us included) experienced seemingly random blue-screen errors in Windows 10 unless we disabled most or all of Malwarebytes' active scanning functions. As a result, there wasn't a lot to distinguish the paid version from the free one. However, we can report that we didn't see any BSODs in Windows 10 during our testing of 3.2. This was the only truly major issue we saw in version 3.0, so addressing it brings Malwarebytes back up to 'recommended' status.
The scanning engine remains high-quality: During our tests, the app's malware scanner picked up some files and a Registry entry left over from an apparently incomplete uninstallation of a third-party driver management utility that, according to Malwarebytes, may have bundled a potentially unwanted program (PUP). Malwarebytes defaulted to placing these files in quarantine rather than deleting them. This is actually the preferred reflex, since PUPs aren't necessarily harmful, and extracting them can disable the program that they came with. Generally speaking, Malwarebytes' scanning tech is rated favorably by independent testers, such as West Coast Labs and Google's VirusTotal service, and it's cultivated a reputation for not bogging down your PC.
Detailed, plain-English explanations: While other security vendors often slather on fancy-sounding terminology, Malwarebytes is good at telling you exactly what a given feature is doing. Take the 'Usage and Threat Statistics' toggle, for example. This covers the anonymous usage data that it collects. In the description on its website, Malwarebytes itemizes basic things like, how many people are running the free version, trial version, and subscription versions? Where is Malwarebytes being used globally? What malware is being detected the most, and how often?
Its full privacy policy even includes detailed and simplified explanations side-by-side. This kind of transparency about your data -- and the deliberately limited extent of it -- is good to have, and it's not as common in the security industry as it should be.
Cons
Limited testing by independent labs: The company asserts that the average 'zero day' malware (the kind that's too new for there to be reliable detection/removal) has only a 55 percent detection rate, which can make a given antimalware app look worse than it is when subjected to a barrage of zero-day infections during testing. Therefore, Malwarebytes does not submit its apps to the full gauntlets provided by AV-Test and AV-Comparatives, whose testing takes special notice of zero-day security. However, if Malwarebytes wants to be recognized among its competition, we'd argue that it needs to submit its apps to the same rigorous standards as the competition, even if those standards can create perception issues.
Bottom Line
Now that Malwarebytes appears to have fixed its stability issues in version 3.2, the user experience is rounded out nicely. However, we'd like to see Malwarebytes go through the gauntlets set up by AV-Comparatives and AV-Test to get a better picture of how it stacks up against the competition.