When you install Malwarebytes Free on Windows, it includes a day trial for Malwarebytes Premium, a full antivirus program that provides real-time protection to prevent the installation of malware and spyware. However, we advise skipping right to the free version, because running even the trial version of Malwarebytes Premium will disable Windows Defender, which does a better job of preventing infection.
To deactivate the Malwarebytes Premium trial, open Malwarebytes, click on Settings, click on the Accounts tab at the top of the window and click the Deactivate Trial text link at the bottom of the window. You may be prompted to confirm that you really want to deactivate it. Once you've confirmed that you do, restart the machine and Windows Defender should then be active alongside Malwarebytes Free.
Malwarebytes for Windows Free doesn't replace your computer's antivirus program. Instead, it augments whatever antivirus program is running by trying to catch malware that other programs miss. In addition to its own malware scans, Malwarebytes Free uses behavioral monitoring to spot early signs of an infection.
Malwarebytes uploads samples of suspicious software from its users' systems to its own servers for analysis. This data is used to create updates for the company's 30 million users. You can opt out of this data collection without diminishing your protection. Malwarebytes examines your system's master and volume boot records with a rootkit scanner to spot deeply buried malware and defends against fileless-malware attacks to catch exploits before they can do any serious damage.
While there's no built-in full-scan option, you can get the equivalent by using the Custom Scans setup and selecting the entire C drive.
The quick Hyper Scan option and the ability to schedule scanning are only available to Premium users. Malwarebytes Free doesn't scan USB flash drives automatically as soon as you plug them in, but a right-click on the drive's icon in Windows Explorer can start a manual scan. To test Malwarebytes for Windows Free's ability to protect systems without Windows Defender or other antivirus software running, we dusted off an elderly Windows 7 Pro Fujitsu notebook. Malwarebytes was able to block two potentially dangerous apps 0.
If you choose to go with Malwarebytes Premium, be aware that its malware defenses are second-best compared with its competitors, with much lower detection rates and a higher rate of false positives.
Malwarebytes found Malwarebytes Premium also misidentified safe software as dangerous 15 times in March, five times the industry average. The often-trigger-happy Microsoft Defender had only two so-called false positives. Malwarebytes Free sticks to its core mission and doesn't offer extras often found with antivirus software, such as dedicated webcam protection, a file shredder, a password manager or a secure web browser.
But while it comes with no browser add-ons, Malwarebytes Free blocks known malicious websites that may harbor dangerous software or phishing attempts. But it lacks the ability to scan email attachments for dangers before they're opened, and we've already noted that it won't automatically examine USB drives. To gauge Malwarebytes' impact on overall performance, we used our custom benchmark test, which measures how long a CPU takes to match 20, names and addresses in an Excel spreadsheet.
With the built-in Microsoft Defender running, the Asus registered a baseline completion time of the name-matching task of This time rose to This represents a 2. It's important to note that this loss of performance is in addition to the system resources taken up by an installed antivirus program.
During a Malwarebytes Threat Scan, the benchmark completion time rose to Running a full scan via the Malwarebytes Custom Scan interface was even more disheartening, as our benchmark completed in On the other hand, Malwarebytes Free is a quick scanner, taking 4 minutes and 57 seconds to run a quick Threat Scan that scans memory, registry and start-up files but also does a thorough file system scan and a heuristics check.
As fast as the Threat Scans are, examining the entire computer is dreadfully slow. The real-time protection alone is worth the upgrade to premium from the free plan. However, Malwarebytes Premium is similarly priced as top competitors like Norton or Bitdefender , both of which have better malware detection rates, better phishing protection, and a ton of additional features.
Malwarebytes offers a day money-back guarantee. For example, Norton Standard is cheaper than Malwarebytes, and Norton offers real-time malware protection, web protection, a firewall, a VPN, a password manager, identity theft protection, 10 GB cloud storage, and more. Bitdefender Total Security is also more affordable than Malwarebytes, and Bitdefender offers more extra features than most other brands. Installing, setting up, and using Malwarebytes is very simple — it took me only a couple of minutes to download and set up the software, and I had no problems using all of the provided features.
Most competitors ask for your email address or even credit card number, so I like that Malwarebytes really does offer a zero-commitment free trial. Choosing which scan you want to run, setting up a Custom Scan, and scheduling scans is pretty straightforward.
In fact, I barely noticed it was there at all. I also like that Malwarebytes has a simple Play Mode, which hides notifications when certain apps are in full-screen mode — this is great for gaming and streaming. Malwarebytes is available on both iOS and Android — both apps are well-designed and easy to use, but the Android app offers more functionality than the iOS app. During my tests, both apps worked well.
I found it easy to install and use the apps, as well as access and customize all of the available settings. The Android app has all of the same features as the desktop app malware scanning, ransomware protection, web protection, and exploit protection , but it also includes a couple of useful extras, like spyware protection and a privacy audit tool. I like this tool because it allows users to check which apps have what permissions.
For example, you can view apps that can read your personal information, track your location, monitor calls, cost you money, and much, much more. That said, the iOS app has decent web protection, ad blocking, and scam call blocking. There are better apps for both Android and iOS users — Norton is my favorite Android antivirus includes malware protection, an app advisor, and Wi-Fi protection , whereas McAfee is my top choice for iOS protection it comes with a malware scanner, anti-theft, a VPN, and more.
Malwarebytes offers a good knowledge base, a live chat, and email support. Most competitors have multiple options for example, TotalAV has email, phone, and live chat support.
The articles in the knowledge base are pretty good, with very detailed explanations on how to use the program as well as all of its features.
I submitted a ticket on the official website, and I got a helpful response in around 24 hours. But the knowledge base is very thorough and can answer most questions.
The email support team is also very friendly and knowledgeable, but I really missed having the option to chat with a company rep using a live chat feature. Malwarebytes provides excellent real-time malware protection, good phishing protection, and a fast VPN, all for a good value. Unfortunately, the VPN is unable to unblock streaming services like Netflix or bypass government restrictions in countries like China.
Plus, Malwarebytes has a day free trial and a generous day money-back guarantee. While all free antiviruses have limited functionality, there are better free antiviruses than Malwarebytes — my favorite is Avira , which comes with an excellent malware scanner, real-time protection, device optimization, and even a VPN. And you can try out Malwarebytes Premium with a risk-free day free trial no credit card required , or a day money-back guarantee.
Yes, Malwarebytes is safe. It has a decent antivirus scanner , real-time protection that offers multiple layers of protection against malware, system vulnerabilities, and online threats, and a browser extension that provides additional protection against phishing and malicious sites. While most of its features work across all operating systems, keep in mind that the VPN is only available for Windows and Mac computers. It depends on your needs. If you want a really simple antivirus with only real-time malware protection and web protection, then yes, Malwarebytes Premium is a good enough product.
But there might be better options out there. For example, Norton , Avira , Bitdefender , and TotalAV are all easy to use, provide perfect or near-perfect malware detection rates, and come with a wide variety of additional protections firewall, system tuneup, password manager, VPN, etc.
Malwarebytes is a basic antivirus with an intuitive interface, good apps for mobile, and strong protection against malware. Rachel Ho is a privacy and technology consultant with an interest in data protection and public policy.
In her spare time, she can be found watching movies and pretending to be a coffee connoisseur. Home Best Antivirus Malwarebytes Reviews. Professional Reviews. Affiliate Commissions. Reviews Guidelines. Ranked 11th from 66 antivirus companies. Malwarebytes Coupons. This article contains. Malwarebytes Review: Quick Expert Summary Malwarebytes is a minimalistic, easy-to-use antivirus program that provides good protection against malware, but not much else.
Is Malwarebytes safe? Is Malwarebytes compatible with my device? Is Malwarebytes worth buying? Was this article helpful? Please tell us what we can improve This field is required. About the Author Rachel Ho Contributor. You might be asking: Is Malwarebytes free good enough? This article will help you decide whether to go for the free version or the premium version. Malwarebytes Free has a limited scanner that scans your system for malware, trojans and other threats that have already compromised your device.
If it finds any it cleans it out. On the other hand, Malwarebytes Premium stands guard against most known threats in real time.
This means it protects your identity and privacy, protects your documents, financial files from ransomware, protects you from malicious and fraudulent websites and much more. With this kind of protection, your system is less likely to be compromised. The threat scanner in the premium version is much more elaborate — unlimited — as you would expect for a paid version. When you instal Malwarebytes for the first time on your device PC or otherwise it works as the premium version for 14 days.
This gives you a real test drive of how Malwarebytes Premium is going to be protecting your system, in real-time. Entering valid license keys will turn on the premium features again.
My answer would be yes because no two antivirus programs are the same. Then restart your system and Windows Defender should now be enabled alongside Malwarebytes. Both programs will be fully active.
Malwarebytes will continue to monitor itself and update as necessary. Malwarebytes itself will still notify you of any issues. For more information on Malwarebytes and Windows Defender click here. Malwarebytes for Windows is available as a free version and as a premium version. Premium prevents malware infection from affecting your device in the first place while the Free version cleans up after a malware infection.
Image the inconvenience of being infected. Being infected might cost you much more than the cost of the premium in financial terms, worry and stress, time to deal with the infection.
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