Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Review 2022 ⋆ Freezing Computer

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is an antivirus tool developed to protect your computer from malicious programs, virus threats, and unwanted programs. You can find this on the official site of Malwarebytes – “Our technology protects against threats before other products have even identified them. If endpoint detection fails, our remediation technology will remove any infections. With the management console feature, you can deploy and configure endpoints and manage policies by user group. Management console aggregates threat data from the distributed endpoints so you can address and minimize security risks.” So let’s check this protection from the inside. Like in the last review, we will test Malwarebytes Anti-Malware with real viruses and check how it detects a new threat on the computer, but first thing first, let’s see the program.

Malwarebytes

Right after we install this program, it begins to scan the computer without any notification. Well, right to business, it’s great. On the startup, we can see lite what contain :

License – on trial version you can press on “Buy Premium”, but about purchasing later.
Database Version – here you can see updating database progress if there is any update. We get updates every 5-10 hours which means that the developers are trying to be up-to-date, and it’s great. Also, you can see when exactly the last update (year/month/day)

Scan in progress – this tab will display on what step scans now, but if you want more information, press “View Details” and you will go to their second tab with a detail analysis of the scan process.
Real Time Ptotection – this it’s free future, but will work while you have 15-day trial versi0n. Right after, if you what to protect your PC from the threat before it installs, you should buy a Malwarebytes Anti-Malware license.

Finally second and the most informative tab. The scan process will be displayed here from the beginning of the result. This scan chain will display what steps your computer is now, how many files were scanned, how much time passed, and what Malwarebytes Anti-Malware detected on your computer. Below you will also see ads about purchasing licenses or how to become a reseller of Malwarebytes. Now more about every step in this curing chain.

Check for updates – well, nothing special, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware checks if your virus database is hot and fresh.
Pre-Scan Operation – it’s hard to understand what it is, even it documentation, there is nothing about Pre-Scan, but we found this on the Malwarebytes forum – “I presume it’s enumerating the files to be scanned, loading the malware database, checking the scanner settings and other essential tasks.”, so we will trust their forum moderator and believe him.
Scan Memory – will check which has been allocated by operating system processes, drivers, and other applications.
Scan Startup Files – Malwarebytes Anti-Malware will scan programs or modifications which will be initiated at computer startup. In other words, it will scan every program that often opens when you start your computer.
Scan Registry – on this step, Malwarebytes will check your registry for malicious objects, potential threats,s or empty registry keys and offer you to remove them.
Scan File System – will look for malicious programs or code snippets on your local disk drives.
Heuristic Analysis – well this honestly the most interesting part in whole scan. Their heuristic analysis is something that covers mystery. Every scan detects the most viruses, then the whole “chain”. This is what we find in their documentation – “Analysis methods which we employ in the previously-mentioned objects – as well as in other areas – which are instrumental in the detection of and protection against threats, as well as the ability to assure that the threats cannot reassemble themselves.”

It’s tough to understand what is going on without tips or little guidance in the program. There was one thing we didn’t notice on your first run – Malwarebytes Anti-Malware has different scans. If you press the “Scan” tab after you press the “Finish” button after you are done with your scan, you will notice that there are 3 different types of scans.

I can’t tell, but it’s a bad move of developers. Maybe the user wants to make another type of scan, but they didn’t show it on the first run; they just ran a “recommended” scan.
So what they differ in this type:

Threat Scan – this type of scan includes the scans what we describe before: Memory Objects, Startup Objects, Registry Objects, Filesystem Objects, Heuristic Analysis
Custom Scan – allows you to scan according to specifications which you define at the time of the scan. All other Malwarebytes scans are performed according to a set of specifications that you define in the settings. So this scan would be faster, but still, there is a threat that you will miss part of your PC where the virus can be installed.
Hyper Scan – this scanning option is only available to users who purchase Malwarebytes Anti-Malware license key or still have Trial versions. This scanning method is limited to detecting immediate threats and includes only: Memory Objects, Startup Objects, and Heuristic Analysis. We don’t know why this type is recommended, but it’s fast and has great detection.

After completing the scan, you will see the results and what Malwarebytes has many false in the detect. Well, it’s nothing critical about it, but if the user doesn’t understand anything, he can just remove something good from the computer. It’s perfect that this anti-malware has quarantine where you can see all the files and restore them.

And now the “settings” tab – the biggest tab in the whole program. Few words before a detailed description. In settings, you can manage many options, but if you aren’t sure what will change, don’t change them. So the settings tab contains:

General Settings: Allow you to customize your main options like language, notification and Windows Explorer integration.
Malware Exclusions: Here you can add files what are saved, but was detected by Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Every file or folder that you add here wound is scanned anymore.
Web Exclusions: Malwarebytes has realtime protection what will automatically block any suspicious website, so here you can add site what was blocked, but trusted by you.
Detection Settings: Well, you shouldn’t touch this setting if you not sure about the result. Here you set the behavior for Malwarebytes and how it should react to infected or suspicious files.
Update Settings: Nothing in here. Set how often you will receive notifications about the database being outdated.
History Settings: Here you can set where you want to save all log files, so you can check what the program do on your computer.
Access Policies: “Who can do what.” This is of value when multiple people use the same computer.
Advanced Settings: Average setting what you can see in every program. Here you can set it if you want to run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware after startup. An interesting option is “Self-protection,” which will block every process that doesn’t let Malwarebytes run. This is a great option if you have some dangerous virus that blocks every antivirus you are trying to open.
Automated Scheduling: Scheduling of scans and updates
About: Program version number and third-party license notices

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware isn’t free too and has a 15-day trial. You can use the scan or even remove viruses, but if you want full protection, you should buy it.

There are two types of licenses – For home and For business:

For home 1 year license – 24.95$ for one computer.
For home 2 years license – 39.95$ for one computer.
For business – 49.99$ for one computer.

And now it’s time for some test Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

Like in the previous review, we get 10 new viruses and let’s see how Malwarebytes Anti-Malware will detect them. Even before heuristic analysis, it detects all 10 files. We can be sure that Malwarebytes has an up-to-date virus database that can save your PC from any threat.

Unfortunately, it also detects the color Chrome extension (Weather and Sound Cloud) and offers to remove it. If you ignore this fact – Malwarebytes has done its work completely.