Anti-Malware

good
key review info
application features
  • Quick Scan
  • (4 more, see all...)

When somebody says "malware" I automatically think of all computer pests that may affect my system's "judgement" and well being. Combating malware seems to be like a constant occupation of every computer user running Windows. The good thing is that we have an entire suite for fighting and eliminating it from the system. And when elimination tools come with heuristic capabilities then there is little to be afraid of.

But there is still a chance for the sneaky pests to infect your computer and cause some damage, so another tool promising better protection is always welcome for a test. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is a new instrument to fight the nasties lurking on the Internet for yet another victim. The application is in beta stage for now and not all the options and functions are implemented. Also, there are non-functional options here and there so don't expect everything to be neatly arranged and ready to assist you.

The interface is plain and simple to use, with no bells and whistles and there is nothing uncomfortable about the menu. All the options are displayed in the upper part of the screen and include a scanner, a monitor which is actually a real-time protection module, update menu, quarantine and ignore list, settings menu and some additional tools the developer thought you may find helpful.

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware scan system allows performing a quick scan or a full scan, depending on your needs. Based on Malwarebytes' Vortex scanning technology, quick scan will scour your computer for nasties in the most common malware hiding places. This type of scan is recommended to be run as often as possible. After the completion of this process the application showed all the malware detected on the system and in our case it detected Sammsoft's Advanced Registry Optimizer as doing nasty things on the computer. This is an obvious case of false positives, so I suggest keeping the eyes wide open at the scan report.

With full scan you get to benefit from the entire power of Anti-Malware as it'll search deeper into the drive for mischievous files. Unfortunately the operation may take longer than anticipated. During our testing the application needed more than 30 minutes to scan system drive (about 24GB of data). So it seems like speed is not its advantage considering that an antivirus will do a full system scan in this amount of time.

In neither case (quick and short system scan) the application will not display an estimated time for completing the job. There is no way to determine how much there is to scan, either. This feature is important enough so I hope final version will incorporate it.

Final version of Malwarebytes' Anti Malware will incorporate a real-time protection module. However, as this is just a beta version of the product this module is not yet functional (Monitor tab). Judging by the message in Monitor window it seems that there will be a paid version of the software that requires buying real-time protection module. The evaluated version did not allow neither accessing Test Monitor nor purchasing buttons, only registration being available.

Settings area permits a minimum configuration of the application and currently only four options are available. You get to terminate Internet Explorer during removal of malware, enable automatic log saving after all nasties have been removed, report to Malwarebytes' Threat Center anonymously and enable/disable Windows Explorer context menu. Scan scheduling is also present but it is greyed out both on Vista and XP systems.

Additional options available for now in Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware let you report bugs directly to the developer in view of improving the software and send false positives detected by the application. For more accurate information bug reporting should always be accompanied by a proper bug report. This can be done automatically by clicking Collect Information button. The report contains all the activity that took place while using the program.

A collateral tool included in the program is FileAssassin. The instrument is designed to delete those stubborn files on your system that just don't want to be flushed away. The tool works like a charm. Although the effect is not on the spot, it will delete a file even if it is in use by God knows what service or program.

I repeated the test with scanning system drive and it seems that the application takes its time with the operation. The process was started an hour and 25 minutes ago and after scanning 171400 files it seems that there is no malware. However, the scan is not over yet and there must be at least a tracking cookie to remove.

The Good

The interface is as simple as can be and this makes it extremely easy to handle. You can check for updates with a single click of a button and it also comes equipped with bug collecting tool, bug and false positive report to the developer.

The Bad

Full scan of system drive is not something you'd want Malwarebytes' Anti Malware to do just now. During the scan the application heated up the CPU a bit, fluctuating up to 84% of usage.

The Truth

It is an early beta and it shows. There are still lots of issues to fix and options to implement. My opinion is that there is not yet the time to use the software regularly. During our testing it picked up false positives like no other malware scanner.

Note: Rating is set to default due to beta stage of the application.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

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user interface 3
features 3
ease of use 3
pricing / value 3


final rating 3
Editor's review
good
 
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