Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro 1.70

Quite a few antivirus companies run on a "freemium" model, giving away free antivirus protection but encouraging users to buy their commercial product for improved protection. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro 1.70 ($24.95 direct; $59.85 for three licenses) does include the powerful malware cleanup technology found in the company's free tool. It adds real-time protection, malicious website blocking, and scheduling of scans and updates, but the added components really aren't worth the price. On the plus side, if you do buy the Pro edition you don't need to pay again, ever.

Malwarebytes Pro looks virtually identical to the free edition. It still focuses strongly on malware cleanup, opening directly to the scanning page rather than to a home page of status and statistics. But in the Pro edition the controls on the Protection tab are live, and the buttons to buy or activate the commercial product aren't present.

Top-Notch Malware Cleanup
Malwarebytes is widely known as the go-to product when entrenched malware prevents installation of your commercial antivirus. Tech support agents from other companies may resort to running Malwarebytes when customers can't get their software installed.

I frequently find that just getting a product installed on my twelve malware-infested test systems takes days of back-and-forth with tech support. Malwarebytes installed without a hitch; I finished all twelve installations in less than an hour.

In my malware cleanup tests, Malwarebytes beat all of the competition, free and paid, by a wide margin. Comodo Internet Security Complete 2013, Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus 2013, and Norton AntiVirus (2013) all scored 6.6 points for malware removal, while Malwarebytes scored 7.1.

Looking specifically at free products, AVG Anti-Virus FREE 2013 came quite close to the previous top trio, with 6.5 points for malware removal.

The last time I tested Malwarebytes, it wasn't very effective against rootkits. This time around, it detected every single sample that uses rootkit technology to hide and scored 8.2 points for rootkit cleanup. Comodo holds the current best score for rootkit cleanup, with 9.8 points, and Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2013) managed 9.4 points, but Malwarebytes's score is still quite good.

For an explanation of my testing and scoring techniques, see How We Test Malware Removal.

Zero Lab Results
Most antivirus vendors submit their products for testing to various independent labs. A great score in these tests can be a real boost. However, in most cases vendors must pay to participate, and it's tough to justify that when the product is free. AVG is one exception; they submit their free product for testing specifically to show that it contains their top-tier protection. Malwarebytes relies instead on word of mouth and reputation; none of the labs I follow test Malwarebytes.

The chart below summarizes how the labs have treated other recent products. For more about the labs and their tests, see How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/x-xCk2ScjyA/0,2817,2415302,00.asp

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