Coldblackice

I did ask for help in the posts above -- What's causing these: ...continuing and frequent CPU spikes?...massively slowed system bootups?...definition updates that fail to update over and over? And also -- How can I get rid of the big red "Your system is not fully protected" banner (without enabling website protection)? As for the logs -- does it matter when they're taken? In other words, should I take them right after an issue occurs, like a CPU spike, failed update, or slowed bootup? Or are they more general, and not mattering when they're captured?

This post very similarly represents much of my own experience with the recent 2.0 change, even down to the flurry of clients, friends, and family that are now banging on my door for support because this once-golden piece of software that I've recommended to them is now breaking, slowing, erroring, and failing, ad nauseum. This is beyond frustrating, and given the uncannily similar and correlated experiences between forum users over the past few months, it's clear that the bulk of the issue(s) is with the software, not the client machines -- resetting, rebooting, reinstalling -- these are stopgap fixes that work for the people who aren't aware of support forums. It's like taking a malfunctioning car to a professional mechanic and being asked again and again if the client put petrol in the car first before trying anything.

And side-question -- is there a way to disable the big blaring red banner that yells at me that my system isn't "fully protected" every time I'm in MBAM settings (and also yelled at via the taskbar tray icon's red exclamation)? I intentionally do not want malicious website protection enabled, but I'd also prefer MBAM not screaming at me via this big red-bannered-alert for it every time I'm inside the UI. I've searched for a way to get rid of it, but the only thing that seems possible is "Fix Now", which merely enables the website protection module.

Since the initial 2.0 update, I've patiently held my tongue with the ever-continuing flurry of problems with MBAM -- massively slower scanning,sporadic crashes,glitchy settings/administration,heavily slowed-down bootup,UI clunkiness,broken updater,etc. The most frustrating annoyance is the continuing CPU spikes that come out of nowhere, unprovoked, even when no new files/caching are being actively accessed, even behind the scenes (I've ProcMon'd for such to be sure). Over the past few months, I've completely uninstalled, cleaned, and reinstalled MBAM in the hopes of shaking the glitchiness a number of times. I've even uninstalled/cleaned/reinstalled my antivirus (MSE), as well, and even before/after MBAM, too, to give MBAM a completely clean slate to set up and work with. I've run MBAM solo, and have also excluded them from each other's scanning, testing MBAM both with and without MSE enabled/disabled a number of times to make sure there's no conflict between. Despite all of this, however, the issues continue to rain down steadily, now months after the 2.0 update. This has gotten pretty ridiculous at this point, and feels like us customers are being used as unwitting "beta testers" for this MBAM release. This 2.0 update has seemed nowhere near a releasable state. I see other software betas that function better than this official release. I knew we were in for a bumpy ride when I first saw the 2.0 UI, looking overly "flashy" like the characteristic hostageware scanners that people get tricked into installing via popups. Of course, I'm not alluding that MBAM is hostageware, but I do fear that MBAM has taken to the all-too-familiar route in the software world: ...a grassroots piece software starts simply from the ground up, building a niche following of dedicated users who spread the word far and wide;the userbase grows and grows until it eventually reaches worldwide acclaim, suddenly attracting the attention of "big money";it's then systematically pumped full of features and UI redesigns, getting layers and layers of "features" and UI flashiness painted onto it like thick coats of paint;it starts to crumple from the weight of this, as the firehose of change continues pumping into it like a Thanksgiving turkey pumped full of stuffing;it starts bugging out and malfunctioning more and more, and yet the feature/UI pumping continues;it gradually devolves into an overreaching mess that loses complete sight of its initial grassroots simplicity that made it what was once known and loved by its early userbase;the userbase eventually packs their bags and journey out in an exodus-like search of the next grassroots software to get the job done, wherein the circle-of-life repeats once again.It's uncanny how commonly this path is traversed in the software world. See: Norton Antivirus, McAfee, Kaspersky, etc. Long story short -- When will this unwitting "beta test" end? Is this merely the beginning of MB's new corporate "empire", what with the flurried unrolling of more and more separately-packaged products that have been popping up lately like dandelions? I mean, really -- do we really need completely separate "anti-exploit", "anti-rootkit", "anti-virus", "anti-malware", "anti-mobile-malware" packages? It'd be like car dealerships suddenly cutting up their inventory into individualized components of "engine block", "suspension", "chassis", "electrical", etc., merely as a way of increasing their markup "surface area". C'mon guys, remember your roots. No one wants another "Norton" iteration, which is where this seems to be heading. And what's going on with these continuing sporadic CPU spikes, massively slowed system bootups, and definition databases that continue to fail updating over and over?