exile360

I've never seen these alerts and I also do not run any scheduled scans ever, and like you, I simply use the real-time protection and perform manual Threat scans occasionally. I am on Windows 7 though so the monitoring may be different there compared to Windows 10. It also could be that I just happen to run my manual scans frequently enough to prevent the alerts from being displayed as I do run scans as part of my regular maintenance and for testing purposes. Unfortunately I do not believe there is a way to disable alerts of this type, at least not in Malwarebytes. There may be an option to have the Windows Security Center not notify you about such issues, but I don't know if that would impact whether or not it continues to alert you about other issues such as protection being disabled or databases being out of date so that might not be the ideal solution either (I know that in Windows 7 for example, I can disable alerts about automatic Windows Updates being disabled since I perform my updates manually, again, as part of my system maintenance however it still performs monitoring for other components/issues).

Excellent, I hope that it works to fix this issue and I anxiously await your results

It's more like each of the browser extensions you use have their own block lists and capabilities. I wouldn't remove any of them, I'd just add Malwarebytes Browser Guard to them to augment my protection, because whenever you come across a site, tracker, ad or other element that would be blocked by multiple extensions, the first extension up in your browser's loading process will simply block the element and the other browser extensions will either be unaware of it or will log that they weren't able to do their redirect thing (logging an error because it was already blocked/redirected by one of the other extensions). These 'errors' are completely harmless and do not impact browser performance or the effectiveness of the affected extensions (I know from first-hand use across multiple browsers with MANY extensions installed (way more than you have ). Updating the driver manually will do that. You probably need to manually install the driver using its installer package or selecting the option to browse for the driver and select the folder where the driver files are stored for the new version (you'll need to extract them; they can't be within a ZIP archive or installer package) and it should then find and install the newer driver. The issue may be the result of a recently installed Windows update or a newly released version of Malwarebytes which triggered the issue to emerge. Hopefully updating the driver will resolve it, but definitely let us know if it does not.

Excellent, sounds like a plan. Good work on figuring out the thing with Ransomware Protection. I know these kinds of issues can be a real bear to track down, so I'm glad you didn't give up on finding which module was at fault. Now that we have that information fixing this should be much easier. I will also be reporting this compatibility issue with your camera software to the Product team so that they may work with QA and the Developers to hopefully correct this issue so that in the future no exclusions or special steps will be needed for users of such applications. Thank you for taking the time to report this and for allowing us to assist you.

Excellent, sounds like progress to me Now lets proceed with fixing this, shall we? Please begin by excluding the entire folder where your camera software is stored. I'm guessing somewhere under C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86), but I don't know for certain. Next, do the same for any other folders it writes to on a regular basis such as its data/temp folders (it likely uses one or more for storing clips in real-time as well as any long term recordings it is configured to retain). I don't know enough about the software to tell you where these would be, though I could probably come up with a list of probable locations, but lets try to make it easy. With Ransomware Protection disabled, run Process Monitor and look to see what folder(s) your camera software is interacting with, then check the paths/folder names and contents of the folder(s) to verify that they belong to the camera software, then add those folders as exclusions from detection as ransomware in Malwarebytes (this option must be selected as there are multiple types of exclusions in Malwarebytes even though there is a single list in the interface). You can get a copy of Process Monitor here. It is a Microsoft Sysinternals tool used for monitoring system and application activity (such as reads, writes, deletes etc. to files, folders and the registry) and if you configure a filter in Process Monitor to show only entries from your camera software's process, it should quickly show you where the software is doing its work (though the camera software must be running and working for them to show up in Process Monitor). You'll find details about using Process Monitor here if needed. If you need further help just let us know and we can provide more detailed instructions. Thanks

Unfortunately I believe the automated reply/email bot thing only responds initially with a generic reply. They could drop something in there about the possible delay but they probably don't want to do that in case they are actually able to respond timely, which in most cases they probably can, at least for simple issues and quick fixes (they likely have macros to respond to multiple tickets/users with the same instructions for fixing common problems, at least that's how I'd do it if I were them, though I'd make sure to read each ticket thoroughly and not just the title to make sure that my instructions apply to the situation and that there are no further issues which need to be addressed). In the case of a license validation, if I'm right about all the detective work necessary in some instances (like if Newegg wasn't great about keeping records back then, as I believe it was back when they first started allowing third party sellers on their site the way that Amazon, Wal-Mart and others now do in order to compete with ebay (and Amazon)) then that might also be a factor in your specific case, but I really don't know. That's just my own speculation. With that said, I have spoken with staff members about the support helpdesk situation and they are well aware of it, and it is my understanding that they are working diligently to improve things, but unfortunately it takes time to train people, especially when they have to learn the ins and outs of not only the product, but all products, as well as all of the systems, licensing, databases etc. so it's not exactly a quick process to go from being a new hire and jumping into helping customers. I don't want to make excuses, but I have seen a change recently and I believe that Malwarebytes is simply adapting to this change as quickly as they are able and it's just rough going for a bit right now as they work to ramp things up. Hopefully all this debate and frustration is for nothing and they will soon have everything sorted and moving at a faster pace, but in the meantime I just hope that more people find the forums first instead of thinking that they need to write an email directly to someone in the company to get the help they need, because in most instances this is not at all the case. There are a lot of things that we can help with here, pretty much any technical issue, malware removal, diagnostics, crashes, bugfixes, troubleshooting, and even reporting feedback to the Product team (and yes, I will definitely be reporting on this issue with the helpdesk, though I know they are already aware of the problem).

I understand that you are frustrated, and the current support situation is not ideal. Frankly they do seem to be kind of overwhelmed right now. This is one of the reasons I keep hoping that more users will come HERE for help instead of creating a ticket on the helpdesk, because I know that they have been pretty badly backed up for a while now. The fact of the matter is, neither you nor I know the financials of this company. It is entirely possible that they simply cannot afford, or just haven't completed their efforts to increase their support staff. These longer delays are a fairly recent development so I expect that they are hiring more people (in fact, I just took a look at the career postings on the main site and they indeed are hiring for lots of positions right now, particularly in support services and customer success which are all related to assisting customers and potential customers). I believe that they simply have more to deal with right now than they are equipped to, but they are ramping up hiring to improve the situation. My hope is that more people will realize that the forums are here and skip the helpdesk as we can usually help with most issues (though obviously not license specific issues, as I mentioned since we have no access to the licensing system) and I guarantee that the vast majority of tickets they're having to deal with are the same kinds of technical issues that we solve every day here on the forums.

What about 2 at a time? Did you try disabling Ransomware Protection and Web Protection? What about self-protection, which isn't available in the tray's context menu but only found under the advanced startup settings in Malwarebytes? Does it work if you disable all 4 but leave Malwarebytes running, or do you have to fully quit Malwarebytes to get it to work?

No, what I meant by business volume sales is selling business products to corporate entities, governments and businesses that deploy and use the product, not resellers and retail channels for consumer licenses like Newegg and Amazon. The consumer license/product makes up a small portion of the company's total revenue as I understand it, which makes sense as most security companies generate most of their income through business licenses these days (even the likes of Symantec, McAfee, Microsoft, Google and many others) because of the sheer volume.

I have no idea, but chances are if it is taking a while it is because they are either very busy (especially since we just had a national holiday here in the US during which they were no doubt short staffed as mentioned), or because it is taking time to get into contact with whoever it is they must check with on validating older retail lifetime keys. Malwarebytes did a massive license migration sometime back during which most lifetime license customers upgraded their product to the latest version, went through a simple automated validation process, and received new license keys in the new format which would be tracked and maintained in the new system. During this time the vast majority of Malwarebytes lifetime license customers were migrated into the new system and are now enjoying their lifetime licenses which are tied to their accounts and they will never have to deal with any questions about the validity of their licenses again. Unfortunately there were many different sales channels for licenses in the early days, and all licenses were lifetime, so tracking down and validating every one of those keys, validating who it was provided to and when they sold it and to whom is all information that they must validate and that detective work can take time. They have made great efforts to catalog as much of the old data as possible, however not every retailer/reseller was the best at keeping good records so this is where the challenge comes in and why they must be diligent in ensuring that each key they validate into the new system is truly legit, especially since there are a LOT of scammers out there still selling lifetime keys which are pirated or created by keygens. I'm sure that they will validate your license, and I'm sure that it is taking a while for a reason, however I also believe that you just need to have a bit of patience and that it is too early to claim that you are being taken advantage of or ignored. I don't know how busy they are right now and neither do you, so for either of us to assume that anything nefarious is going on would be premature and it is best to just wait and see what happens. I'm sure that a member of the staff here on the forums can look up your support ticket and check on the status for you and find out what is going on and hopefully expedite things, but coming here and claiming that you were ripped off I think is jumping to conclusions at this point.

Sure, bad USBs, fake keyboards/keyloggers and tons of other physical dangers and infection vectors, but generally speaking the bad guys have to run some kind of code on the system to leverage any of those attack vectors, so staying clean is actually much easier as long as your outer defenses are good and you don't go picking up mysterious flash drives you find lying on the ground and go plugging them into every device that you own.

It sounds like you provided proof of purchase so they should be able to validate your license. I don't know what response you would expect from a member of Support when you mention creating a review, but since public relations isn't really their area of expertise I assume they probably aren't going to address that part of your message and will just deal with the license issue. I am sorry that you've had a difficult experience, however I know that Malwarebytes are anything but scammers and have handled the license transition as well as can be expected given the circumstances, and in fact I have seen plenty of instances where they issued new lifetime keys to users who had their valid keys pirated/stolen, so it isn't about 'greed'. Malwarebytes cares as little or even less about that $23 as you do I assure you, and they have nothing to gain from trying to get a handful of lifetime license customers to pony up for a yearly subscription. Their current business model makes most of its profits from business volume sales, which is what finances the vast majority of the company, including the consumer version. They aren't so desperate for funds that they would scam a lifetime license purchaser deliberately out of their lifetime license key, and I have seen plenty of occasions where they showed more than reasonable patience and generosity with users and customers, accommodating them with free licenses so I know it is not a scam. They are hard working people who believe in what they do, and their primary goal is to develop great products to fight malware and protect privacy. They aren't interested in nickel and diming every potential customer that they can get in front of, otherwise they would spend a LOT more on advertising/marketing, yet compared to most vendors, Malwarebytes hardly does any advertising at all. They let word of mouth and their reputation speak for them, and while you obviously aren't a fan right now, if they truly were out to scam people there would be many more voices like yours out there shouting against them, yet this is not nor has it ever been the case. I hope that your license issue is quickly resolved and that they are able to validate your license key, however if you wish to have a debate about the moral fiber of the company then this is the wrong place for that conversation. You can do as you say and go right a review on an appropriate venue. The customer help support forums is not the place for it. This is where people reach out who require assistance and we help them. The helpdesk where you created a support ticket is where Malwarebytes Support assists customers with issues, including with all license/subscription related queries.

Are you able to access your cameras if you disable just the Web Protection component in Malwarebytes? What about if you disable just the Ransomware Protection component? It is important to narrow down, if possible, which component(s) of protection is/are causing the issue. Please try disabling each protection one at a time, waiting about 30 seconds to allow the protection component to finish unloading itself, then try accessing the cameras to see if it works. You can disable each by right-clicking the Malwarebytes tray icon in the notification area near the system clock and clicking on the name of each protection component then clicking Yes when prompted by User Account Control. I also noticed in your logs that it shows that UAC is not set to its defaults. Malwarebytes, like most other modern Windows applications, is designed to be fully UAC compatible and compliant, and this also means that if UAC is disabled it could cause unforeseen issues when installing and using Malwarebytes. I would strongly advise resetting UAC to its defaults, not only for application compatibility, but especially for security of the system. Instructions on restoring UAC to its defaults can be found in this article. Here is the UAC setting from the logs: UAC Settings ================================== EnableLUA: On Consent Prompt Behavior Admin: Off With all of that said, if the cameras use IPv6 for communication on the network then it might be a problem with the Web Protection component as there is currently a known issue which some users encounter with IPv6 connectivity that is being investigated by the Malwarebytes Developers. It is also possible if the camera recording software is writing a lot of data to disk and deleting a lot of data as well (to manage space etc.), that the Ransomware Protection component's monitoring is interfering with the cameras' software. If this is the case then disabling Ransomware Protection should allow the cameras to work and likewise, excluding the appropriate process that is doing all of the writes/deletes should eliminate the issue as long as they are excluded from detection as ransomware (an option when creating exclusions). I hope this helps and that this issue can quickly be resolved. Thanks

This is a pretty old thread. I understand that you are upset, but posting the same response to numerous threads here on the forums is not the way to get assistance. Also be advised that the first response email to any support ticket that is created is generally from a bot/auto-reply function, not an actual support agent so this may be the reason 3 days past without a response, especially since the helpdesk has been very busy lately (it usually takes anywhere from 3 to 5 business days to get a response from a support agent as I understand it, and during holidays and weekends they are also short staffed so it is worse then and for a time afterwards as they return to work and try to get caught up).

Kind of old news, but on a similar subject: https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/19/malware-firmware-exploit-sense-security/ https://www.eweek.com/security/new-russian-malware-can-embed-itself-in-pc-firmware https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/equation-hdd-malware/7623/ There have also been others. I remember not too long ago a blackhat talk about infecting the firmware of hardware devices and how many hardware vendors made it quite easy due to lack of basic things like signature validation/hash verification etc. so it's nothing new and has been around as long as devices uses firmware to control them (which is pretty much forever as far as computing goes).

You may end up needing to disable one of the system hardening or policy based protections instead of creating an exclusion. If it is being blocked based on a generic rule/violation and not being detected as a specific exploit then this is probably the case, at least based on my observations of similar issues in the past.

I'm sorry that you experienced problems validating your lifetime license. Unfortunately early on the licensing system for Malwarebytes was much more primitive/basic and didn't have the capabilities that more modern licensing solutions provide. There were also a lot of issues in the past with keygens, rampant piracy, license key theft through malware and other means and so verifying ownership of a lifetime key is very important, however once a key is validated it is grandfathered into the modern licensing system and tied to your account so that you should never have any issues with key validation again. Unfortunately because of the past issues I mentioned, this also means that it is sadly not always possible to validate ownership without sufficient proof of purchase information. This is why I always keep any emails, receipts and other information from any lifetime license products I buy, just in case there is an issue in the future in attempting to validate my license. I am truly sorry that you ended up losing your license key and I am sure that Malwarebytes Support did all they could to aid you and I don't know the particulars of your case, but I do hope that you are able to somehow provide to them whatever information is required to get your license validated and linked to your account in the modern system. Here on the forums we do not have access to the licensing system, so for anyone having any problems getting their license key to work or needing to look up their license key, please submit a support ticket by clicking the Submit a ticket link at the top of this page.

Yes, you fill out the form to sign up and once you have signed up an agent should contact you via email using the email address you provided when signing up as a partner.

Greetings @jackswag1, Please read and follow the instructions in this topic, skipping any steps you are unable to complete, then create a new topic in our malware removal area by clicking here and one of our malware removal specialists will assist you in checking your system for threats and removing any that are found. It sounds like your system may have been infected so that is the first place to start before trying to troubleshoot any issues with Malwarebytes. Our malware removal specialists will guide you in what to do to get your system clean which will most likely fix the other issues you are experiencing. If it does not, then once they are done and give you the all clear that the system is clean of any infections you may return to the Malwarebytes product support area for assistance with troubleshooting Malwarebytes if necessary. Thanks

By the way, it gets much, much worse. The post that you linked to only showed images of what the various settings pages/tabs look like, but if you want to see something truly spectacular and cool looking (at least in my opinion), check out the main dashboard on the Mac version's Dark Mode theme as illustrated in this topic. I saw it when originally posted and wept a little, and once I found out it was not included in/could not be enabled in the Windows version I wept a lot All joking aside, it really does look awesome and whoever chose the palette and layout for the theme, especially that blue with those dark greys, it just looks amazing and they should be very proud of themselves, at least in my opinion.

Greetings, Yes, that is the now-infamous 'Dark Mode' theme which was released with the latest major version of Malwarebytes for Mac but sadly was not included in the major Malwarebytes for Windows release published around the same time. The Product team has commented on this and explained that they unfortunately just didn't have time to squeeze in the new theme for the Windows version in light of all the other major changes, enhancements and fixes that went into the Windows release so it came down to a matter of weighing priorities and making difficult decisions on which features to cut and which ones to keep given the specified timeframe and estimated effort on the part of the Developers to complete the planned feature list and bugfix list for the release. With that said, there is still hope. That same member of the Product team (a former co-worker of mine and all around awesome individual named Becky Dubrow) also stated that they are also envious of the sharp looking Dark Mode theme on the Mac version and have plans to replicate it in the Windows version sometime in the future, though the exact ETA is unknown though I expect it will likely either come with the next major UI/UX focused release (usually relegated to major point/number releases such as 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 etc. with a few exceptions), or they might just sneak it into one of the upcoming CU's or normal/less 'major' product version releases so I would advise keeping an eye on the changelogs and release notes here on the forums and on the Malwarebytes Support site, and of course keep your Malwarebytes up to date and check it on occasion to see if any of the product version numbers have changed or if any major update is being installed to see if the setting for the Dark Mode theme is included. I don't know where exactly it would appear within the UI, however my slightly educated guess would be either under 'General' or the new 'Display' tab in settings (with the latter being my own personal preference as the classification fits and it would be nice to have more than just the one setting under that tab). Anyway, I will inform the Product team that another customer has seen how much greener the grass is on the Mac side of things right now where they get to enjoy all that sweet Dark Mode bliss while we PC users are forced to just look at pictures of the pretty theme without being able to use it for the moment. If you have any further suggestions, feedback or ideas please don't hesitate to let us know. Thanks

Yes, the Support Helpdesk is separate and they can certainly assist you there, however the wait is likely to be much longer than seeking assistance here only because there are so many helpful staff members as well as dedicated volunteers who have been here for ages helping customers and users with the software so we should be able to get the problem resolved more quickly, assuming it is an issue that can be solved via a simple fix and doesn't require any sort of code rewriting on the part of Malwarebytes' Developers (though of course the Malwarebytes staff would be able to collect the info/logs etc. for troubleshooting any potential bugs in the software as well).

Yes, Malwarebytes Browser Guard will still augment your protection, particularly because of its behavior based capabilities. I haven't really checked the RAM usage of the individual extension over time or anything, but right now I've got 12 tabs open, many of which are rife with content being blocked by my many extensions (including tons blocked by Malwarebytes Browser Guard; it's tracker protection is also an excellent addition to tools like Ghostery, Disconnect and others in this vein) and the extension is currently using about 73K of RAM which is right around the middle of the stack for RAM usage according to the Task Manager built into Chromium (I'm using SRWare Iron) and far lower than several of the individual webpages themselves are using and less than HTTPS Everywhere, Ghostery, and uBlock Origin. I use a lot of add-ons and tools to help safeguard my privacy when surfing, not to mention stop as much of the garbage, malware, and ads as possible so adding Malwarebytes is a no-brainer for me, and I highly recommend at least giving it a try to see how you like it. If it ends up anything like my experiences then you'll hardly even know it's there unless you happen to try to visit a page that it blocks (where it will show a nice redirect page explaining why the page was blocked) or you happen to look up at the browser toolbar where the icon rests by default, showing its little number representing the number of objects/connection attempts it has blocked on the current tab/page.

Excellent, we're glad to hear it I guess the simplest solution turned out to be the correct one in this case. In the meantime, if you cannot return your messed up mouse you might check to see if any sort of cleaning or even a different mousepad/surface does make any difference, otherwise it might just be the mouse maker's drivers causing the issue (some bad behaving drivers could easily cause such an issue). Either way, I'm glad that the suggestion to swap mice from nukecad worked and I'll just chalk this up to a good lesson on remembering to first eliminate horses before I start looking for zebras in every issue that pops up.

Greetings, I'm sorry to hear about the issues you are experiencing but hopefully we can get them resolved quickly. First, we need to know if you are running Malwarebytes Premium; I assume so since it is registering with the Windows Security Center apparently but I just want to make sure in case it is some kind of issue with the free version causing the problem. It would also be helpful to provide diagnostic logs for troubleshooting purposes in case it is a bug so that the Malwarebytes team may analyze it to try and determine the cause and how to replicate it: Download and run the Malwarebytes Support Tool Accept the EULA and click Advanced tab on the left (not Start Repair) Click the Gather Logs button, and once it completes, attach the zip file it creates on your desktop to your next reply You may also try using the Start Repair function in the Support Tool to see if that is able to rectify the issue as it could simply be the result of a corrupt installation of Malwarebytes where one or more of its files got corrupted during an update. Next, I know you mentioned that you've used the two together for a long time, however there are actually some recently reported conflicts/issues with Avast and Malwarebytes on some systems, though the issue could simply be that since your registered AV in Security Center is Avast, Malwarebytes causes problems whenever it is active as it also tries to register with the Windows Security Center. To check if the latter is the issue please open Malwarebytes and navigate to settings by clicking the small gear icon in the upper right, then select the Security tab and under the Windows Security Center section, disable the option to have Malwarebytes register with the Windows Security Center, then restart your system and see if things return to normal, including launching Malwarebytes without any errors reported in Security Center. If that fails to resolve the issue then you might try at least temporarily disabling or removing Avast just to ensure it isn't connected to the issue somehow (the issue might be the result of a recent Avast program update, so I just want to rule it out as a possibility) and if successful in resolving the issue you may try reinstalling/re-enabling Avast and creating exclusions between the two applications if you haven't already. To do so, exclude the items listed in this support article from Avast, especially from any of its real-time protection components including any HIPS/firewall/behavior based components in Avast, then exclude Avast's main program folder (likely under C:\Program Files and/or C:\Program Files (x86)) as well as its primary data folder which is likely to be located under C:\ProgramData. Please let us know how it goes and if the issue still persists or not. Thanks