Davidtoo

Hi folks, I know in the past there has been a controversy over using Malwarebytes with bitdefender, some say it's fine, others say not recommended. I have used the two together for about two years, since I ditched Kaspersky. A few weeks ago, on a pretty fast 2 year old computer with a SSD drive, I ran into my first problem. I was attempting to install the latest Windows 11 software and did so. For some reason, I never figured out, the computer crashed. I could not get the computer recovery to work,so I ended up having to reinstall Windows. I did so, and two days later my computer crashed again, so had to reinstall Windows again after completely wiping all data off of my drive (still reinstalling data with carbonite, over 550 G). I never had notice of any malware from Bitdefender or Malwarebytes. I am wondering what caused the crashes. I have read that when two antivirus programs compete for the same space to fight invading malware, it can degrade the ability of both antiviruses, then if you had only one. So two questions: (1) Are Malwarebytes and Bitdefender a good fit together, or should I Use only one or the other. Even if I don't notice the computer slowing down or having an issue, are the abilities of the two antiviruses compromised because of the way the antivirus programs compete with each other. (2) Could running the two antivirus programs together have caused some sort of conflict that crashed my system beyond being able to be recovered? After reinstalling windows I did run diagnostics and everything seems good. I don't want to give up on either Bitdefender or Malwarebytes, but I will give up on one of them if I am better off than with both of them. Has anything changed about their compatibility? Thanks Much Davetoo

Question though... I notice Windows Defender real time is not ON and I can't find a way to turn it on. Is Windows Defender needed with the latest malwarebytes or should I figure out how to make both run at the same time. I'm okay with using just Malwarebytes if we have to...but....

My wife's Windows 10 laptop unbearably slow. Did everything I could to optimize it. Finally I removed Kaspersky and replaced it with Malwarebytes. Ten times faster. This computer will get by with Windows defender and malwarebytes. Not sure why Kaspersky slowed the computer down so much. I have no problems with Kasperksy on my other computers...maybe its gremlins.

Thanks. I'm guessing the only way it could do that is by constantly having spiders scanning the web, which is so large, must be very powerful software to do that.

I'm also curious because I am again using malwarebytes alongside Kaspersky, where for a long time I relied only on Kaspersky. But Kaspersky let me down for the first time. I went to a site for information, and a minute or two later, Kaspersky warned me I had been infected with fileless software. Kaspersky detected the virus, successfully deleted it, but in the process I found I had some corrupt Windows files which I could not repair with a Scan or any other way, so ultimately I had to reinstall Windows. So if Malwarebytes would have prevented the infection to begin with, that would be a big plus. I'm kind of surprised that Kaspersky let it on my machine to begin with.

Exactly what does Malwarebytes do? I went to a legit website to purchase a product, submitted my credit card number, sent it, got a thank you and then all of a sudden I got a Malwarebytes blocked site due to Trojan alert. I don't think it was the site I was on, but apparently something on that site threw me to a rogue site? Which got me thinking, I know malwarebytes has a data base of bad ip addresses, but there must be thousands of sites added every day that have dangerous links or exploits, so does malwarebytes scan every website you go to for malware before giving you an alert, or is it simply based on the malwarebytes data base or both?

Just installed Kaspersky Office Security 8, the newest version. It required deletion of malwarebytes claiming incompatibility. I know it was months before I could use malwarebytes with Kaspersky 7. I suppose I will need to wait again with this newest kaspersky version?

If I understand it, Version 4.1 is now compatible with Kaspersky? do I need to worry about exclusions?. I want the secondary protection of malwarebytes if at all possible. I caught a fileless malware from visiting a website the other day, and although Kasperky stopped it while in memory, I still wasted time as kaspersky used advanced processes to disinfect the computer. Then I had to reset my Chrome account to stop popups. Kaspersky worked well but I was a little irritated it allowed the exploit onto the machine to begin with.

Unless or until Malwarebytes and Kaspersky reach an agreement on compatibility, I have learned to just go with Kaspersky. I have several long term licenses available for malwarebytes and two of them are used on my daughters' apple computers. The others simply will lie inactive. I use windows though and I just don't think anything can beat Kaspersky for overall solid protection. I still use Malwarebytes free to scan but it never finds anything because I assume Kaspersky lets nothing in. I would love to use Malwarebytes as secondary protection, but if they are not compatible they are not compatible, so that is the way it goes I guess.

Thank you Exile. Can you keep us updated when there is compatibility again? For now, I am just going to go with Kaspersky, but would still prefer Malwarebytes too, not only as secondary, but because I noticed it warned about about and blocked exploits from some web pages that Kaspersky seemed to miss, or at least Malwarebytes detected the exploits first.. Thanks.

Same thing just happened to me. I uninstalled malwarebytes this time. No matter what I did in the past, no matter what exclusions I put in, Malwarebytes still was blocking kaspersky in some of its applications. They both seemed to be working okay anyway, and would like to continue using Malwarebytes...but not if somehow it impairs the performance of Kaspersky.

I have used every possible exclusion, but no matter what I have done I have to accept Kaspersky and Malwarebytes are not compatible per the attached screenshot. So my question is with Malwarebytes services being blocked by Kaspersky, is Malwarebytes doing me any good? All of the modules are green and appear to be functioning, and malwarebytes has blocked malicious websites on my computer. So what am I losing? If Malwarebytes is being blocked from doing its primary job, maybe I should simply remove it from my computer and live with Kaspersky by itself? I liked the secondary backup of malwarebytes....but if it can't do its job because it is blocked what is the point? I still use malwarebytes as primary on our apple computers which my daughters have. Any opinions?

The answer really comes down to what you want to protect imho. My daughters use only Malwarebytes on their macs...and that likely is good enough. But I would never rely solely on malwarebytes on my windows computer...why? because I use my computer for work and not only would downtime cost me money, but would make available confidential information for my clients. I can't and won't take that chance..so I use malwarebytes for secondary protection and rely on what I believe is the best security out there...kaspersky, with 30 levels of protection..far better than windows defender as far as I am concerned. Kaspersky also finds and eliminates most email malicious links which malwarebytes does not check. I.e., the issue is what is your risk if your security is breached. If it is simply a matter of having to reinstall your operating system, may not be that much of a big deal. If it is a matter of downtime and loss of confidential info...much bigger deal. I learned my lesson years ago when I relied only on Symantec endpoint, and then did not update the virus engine as the years went by, only updating the signature database.......penny wise pound foolish...that cost me a lot. Never again.

Exile, I will say one thing with the caveat that I know Kaspersky is a much larger company with far many more "experts" on its programming staff...but having been using it for years now....I never recall a time when an update caused a problem with my computer. Once a year I upload the new program, always flawlessly...other than that it updates itself behind the scenes. Just saying. Last January the issue with Malwarebytes is old news now, but caused quite a problem at the time, and then there was a small blip what, a month ago or so on some Win 7 computers? There is nothing that hurts Malwarebytes reputation more than defective updates....seems to me Malwarebytes, even if it means a slower updating schedule, should do more testing on various platforms before actually releasing anything...........I still use Malwarebytes as secondary protection and put it on my daughters' macs as primary protection, so I am happy with the program...but I see where the OP is coming from.

Thanks folks...I do have advanced disinfection technology enabled in Kaspersky as well as rootkit scan and safe money. I am unwilling to turn any of these off...I use Safe Money all of the time, and not sure what advanced disinfection technology does, not a clear description on the web, but if it works on memory processes and prevents malware from taking hold, it is obviously important. Interestingly, I went to this site to test malwarebytes web protection, ip block notification, http://iptest.malwarebytes.org and that seems to work on my computer too...see below... So bottom line, I will keep using Kaspersky as my primary defense with all protections enabled and will keep using malwarebytes as secondary protection. Not sure what I am losing due to the Kaspersky blocks, but with its different layers, it must be doing something. It is a lifetime license I use, so its not costing me anything at this point. Thanks for your advice.

Really, If every computer user on the planet knows this, why don't the experts at malwarebytes know this? Thank you exile, but I have to assume that HIPS is part of Kaspersky's "system watcher" and sure it can be turned off...but best as I can tell there is no way to exclude anything...anyway, that is the part of the program that protects malicious activity, like Ransomware, from infecting your computer ..stops it cold and rolls back the damages...so I guess I will continue using both and not worry about whatever Kaspersky is blocking. I know that Malwarebytes still works because it has prevented exploits in the past and has blocked me going to malicious websites...so I may not get full functionality out of it...but at least I get some...

best I can tell...everything in malwarebytes is trusted by kaspersky and its firewall...and yet it still blocks the service.

Here are my kaspersky firewall rules regarding malwarebytes...if you or anyone can make a suggestion as to what I should add or delete or edit.....to get the memory process working......

The only detail I can come up with using Kaspersky is the attached. I have no idea if or how to figure out what role the firewall is playing....I suspect that Kaspersky will block memory processes no matter what is excluded due to the danger they pose..but I am speculating there.....

No matter what I have done exclusion wise, Kaspersky always blocks malwarebyte services on my win7 pro computer...attached are my exclusions and kaspersky report...if anybody has any suggestions... thanks. Otherwise, this has been going on forever, and I assume Kaspersky will continue blocking memory processes and Malwarebytes will still do what it is supposed to do in the background.

By the way, I do use Malwarebytes business anti exploit on the server and malwarebytes premium on the desktops as secondary protection. I feel comfortable that between the two programs...we will have no problems regardless of what the staff opens in email or not.

Thanks...interesting article and I will go with just Malwarebytes on the macs...but not on my windows computers.....The article says Windows defender is good enough supplanted with Malwarebytes...and that "But the best protection is layers and good habits:.......They can talk about good habits all they want...but I have an office with several staff members who will open up malicious but innocent looking email items no matter how much training they have. Before Kaspersky (sans malwarebytes), I used Symantec and before Symantec free AV programs...and managed to get infected no matter what program I was using. In one case, my secretary, even with Symantec End Point, managed to infect her computer so badly, it was being used as some sort of botnet to store hundreds of viruses....the infection made it over to our server and trashed the server too...never made it to my computer from the server though because Kaspersky cut off the network before any harm could be done. that was it...all computers in the office used Kaspersky Internet Security (or Kaspersky small office...same thing...as Kaspersky Total Security). Even with Kaspersky, my staff has opened up packed files and dropbox phishing mail that was not detected initially, but was stopped in its tracks by Kaspersky and then the damage rolled back. So this is the way I see it....the downtime from an infection can cost thousands of dollars...the investment in a top quality program like Kaspersky backed up by malwarebytes is a relatively minimal cost and other than the malwarebytes fiasco last January...my computers having been running smoothly since I adapted Kaspersky paid version a few years back....I do not trust Windows Defender to be as good as Kaspersky....the only other program I might consider for my windows computers would be Bitdefender...but since nothing has penetrated our computers since adapting Kaspersky backed up by malwarebytes...for windows that is what I am sticking with. I am not taking the chance of being hit with Ransomware etc...which I have no doubt Kaspersky has prevented several times in the last few years.

I have been using windows forever...and I use Malwarebytes premium on top of Kaspersky. Kaspersky provides firewall, mail scans, etc. protection and lets nothing through...and Malwarebytes I consider secondary protection just in case something gets by Kaspersky. And it has come in handly blocking rogue websites and exploits before detected by Kaspersky. My daughters use Mac and have done so without any sort of malware protection. Recently I installed malwarebytes premium on their computers and it did, on a scan, detect four malware threats and quarantined them on my daughter's college computer, which she has been using for three years now. Not sure what the malware was, one of the threats had gibberish letters.. Which brings up the question.....is Malwarebytes for mac enough...I know mac has its own security superior to that of windows...and is not targeted like windows is, but lately I have been reading that mac is becoming more of a target. Also reading that malwarebytes for mac is lacking since it does not have a firewall and does not prevent phishing. I don't know if the issue about phishing is accurate, but I do know kaspersky on my windows computers has regularly prevented phishing...which lately seems to be very sophisticated...fake dropbox emails, fake shareone emails etc...and Kaspersky blocks these sites or prevents malicious downloads. I have some extra kaspersky licenses lying around, but don't want to activate them yet and waste them on the Mac if not necessary. Opinions? Thanks.

Just in case this helps...something I noticed about my computer.... I have a Win 7 64 Pro myself...no freezes at all. I just looked at my Kaspersky Report which I do once a week or so, and Kaspersky routinely blocks Malwarebytes from using memory processes...even though I have excluded Malwarebytes in Kaspersky and exlcuded kaspersky in Malwarebytes settings. Perhaps therefore the memory processes which are not allowed to operate on my computer have something to do with this Freezing. Just speculating here....but could be I suppose.

FWIW, I use Windows 7 Pro on my computer. I did not use my computer the last ten days of December, being on vacation, but upon returning in early January, I did not and have not noticed any Freezing problems, and I use my computer a lot. I did however notice some other issues...programs not working properly, etc, not able to access the web using I.E., error notices, etc. I used the software at Tweak.com to reset everything....and so far the computer seems to be working fine. I also ran an SFC /scannow scan and a have some corrupt and non-repairable files, and per Tweak.com, I also have a number of corrupt package files....still as long as the Computer works, I will avoid reinstalling Pro. I have no idea whether malwarebytes had anything to do with this...it keeps on working along with Kaspersky in the background.