New Pro Install - Windows 7 Warning I Don't Have AntiVirus Protection

[TDRare]

I purchased and installed Malwarebytes Pro yesterday morning (after uninstalling Microsoft Security Essentials).  Windows 7 Action Center is now reporting that I do not have anti-virus protection.

 

The Malwabytes "Protection" tab shows all items checked as active.

 

Can I safely ignore this warning?  Is there a fix?

 

Thanks

[daledoc1]

Hi and , TDRare:

 

MBAM PRO is NOT an anti-virus and is not a substitute for one.

Rather, it is an anti-malware product designed to provide complementary, layered protection against zero-day and zero-hour threats that may be missed by your AV.

Does Malwarebytes Anti-Malware replace antivirus software?

That's why Windows is reporting the lack of anti-virus.

 

It was not a bad idea to uninstall MSE, as it is no longer considered a strong security option.

But you need to replace it ASAP with a robust AV, either free or paid.

There are many choices.

 

Cheers,

 

daledoc1

[NeedToKnow]

Now that this subject has been brought up, I am looking for a strong internet security program with a good firewall that will play nice with my MBAM Pro.

 

I was using McAfee but don't have much faith in it anymore.

 

I am trying Bitdefender now and so far it seems to be okay and working well with MBAM Pro but would love a little feedback as to what others have found to be good "strong" solutions that work well with MBAM Pro.

 

Thanks

[Firefox]

NeedToKnow this question has been asked many time before, you can search the forum and find some recommendations like in the topic below.....

 

https://forums.malwarebytes.org/index.php?showtopic=112235&p=568658

[Scoop]

Now that this subject has been brought up, I am looking for a strong internet security program with a good firewall that will play nice with my MBAM Pro.

 

I was using McAfee but don't have much faith in it anymore.

 

I am trying Bitdefender now and so far it seems to be okay and working well with MBAM Pro but would love a little feedback as to what others have found to be good "strong" solutions that work well with MBAM Pro.

 

Thanks

 

Hi

 

As Firefox mentioned, this topic is a very diverse one, where you'll often read opposite pov's about a recommendation for or against a mainline brand AV.

 

Here's my 2¢ (or perhaps only 1¢ ) take on this based on one's experience with 3 name-recognition AV's over the years.

 

Before continuing, none of this should be construed as a "downer" about these AV products or the companies involved since we know that this topic is dependent on a host of other factors, what's the OS on the PC, what's the user's browser or "safe 'net" practice habits, etc.

 

When I began home 'net use in 2004, I started out with Win '98 and "Trend Micro" AV.  I kept that when upgrading to XP a couple years later.

 

My experience with Trend Micro was not too good.  I'd grade that one a "D" based on the # of malicious intrusions that it didn't block from my PC.

 

When I bought a new PC with Win 7 x64, I bought "ESET" AV at the advice of the PC store's recommendation and after reading some info about the AV.

 

My 1st year with Win 7 and ESET went smooth, no intrusions penetrated ESET's defenses.  During the 2nd year, I was affected by a few malicious intrusions that required cleanups or restorations.  Grade: "D".  I recall being disappointed since one of ESET's selling points was that it wasn't a resource hog. 

 

Based on that, I read about some alternatives, and chose between MacAfee, BitDefender, or Norton.

 

I chose Norton and have been running Norton 360 with MBAM pro for about 15 months on 2 Win 7x64 PC's with no issues seen as yet.  I was cautious about selecting Norton before asking some friends about it.  Norton also revamped their product a couple of years ago, resulting in a more streamlined scanner which uses less resources than its earlier-generation products.

 

The deciding factor for me, to drop ESET and go with Norton was interesting.  I was at one of my daily 'net site visits, a reputable site, at the same time as a friend.  We were on the phone at the time.  He's been running Norton AV for years without experiencing any known malicious issues with his (win 7x64) PC.

 

I was still running ESET at that time.  I got hit with one of those "FBI" variants of malicious infection while his PC was protected with Norton.

 

- I installed MBAM Pro in Sept 2012 when I was still running ESET.

 

One thing I've learned from personal 'net experience:  Safe 'net practices are always something that all should follow, as well as the usual things, don't open unknown e-mail attachments, keep your OS and plug-in updates current.

 

Even doing all of that, there's no guarantee of complete protection with any AV product.  My advice is always "backups", including cloning and/or full-HDD imaging, in addition to some kind of daily backups for those frequently-edited/changed items.

 

Every day, we read posts from members here, and at other forums (for me, the Norton Forum and "Bleepingcomputer.com") where the poster are dead in the water with their PC's, helpless to use the PC's due to malicious infections or in some cases, user errors which we all do, I know I do   .

 

If they had backups available, they could save themselves considerable time and headache by recovering their PC's without spending time in the cleanup modes.

 

This is coming from one that learned the hard way... me .  I had to reinstall Windows once years ago since I didn't have the expertise or full-HDD backups available.  I didn't lose the "must-have" items but after that I said "never again" and with the help of a friend and learning myself, I got up to speed with this HDD-backup scene.

 

It's paid off twice in the last 2-3 years, pop in that spare HDD and running the PC within minutes, no seeking online cleanup help, no Win reinstalls, etc.

 

Don't want anyone to misinterpret my opinions here; the online expert help here and over at BleepingComputer's Forum is golden for many many PC'ers seeking help. 

 

The alternate method interests me, learning about HDD backups and cleaning infected HDD's, etc, so that's just another angle of looking at the methods of recovering one's PC from malicious incidences.

[Weyoun]

Very nice post, Scoop

 

As Firefox did mention, this is a very wide subject, one which you can find a lot of discussions about in these forums alone. My personal set up is in my signature, but I can't necesarily recomend one specifically as this is the Malwarebytes forums and I don't want to look like I am promoting one security product over another . If you are looking for a free antivirus alternative to MSE, avast!, AVG, and Avira all offer free versions. BitDefender also offers a free version of their AV, and the labs love BitDefender. All of those are good alternatives and will keep you well protected. Scoop has a very good suggestion: backups and imaging. Personally, I don't use backup/cloned hard drives themselves, I use Acronis TI WD Edition, since it came free when I purchased my external hard drive. It doesn't have the full feature set, but if you have a WD (Western Digital) hard drive, it might be worth looking at to see if the limited feature set will work for you. If I ever need to restore from the image, I just format the hard drive and place the image on it, but Scoop's system is a good one too. Takes less time than formatting and putting an image back on   but either way you choose will be a lot easier than reinstalling and updating Windows and all your programs.

[GaryO]

Scoop,

 

Thanks for the excellent post!  It's nice to know there are people here who know their stuff and freely share valuable information!