Self Protection Module

[Sartori]

Hello

 

I see this in the advance settings and was wondering if this should be checked and what exactly it does?

 

Thanks

[Phone Man]

It protects Malwarebytes from malware that try to disable it. Its part of the Chameleon process. I have mine turned on and also the early start. Bed aware there is a short delay when you click the option before the check mark appears.

 

Jim

[Sartori]

It protects Malwarebytes from malware that try to disable it. Its part of the Chameleon process. I have mine turned on and also the early start. Bed aware there is a short delay when you click the option before the check mark appears.

 

Jim

Okay, thanks for the info...but why even make this an option?

[Phone Man]

If it wasn't an option some would complain they were denied a choice.

 

Jim

[Sartori]

If it wasn't an option some would complain they were denied a choice.

 

Jim

lol

[ky331]

The questions remain:

 

1) If this feature is potentially useful, why is it DISabled by default?

 

2) What's the difference between "simply" enabling it [presumably to auto-start on bootup] vs. the "early" start option?

 

3) How much impact (lag) does running this on startup have on the system's bootup?

 

It would be nice if MBAM offered a HELP file for version 2, as they did for version 1, which clearly explains each of the options on all of its screens.

[Phone Man]

The questions remain:

 

1) If this feature is potentially useful, why is it DISabled by default?

 

2) What's the difference between "simply" enabling it [presumably to auto-start on bootup] vs. the "early" start option?

 

3) How much impact (lag) does running this on startup have on the system's bootup?

 

It would be nice if MBAM offered a HELP file for version 2, as they did for version 1, which clearly explains each of the options on all of its screens.

They do have HELP, its under Settings, About. the Help at the bottom will take you to MBAM web site. Click on Guides and select your product. The 2.0 Guided was added on March 10. Here is a link to the Guide.

 

http://www.malwarebytes.org/support/guides/mbam/

 

Jim

[John L. Galt]

The questions remain:

 

1) If this feature is potentially useful, why is it DISabled by default?

 

2) What's the difference between "simply" enabling it [presumably to auto-start on bootup] vs. the "early" start option?

 

3) How much impact (lag) does running this on startup have on the system's bootup?

 

It would be nice if MBAM offered a HELP file for version 2, as they did for version 1, which clearly explains each of the options on all of its screens.

 

 

1. With the Self Protection module enabled, it goes into overdrive in terms of protecting itself and all of its components.  For example, with SP enabled, you cannot even delete the desktop shortcut.  Now, for users like me who keep no icons on the desktop at all, is SP was enabled by default, they all would be ranting and raving about not being able to remove the desktop icon.
2. See the link posted by phoneman - or, just read this:

   Enable self-protection early start: When the self-protection module is enabled, you may choose to enable or disable this option. When enabled, the self-protection module will become enabled earlier in the computer's boot process — essentially changing the order of services and drivers associated with your computer's startup.

3. TBH, not much at all, not that I can notice.  I am on a Win 7 machine that I built, that does not use UEFI, but a regular BIOS boot with MBR HD control.  I do not see any long term affects, if there is any change at all, it would have to be less than a second added to my total boot time, which is still not much over 30 seconds from cold start to log in.

[Sartori]

 

1. With the Self Protection module enabled, it goes into overdrive in terms of protecting itself and all of its components.  For example, with SP enabled, you cannot even delete the desktop shortcut.  Now, for users like me who keep no icons on the desktop at all, is SP was enabled by default, they all would be ranting and raving about not being able to remove the desktop icon.
2. See the link posted by phoneman - or, just read this:

   Enable self-protection early start: When the self-protection module is enabled, you may choose to enable or disable this option. When enabled, the self-protection module will become enabled earlier in the computer's boot process — essentially changing the order of services and drivers associated with your computer's startup.

3. TBH, not much at all, not that I can notice.  I am on a Win 7 machine that I built, that does not use UEFI, but a regular BIOS boot with MBR HD control.  I do not see any long term affects, if there is any change at all, it would have to be less than a second added to my total boot time, which is still not much over 30 seconds from cold start to log in.

 

Okay makes sense, and also thanks for the info. But it should be enabled by default....

[John L. Galt]

Unfortunately, having it enabled would cause too many problems for users who want / need to make any sort of modification to MBAM.

[AdvancedSetup]

If we enabled it by default we would be flooded by users complaining they were unable to move, rename, delete items and often not realize it was only our files that they were having an issue changing.  With millions of users that could potentially flood our helpdesk and forum.  Best for now to let users enable that on their own. 

[motherofnmw0000]

If we enabled it by default we would be flooded by users complaining they were unable to move, rename, delete items and often not realize it was only our files that they were having an issue changing.  With millions of users that could potentially flood our helpdesk and forum.  Best for now to let users enable that on their own. 

 

Has its logic. Thanks.

[ky331]

First, let me express my sincere thanks to Phone Man for pointing out the link to the online Help Guide.   Much appreciated :-)

 

As for the other questions, I was not necessarily trying to suggest that Self-Protection be enabled by default... rather, I was trying to understand what it was doing (since I was unaware of the Help File's information).   Based on the explanation given by the experts above, I would concur that it's probably best to leave disabled by default.

Thanks again to all who replied here.

[Sartori]

First, let me express my sincere thanks to Phone Man for pointing out the link to the online Help Guide.   Much appreciated :-)

 

As for the other questions, I was not necessarily trying to suggest that Self-Protection be enabled by default... rather, I was trying to understand what it was doing (since I was unaware of the Help File's information).   Based on the explanation given by the experts above, I would concur that it's probably best to leave disabled by default.

Thanks again to all who replied here.

I would concur that it's probably best to leave it enabled by default

[Nesivos]

Unfortunately, having it enabled would cause too many problems for users who want / need to make any sort of modification to MBAM.

It would be helpful if there was a pop-up mentioning this when a user checks the box.  Then they could click yes to proceed or no to not enable self-protection.  I have seen this feature in other apps particularly having to do with cleaning certain windows files.  The message that pops up when you click the option to delete certain Windows files is something to the affect.  'Deleting these files could noticably slow down your system'