Newbie question

[TDK1044]

Hi Guys, I installed Malwarebytes 3.0 ( the paid version) this morning. I haven't had any issues on my computer, but I figure better safe than sorry. When it ran its scan, it detected a bunch of 'Potential' threats. As I'm not very technical, I'd like to know if the software differentiates between a potential threat, and what it considers a definite threat? I don't want to go deleting potential threats, if they may be false positives and I'd be doing more harm than good in deleting them. Make sense? Any advice gratefully received.

[Firefox]

Hello and Welcome!

The only way we could know what is safe to delete is if we get a copy of your scan log... if you provide that we could see what's being detected.

[exile360]

Greetings and welcome 

What you're seeing are most likely what we call Potentially Unwanted Programs, or PUPs for short.  These types of detections aren't necessarily malicious, however they may be undesirable.  Basically the kinds of software that typically get installed (often unintentionally) alongside other software that you did want to install and/or programs that may behave in undesirable ways such as slowing down computer performance while offering little or no benefit from having them installed.  Things such as adware, toolbars used for serving advertisements and/or modifying search results in web browsers to benefit the creators of the toolbars financially.  These types of detections, while often annoying, are not really harmful or dangerous and therefore are not classified as being malicious.  That said, no, it shouldn't do any harm to remove them and might actually be beneficial to your computer's performance as many PUPs can actually slow down your computer and/or make it behave in ways that might be less than desirable.

Further information on what PUPs are and what makes them different from actual malware (malicious software) can be found here.

If that does not sufficiently answer all of your questions please let us know and also please feel free to ask any other questions you might have or let us know if there's anything else that we can assist you with.

Thanks

Edited March 8, 2017 by exile360

[TDK1044]

Thanks both. I'll pull my scan log when I get home later. If Malwarebytes detects software that it knows to be malicious, does it display it differently?

[Cake]

PUP's and Adware are not soooo dangerous as tojans are, as example. Put it in and we can tell what you have 

[TDK1044]

Here's the report from the scan. Are these safe to quarantine?Report.txt

[Porthos]

3 minutes ago, TDK1044 said:

Are these safe to quarantine?

A big yes!

[TDK1044]

Thank you, Sir. 

[TDK1044]

All done. Thanks again.

[Porthos]

Your welcome.

[Cake]

lol I today also cleaned someones computer that had exactly this 

[exile360]

11 hours ago, TDK1044 said:

Thanks both. I'll pull my scan log when I get home later. If Malwarebytes detects software that it knows to be malicious, does it display it differently?

You're welcome

Yes, it displays actual malware detections in red and will not include the phrasing "Potentially Unwanted..." anywhere in the threat name/category etc. so it will be quite clear that what it found was a real threat.

[TDK1044]

Good to know. Thank you.