All protection is disabled at install

[MalwareZombie]

Hi, 

I’m trying to clean up an old infected laptop I saved because it has the only copies of my family’s photos pre-dating 2013. 

This is a Compaq Presario F700 running Windows Vista Home Premium SP2. I have twice installed (once uninstalled) MBAM but each time it installs it states Web, Exploit & Malware Protection are available in “Premium Only”. I’ve not used this computer for many years but had used MBAM back in 2013. Doesn’t seem like that should prevent me from using the free version 5 years later. 

Please advise.

Thank you in advance for your help

[Malwarebytes]

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[exile360]

Greetings

The free version doesn't include any of those protection features so this is quite normal unless you have a license for the Pro/Premium version (if you do, then simply use the Activate button in the main UI to enter your license key to gain access to the paid features).  If I am misunderstanding what you're referring to here then please let me know, but currently when in free mode the software only scans for/removes malware and (as of version 3) also includes some limited scheduled scanning functionality so no realtime protection components should be active.

That said, one new aspect to version 3 is that the tray and service do remain active even when the main UI is closed.  This is primarily because of the scheduled scanning feature I mentioned and also to allow for users who wish to keep the software active in the background for quick access to running scans so that they don't have to wait as long when using the context menu right-click 'Scan with Malwarebytes' option for files and folders and when they want it to more quickly load for performing manual Threat scans and/or Custom scans.

If that didn't answer your questions/address the issues you're having please let me know, and also don't hesitate to ask if you have any further questions or issues and we'll do our best to assist.

Thanks  

[MalwareZombie]

Oh  

Thank you for clarifying this.

Since I’m just trying to remediate infections already on the system, I think I’m fine without Real-Time protections. I missed the R-TP  heading and assumed some infection rendered my install useless.

So I just click start scan? I don’t recall using MBAM being so simple. 

I noticed Quarantine Threats is also available as Premium Only. But the free version still offers me some way to remove detected threats, right?

Thank you for your very thorough response exile360

 

[exile360]

Yep, it's just that simple.  The Product team/User Experience/Developers have done a lot to simplify the UI and make it much easier to use.  The free version still quarantines/removes/repairs any detected threats/issues just as older versions did.   The paid version simply includes automatic quarantine of threats detected via its included realtime malware protection component which is what that was referring to, but scanning is the same for both free and Premium.

That said, there are some settings you may wish to tweak if your system is already infected, the primary one being the setting for scanning for rootkits which can be enabled under the Protection tab under Settings (it's off by default because it makes scans take longer, but in my opinion is worth activating so that you can make certain there are no rootkits on the system and remove them if there are any).