Malwarebytes just restarted my PC

[hillcf]

WITH NO WARNINGS. There I was with my email client in one display and Chrome in the other. Suddenly the mail client disappeared, quickly followed by  Chrome, the desktop and a Windows logout in process. The PC then rebooted, very slowly.

Checked the event viewer and found the reboot was a request from Malwarebytes. Checked the Malwarebytes logs and found that about 30 minutes earlier it had decided to uninstall O&O SafeEraser, again with no warnings, which I thought was registered.

Since the reboot was unexpected, according to Microsoft Event Viewer, and because I use RAID-1 managed HDDs for my disks as far as Intel RST was concerned it was not properly closed. On the restart it therefore needs to verify, and rebuild, the RAID drives. THAT WILL TAKE ABOUT 4 HOURS and cripple the system while it is doing it.

Thanks......

[Malwarebytes]

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[exile360]

Greetings,

I am sorry for the issue you experienced.  It sounds like Malwarebytes performed a scheduled scan, detected O&O and was configured to quarantine detected items automatically and to restart the system automatically to remove any items detected.  I would recommend changing this so that when items are detected by scheduled scans, you have the opportunity to review the detections and decide how to handle them and when to restart if necessary should you decide to remove them.  To do this, open Malwarebytes and navigate to the Settings>Scan Schedule tab and check the box next to your scheduled scan and click the Edit button or simply double-click on the scheduled scan.  In the edit dialog, click the Advanced button and uncheck the option Quarantine all threats automatically, or, if you still want Malwarebytes to automatically remove detected items you may leave that box checked and simply uncheck the box next to Restart computer when required for threat removal if you just want Malwarebytes not to restart the system automatically to remove items detected by your scheduled scan.  Repeat this process for each scheduled scan if you have more than one scheduled.  The image below highlights the two settings I am referring to:

To prevent Malwarebytes from detecting O&O again, after you've either restored it from quarantine or reinstalled it, perform a Threat scan with Malwarebytes by opening Malwarebytes and clicking the Scan Now button on the Dashboard and once the scan completes, click the empty checkbox at the top of the list of detections in the column header to clear all of the checkboxes for all of the detections and click Next.  When asked what to do with the remaining detections select the option to always ignore them and they will be added to Malwarebytes exclusions so that they will no longer be detected by future scans.

Optionally you may also change how Malwarebytes handles PUP detections in the future by navigating to Settings>Protection in Malwarebytes and using the drop-down menu under Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) in the Potential Threat Protection section.  If you select the option Warn User then any items classified as PUP that are detected will not be automatically removed and will not be selected for removal but will still be detected so that you may review them and decide how to handle them.  If you select Ignore Detections then Malwarebytes will no longer detect any items it classifies as PUP.  These settings apply to all scans (both scheduled and manual) as well as real-time protection.

With regards to why this program was detected, please refer to the following information about PUPs and how Malwarebytes classifies them and why:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/pup/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/malwarebytes-news/2016/10/malwarebytes-gets-tougher-on-pups/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/cybercrime/2015/06/digital-snake-oil/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/cybercrime/2015/06/driver-updaters-digital-snake-oil-part-2/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/cybercrime/2015/07/pup-makers-digital-snake-oil-part-3/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/threats/registry-cleaner/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/puppum/2016/12/why-malwarebytes-detects-pc-pitstop-as-potentially-unwanted/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/malwarebytes-news/2017/11/winning-the-battle-against-pups-on-your-computer-and-in-u-s-district-court/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/puppum/2016/07/pup-friday-cleaning-up-with-5-star-awards/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/puppum/2016/08/systweak-redux-our-response/

Regarding legal precedent, please refer to the following articles which cite two cases involving Malwarebytes and vendors blocked as PUP:

https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2017/11/section-230c2-protects-anti-malware-vendor-enigma-v-malwarebytes.htm
https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2018/09/section-230-helps-malware-vendor-avoid-liability-for-blocking-decision-pc-drivers-v-malwarebytes.htm

The following links should also prove informative as to why many items are classified as PUP by Malwarebytes:

https://decentsecurity.com/#/registry-cleaners/
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2563254/microsoft-support-policy-for-the-use-of-registry-cleaning-utilities
https://www.howtogeek.com/171633/why-using-a-registry-cleaner-wont-speed-up-your-pc-or-fix-crashes/
https://www.howtogeek.com/162683/pc-cleaning-apps-are-a-scam-heres-why-and-how-to-speed-up-your-pc/
https://lifehacker.com/5482701/whats-the-registry-should-i-clean-it-and-whats-the-point
https://lifehacker.com/5033518/debunking-common-windows-performance-tweaking-myths
https://www.howtogeek.com/198758/never-download-a-driver-updating-utility-theyre-worse-than-useless/
https://www.howtogeek.com/233115/the-only-way-to-safely-update-your-hardware-drivers-on-windows/
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1857635/good-free-automatic-driver-updater.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1974868/trusted-driver-updater.html
https://www.howtogeek.com/172839/10-types-of-system-tools-and-optimization-programs-you-dont-need-on-windows/
https://computer.howstuffworks.com/question1751.htm
https://lifehacker.com/5415355/do-you-really-need-more-than-4gb-of-ram
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-module-upgrade,2264.html
https://www.howtogeek.com/128130/htg-explains-why-its-good-that-your-computers-ram-is-full/
https://techlogon.com/2011/03/28/will-more-ram-memory-make-my-computer-faster/

I hope this helps, and if there is anything else we might assist you with please don't hesitate to let us know.

Thanks