Do I need aditional AV if I have MBAM Paid version?

[slypspeed]

Is MBAM to be used in conjunction with AV software, or can I just run MBAM (paid)?

What is the difference between MBAM and "AV" software?

(I realize you can't solely rely on one thing to keep your PC safe.)

[prairie dog]

You definitely need an AV to run with MBAM. MBAM is not an antivirus, It is meant to run alongside your AV and catch the stuff that most AV's miss. The really nasty stuff

[slypspeed]

Look at it from a perspective of me being a salesman and wanting the best for my customer. I find MBAM to be one of the most reliable programs to cleanup malware. To me I trust it way more than NAV/NIS, AVG, KAV, NOD32, or any other anti-virus.

My point is, in real world experience, MBAM is trustworthy, other AV misses way too much. To someone that doesn't want to buy multiple programs, should I be recommending the paid MBAM and AVG free, or buying something like NAV and telling people to do manual scans with MBAM (which they won't do).

What do the MBAM guys consider the difference between MBAM (paid version) and a "real AV" program?

[prairie dog]

If it were me, I would be telling them to grab Avira or Avast as a free antivirus, as they have excellent detection rates and are probably the best free AV's around. I would have the paid version of MBAM, as it will catch whatever does slip by your free AV. In my opinion, the stuff that is able to slip by your normal AV, is going to be the stuff that really gives you problems.

I'm sure you will get some other comments as well

[mountaintree16]

They should be just fine with a free AV and Paid MBAM. They do NOT want to be without an AV at all, though. AV's catch older infections and viruses that Mbam does not cover, so an AV is definitely still needed.

I would recommend Avira free over AVG free personally, and I am pretty sure that prairie dog would say the same It's up to you though, AVG is pretty decent too.

let us know if you need links to anything.

[exile360]

Malwarebytes', as was said by others here, is not antivirus. Currently MBAM itself sort of suffers from a misnomer simply because there's really no better name for it than "anti-malware" simply because it detects all types of threats, regardless of whether they're viruses, rogues, trojans, adware, spyware, rootkits etc because it's made to catch any nasty, no matter what it is, just as long as it's something that all or most of the big antiviruses are either not detecting, not removing or both. The same can be said of SUPERAntiSpyware. It detects trojans, rootkits, rogues, viruses, adware etc as well and has a similar business model to MBAM. They both are tools designed to pick up the slack in the current internet security industry that started several years ago with the worst threats going undetected or unremoved by most antivirus softwares. Similarly, this is how antispyware software got started. Spyware and adware were relatively new and most AV's didn't detect any of it so companies like Webroot (Spysweeper) and PCTools (Spyware Doctor) capitalized on this by making specialty programs designed to coexist with a user's antivirus software and detect, remove, and block spyware and adware infections. Spybot and AdAware are the same way and came out of the same trend that created the former two.

The truth is, there is no appropriate name for the type of software that MBAM is except anti-malware because there is no specific type of threat that it targets. It will go after anything that isn't getting killed in a timely manner by the big name AV's. This is why you'll often find many users on the forum asking if they still need an antivirus after reading about MBAM and what it's supposed to detect because it seems you'd have all your bases covered with one piece of software, but that's not the reality. There's no way that Malwarebytes', or anyone else for that matter, could possibly make such a small and light program with such small definitions that would detect everything that is out there now and has been out there in the past so for the most part, that's still your AV's job. MBAM is there to pick up the slack when they drop the ball and let something slip by and it's very good at what it does .

For reference just read the Wikipedia definition of the word malware

Software is considered malware based on the perceived intent of the creator rather than any particular features. Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, most rootkits, spyware, dishonest adware, crimeware and other malicious and unwanted software.

[mountaintree16]

@ Exile

I just wanted to tell you that you explained that very well and I found it very useful reading too