MalwareBytes Free and Avast AV

[stormgtr]

Hello everyone,

I am a long time user of MalwareBytes Free and believe it good practice to run a good AV and Malware tools as standard PC security.  I am raising this query because i have seen anomalies over a long time (over a year) and am now thinking it could be the security products.

I run the latest Avast Free AV and Malware Bytes free along with Hotspot shield free VPN.  i regularly do Avast boot time scans and Malware Bytes HDD scans in windows.  After these scans occasionally i see odd issues ranging from file associations reverting back, occasional application reinstalls and like today outlook not opening due to a corruption in the Avast add in.  A Avast reinstall fixed this.

If anyone can advise me on:
1) Do i need separate AV and malware protection?
2) Does Avast free AV and Malware Bytes free work together?
3) If MalwareBytes does not work well with Avast free AV can any good AV be recommended.

Any help is appreciated.

[Malwarebytes]

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[Maurice Naggar]

Hi.   

If this pc runs Windows 10, then stick with the built in Microsoft Defender antivirus.   It is included in every Windows 10.

When you installed Avast, it sets it to disabled so that it does not run with Windows startup,

When you uninstall Avast,   Microsoft Defender antivirus. should be  auto re-enabled,

Avast is one that requires additional cleanup after its uninstall.   If you are going  to do that,  then 

Get / save / then run the AVAST removal tool

https://support.avast.com/en-us/article/Uninstall-Antivirus-Utility/

.

One other tidbit, since you mentioned Outlook issue.   Check out this news article at Bleepingcomputer forum

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-outlook-is-crashing-worldwide-with-0xc0000005-errors-how-to-fix/

[stormgtr]

Thank you Maurice, nice to be welcomed.  😃  Interesting to know that Avast causes issues like this and that it can be hard to remove.  It is Windows 10, I am a little surprised you advise on the built in Windows Defender, I assumed there were better products.  

You may have guessed I asked Avast the same questions.  They suggest removing MalwareBytes stating Avast can do what MalwareBytes does?!😕

The one thing I am understanding is its not good to have both.  
I now need to decide:
>Use Windows Defender and Malware Bytes
or
>Use Avast alone

or possibly

>MalwareBytes and some other AV maybe?

Maurice I respect you as an expert and welcome your rapid reply but welcome others to comment from experience etc

[Porthos]

1 hour ago, stormgtr said:

Use Windows Defender and Malware Bytes

This would be my choice for better performance. I have over 400 computers on that combination and no infections.

Quote

The reason many of us members are pushing Keeping Defender on is the following.

Malwarebytes does not target script files during a scan... That means MB will not target; JS, HTML, VBS, .CLASS, SWF, BAT, CMD, PDF, PHP, etc.

It also does not target documents such as; PDF, DOC, DOCx, XLS, XLSx, PPT, PPS, ODF, etc.

It also does not target media files;  MP3, WMV, JPG, GIF, etc.

Malwarebytes will detect files like these on execution-only With the paid version.

And,

Malwarebytes is not designed to function like normal AV scanners and uses a new kind of scan engine that relies mostly on heuristics detection techniques rather than traditional threat signatures.  Malwarebytes is also designed to look in all the locations where malware is known to install itself/hide, so a full or custom scan shouldn't be necessary, especially on any sort of frequent basis (like daily), especially since the default Threat Scan/Quick Scan checks all loading points/startup locations, the registry, all running processes and threads in memory, along with all system folders, program folders, and data folders as well as any installed browsers, caches, and temp locations.  This also means that if a threat were active from a non-standard location because Malwarebytes checks all threads and processes in memory, it should still be detected.  The only threat it *might* miss would be a dormant/inactive threat that is not actively running/installed on a secondary drive, however, if the threat were executed then Malwarebytes should detect it.  Additionally, whenever a new location is discovered to be used by malware the Malwarebytes Research team adds that location dynamically to the outgoing database updates so the locations that are checked by the default Threat/Quick Scan in Malwarebytes can be changed on the fly by Research without requiring any engine or program version updates/upgrades.

An AV will catch the file just by downloading it or just opening a folder with a detected file in it.

For example, you get an email with an infected attachment, Malwarebytes will not even blink until you run it yet Defender will detect it if it is in their database without even actually clicking on it. Remember the list of files Malwarebytes does not target.

Then I will leave you with this.

As good as Malwarebytes is, it is just a layer of protection.

Using a browser that has Ublock Origin and the Malwarebytes Browser guard enabled is also a layer of protection.

Not opening attachments from an email unless you were expecting it from a specific user during a specific time period.

Do not use Torrents. Do not install every free software you find. Do not click links in an unknown email. Go directly to the sit listed in the email.

Having a monthly image of your computer on an external drive that is only connected during the backup is actually better than any protective software ever made. Macrium Reflect free is the program I use and place on every computer I service.

 

[Maurice Naggar]

added notes.

Lets take a few things separately, Stormgtr.   If you have the free Malwarebytes, your choice of antivirus is entirely your choice  ( as it always is).

You can use the free Malwarebytes without fretting about choice of antivirus.

What I am indicating to you  ( as well as my colleague Porthos) is that the Windows / Microsoft Defender antivirus is a strong and very good antivirus.

We recommend it.  we use it.   It is included with Windows 10.

Use Windows Defender and MalwareBytes

 

Do know that the free Malwarebytes does not have real-time protections.  The Premium Malwarebytes does have multiple layers of real-time protection.

[stormgtr]

Thank you again everyone for helping out a stranger.

 

21 hours ago, Maurice Naggar said:

your choice of antivirus is entirely your choice  ( as it always is).

 

Do know that the free Malwarebytes does not have real-time protections.  The Premium Malwarebytes does have multiple layers of real-time protection.

I have decided to go with Avast free AV and ditch MalwareBytes.  My reasoning is that MalwareBytes free is not real time protection but, rest assured if there is any future issue from Avast it will be gone and I will be on Windows Defender with Malware Bytes.  But I will be looking into ublock origin.

It was a tough call because as said personally i have used both Avast and MalwareBytes for more than ten years and rate them as good products.  

Totally agree with this sound advise Porthos:

21 hours ago, Porthos said:

 

21 hours ago, Porthos said:

Having a monthly image of your computer on an external drive that is only connected during the backup is actually better than any protective software ever made.

 

 

[Maurice Naggar]

I hope that you did not take any of what I said as a basis for removing Malwarebytes for Windows.

The free program can be used on-demand to scan & to remove what it finds   ( malware or P U P ).  Otherwise, it sits out of the way.

Sincerely.