(Image credit: AV Comparatives ) Protection If you find your PDF reader isn't working properly after installing Malwarebytes, for instance, turning off the various exploit features for PDF apps might deliver a fix. (Should you apply 'Dynamic Anti-HeapSpraying Enforcement' to all your browsers, for instance? Quickly, now.) Other options are easier to understand, though ('Disable loading of VBScript libraries'), and just having this level of control does bring some benefits.

These options are so technical that even the most expert of users might struggle to know what to do with them. The Settings dialog is mostly about toggling features on and off (updates, notifications, web filtering, malware protection and so on), but you do get fine-tuned control over Malwarebytes' exploit protection, where the packages uses multiple techniques to protect against zero-day attacks for common applications and application types. Results were only average in our tests, but even that's enough to be useful, and it's a worthwhile addition to the package. This works at the network level, with no need for browser extensions, ensuring it protects all your apps. Malwarebytes also provides simple URL filtering, detecting and blocking any attempts to access malicious links. (Image credit: Malwarebytes) URL Filtering Malwarebytes began well, with its core service beating off all our attempts to close it down, remove or disable it.

We test for this by launching various attacks of our own - deleting files, closing processes, disabling services, more - and checking to see if our performance remains intact.

Malware may try to disable antivirus before attempting to infect a system, so a good security app needs to be able to protect itself. This didn't look a package that would slow you down, but AV-Comparatives' last Performance Test results suggested otherwise, placing Malwarebytes a disappointing 14th out of 17 contenders.

We were offered the chance to have a 14-day trial of Malwarebytes Premium, and although this requires handing over an email address, there were no other hassles of any kind (we didn't even have to confirm our email.)Ĭhecking the Malwarebytes installation folders showed a relatively lightweight package with around 400MB of files, and just a couple of significant background processes. Malwarebytes installs quickly and easily.

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