Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.70

By Neil J. Rubenking When a Trojan or other malware gets a foothold in your PC's innards, clearing it out can be tough. The nastiest ones fight back, interfering with your attempts to install antivirus software. When that happens, who ya gonna call? In many cases the answer is Malwarebytes. Even tech support agents for other companies may turn to the free Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.70 when their own product won't install. And the latest edition is better than ever. You may notice one thing's missing—that pesky apostrophe. Yes, the program name used to be Malwarebytes', a fact that's confused many a copy editor. They also dropped "Free" from the name, and spiffed up the program icon a bit. Really, though, it doesn't look a lot different. Malwarebytes is all business, and its business is scraping out persistent malware. There's no home screen or status page. Launch it and it goes straight to the scanner page. As for settings, there aren't many, and they come pre-configured for maximum protection. Speedy, Hassle-Free Install Sadly, I'm accustomed to needing a full day or more to get antivirus products installed on my twelve malware-infested test systems. When the malware fights back, I have to either engage in email back-and-forth with tech support or sit around while tech support deals with the problem via remote assistance. I do appreciate that support, but I'd appreciate not needing it even more. I had absolutely no trouble installing Malwarebytes on those same systems. The installation is super-quick, and doesn't require a reboot. The update process failed on one system, probably due to a glitch in the connection. A second try succeeded. I installed Malwarebytes on all twelve systems in less than an hour. Fantastic! No Lab Results In general I like to check my test results against results from the independent testing labs. However, getting tested can actually cost money, so many of the free antivirus tools limit their participation in testing. There are exceptions. For example, AVG always submits AVG Anti-Virus FREE 2013 for testing, demonstrating that its free product is just as powerful as its commercial versions.