Advice Request I am head of research at Emsisoft. Ask me anything! :)

[Nightwalker]

@Fabian Wosar So someone had the great idea to remove the loyalty scheme that you had for forever. Loyal users no longer interesting or global economic crisis has finally hit emsisoft?

I logged in my "old" account and saw that my loyalty bonus disappeared, maybe because I didnt renew in "time" (more than 2 years using another solution).

Maybe your case is similar?

 

[ForgottenSeer 72227]

I logged in my "old" account and saw that my loyalty bonus disappeared, maybe because I didnt renew in "time" (more than 2 years using another solution).

Maybe your case is similar?

I think we should wait until @Fabian Wosar replies, but I think if my memory serves me correctly they got rid of the loyalty program, I just cannot remember why though.

 

[Fabian Wosar]

I think mine ran off bigg floppies and often needed reloading of the OS. Came with W95 or earlier versions.

Probably an earlier version if it came on 8 or 5 1/4 inch floppy disks. I think the only floppy format Windows 95 was released on was on 3 1/2 and it was 27 floppies to install Windows 95.

@Fabian Wosar So someone had the great idea to remove the loyalty scheme that you had for forever. Loyal users no longer interesting or global economic crisis has finally hit emsisoft?

Neither honestly. We did slash the price of the entire product by 25% for everyone a while ago and went from 40 to 30 Euros for a 1-year license. At that time, we also removed the different renewal prices. It's one of the steps we took in preparation to turn Emsisoft Anti-Malware from a product more into a service, with the upcoming cloud management release being the culmination of that.

I know that for the few affected, active customers this change sucked. We did contact them a couple of months in advance and allowed all of them to renew using their old discount even if their license wasn't up for renewal yet. But ultimately the high discount rates you were able to achieve (over 60% at one point) kept us from reducing the price overall. If a significant portion of your user base has such a high discount, any general decrease in price will ripple down. So we sat down, looked at the customer base as a whole, averaged it out, and decided to go forward with the same reduced price for everyone.

 

[Nightwalker]

Neither honestly. We did slash the price of the entire product by 25% for everyone a while ago and went from 40 to 30 Euros for a 1-year license. At that time, we also removed the different renewal prices. It's one of the steps we took in preparation to turn Emsisoft Anti-Malware from a product more into a service, with the upcoming cloud management release being the culmination of that.

Emsisoft is getting more expensive each year for me, nowadays Kaspersky Internet Security in the official site is cheaper than Emsisoft (and thats not couting official resellers like Kabum).

 

[Fabian Wosar]

Emsisoft is getting more expensive each year for me, nowadays Kaspersky Internet Security in the official site is cheaper than Emsisoft (and thats not couting official resellers like Kabum).

I am not working in sales. So while I can tell you general directions and motivations behind our decisions, I am not into the nitty and gritty details of which country is in which discount region. I know these discount zones exist, but I don't know how large of a discount each region gets and why.

 

[azt7]

Do you know of any particular issues running Emsisoft with AVs ?

Let's say ESET or Cylance for example

 

[Fabian Wosar]

It may or may not work. We stopped officially supporting running EAM alongside another AV a long time ago and discourage anyone from doing so. If you do want to do so, you will have to disable Windows Security Center integration in EAM (it's under advanced settings IIRC) as Microsoft requires all AVs to disable themselves on Windows 10 if a different AV registers itself.

 

[plat]

The commandline scanner--are you going to continue with it? Is there a newer version since the one a year ago, and if so, hopefully one that isn't so bulky (600+ MB)? If you have a 64 bit system, why must a 32 bit version be installed as well? I had a problem where the scan readout would be right in the middle of the all the definitions, which looked sloppy but didn't seem to affect anything otherwise. I tried to fix it with the instructions graciously provided in the forum but I must not have been very competent b/c every time it was started, the issue was there.

I hope you are feeling better already!

 

[Fabian Wosar]

The commandline scanner--are you going to continue with it? Is there a newer version since the one a year ago, and if so, hopefully one that isn't so bulky (600+ MB)?

The majority of the size are the signatures. Those won't change.

If you have a 64 bit system, why must a 32 bit version be installed as well?

Since it's a portable product and you can't run the 32-bit version on a 64-bit system, both versions are part of the package.

I had a problem where the scan readout would be right in the middle of the all the definitions, which looked sloppy but didn't seem to affect anything otherwise. I tried to fix it with the instructions graciously provided in the forum but I must not have been very competent b/c every time it was started, the issue was there.

I am not aware of any output issues. That being said, people usually use the text logs anyway in their scripts, as they are more reliable and easier to parse.

 

[Cortex]

You have one annoyed two year 3 seat 2 year+ customer:
I posted this is the wrong place & maybe most will disagree with me but:
'
Following on from the 'ask me any question' thread & me thinking that Emsisoft has still in IMO the best GUI & exclusion system known (still agree) & without doubt I bought a two year license for 3 PC'’s - This was a good decision but, you end up with a subscription, that is reoccurring (I do not want this) – I can cancel on PayPal the recurring subscription as I have but why on earth isn’t a 2 year subscription to Emsisoft a two year subscription.

I've logged in but unless I cancel the whole thing in the web system I’m stuffed. This is what winds me up with web based systems – I just want a to two subscription, & please, please give me the option in two years to change my mind, all this system does is pis* me off with bells on – (this subscription can be changed at any time ) Give me the bloody option NOT to engage in it in the first place! If ANYONE @ Emsisoft feels the system that applies a subscription system is a good idea has never visited the planet earth ! This is exactly why I buy from Amazon/Ebay etc where I get what I pay for & why I have issues recommending for example my friends & work colleagues buying from direct sites.I will never do that unless a year means a years or two years means TWO YEARS? '

 

[Burrito]

You have one annoyed two year 3 seat 2 year+ customer:
I posted this is the wrong place & maybe most will disagree with me but:
'
Following on from the 'ask me any question' thread & me thinking that Emsisoft has still in IMO the best GUI & exclusion system known (still agree) & without doubt I bought a two year license for 3 PC'’s - This was a good decision but, you end up with a subscription, that is reoccurring (I do not want this) – I can cancel on PayPal the recurring subscription as I have but why on earth isn’t a 2 year subscription to Emsisoft a two year subscription.

I've logged in but unless I cancel the whole thing in the web system I’m stuffed. This is what winds me up with web based systems – I just want a to two subscription, & please, please give me the option in two years to change my mind, all this system does is pis* me off with bells on – (this subscription can be changed at any time ) Give me the bloody option NOT to engage in it in the first place! If ANYONE @ Emsisoft feels the system that applies a subscription system is a good idea has never visited the planet earth ! This is exactly why I buy from Amazon/Ebay etc where I get what I pay for & why I have issues recommending for example my friends & work colleagues buying from direct sites.I will never do that unless a year means a years or two years means TWO YEARS? '

I do agree that auto-renewals can be annoying, and there should be a way to toggle them off at the point of purchase rather than having to remember to go poke around later to turn them off.

It seems to be pretty standard in the industry that the initial purchase includes an agreement for auto-renewals.

I either turn off auto-renewals right after I purchase something or sometimes I do the 'one time use' credit card number thing that many cards have as a feature.

But you sound a little wound up... maybe you should listen to some music.

 

[Cortex]

I use PayPal as it gives protection: All an auto-renewal with me has done is pissed me off & prevented anyone who listenes to me buying from any site that uses the system: When others I know buy they may not be savvy & may not know how to prevent the renewal, that is maybe why companies use it (it is)

I looked & personally would have thought a 3 seat 2 year was a decent purchase for or a home user? After I (carefully) bought it I was told that the subscription can be cancelled at any time (no other option), (only God knows how) not that I wanted one, though I was given a password that needs changing & a use name: Either I'm stupid & I don't think I am, but I can’t find a way to cancel it. However, as I've had to go onto PayPal & remove a reoccurring payment they have zero chance of getting more funds off me.

My point is will I recommend my friends etc. to go onto the home site of Emsisoft & buy a for example a one-year license? No. I'll get them a Kaspersky license off Ebay/Amazon (again) that will expire after one year or two that does not need an hour+ spent preventing a reoccurring payment you will forget about & I wont get phone calls in the future that they have had funds removed from their card or PayPal. I have music on BTW Emsisoft can run their site as they wish & I will after 24 years of using the internet make my own future judgements too, I had other things to do tonight !!!! I still have a subscription BTW. I wonder have you bought from Emsisoft?

Just a clear option whether you wish a reoccurring payment would be a decent & I feel is a proper thing to do - I sell on the internet too btw.
Edited

 

[Emsisoft]

To be clear on that: We don't want to trick anyone into payments that they don't want. With the Emsisoft auto-renewal there are literally no strings attached.

As per the Pricing page FAQ at the bottom (Emsisoft | Buy Anti-Malware Software):

What does Auto-Renewal mean?

Auto-renewal ensures you don't end up defenseless when your license period runs out. When your license is about to expire, our online payment provider verifies that your payment details are still valid and automatically renews your subscription when the license ends. Please note that you can cancel auto-renewal at any time with just one click via the order confirmation email or directly on the purchase confirmation page after completing your order. We're certainly not interested in charging any money if you don't want to use our products and always offer a full refund for any unwanted transactions within 30 days.

In other words: You can cancel your subscription at various points:

• At the end of the purchase process on the confirmation page there is a large center screen 'Cancel subscription' button.
• In the purchase confirmation email the same again.
• You can drop us an email or reach out to our live chat and ask for a cancellation.
• Even in case you missed to cancel and see an unwanted charge on your card/paypal, just drop us a note within 30 days and we'll refund the full amount.
• If you request a refund later than 30 days, we offer a partial refund depending on the time left on the license.

The reason why we completely switched to auto-renewal payments is that it's more convenient for users who don't want to bother with the purchase process every year. We ran a test to see how well subscriptions are perceived and even to our surprise we figured that our new sales rate increased (!) by making auto-renewal the only available option.

 

[Cortex]

I've 'dropped support a line' (which took half an hour to make plain I didn’t want to cancel Emsisoft just my reoccurring subscription, after finding the correct address) which was unnecessary & I'd cancelled payments anyway (kept the product), half the reason I'm annoyed is the amount of friend’s colleagues that are paying for (reoccurring) AV/products they either don’t use or end up as very expensive - These people often buy on a phone or a lappy & never see the small print. I end up sorting this out. Don't you think that ' a large centre screen 'Cancel subscription' button' might make people assume they are cancelling the transaction? I do.

I still ask why can't users opt out on the point of payment/page (see screenshot) where users are told this is auto-renewal/subscription (a big box) & opt of this yet still buy? Rocket science? No - I won’t comment on this again - It starts of as for me a 2-year 3 user product & on the next page is a subscription? As I've said before it's your company? BTW the use of bold type changes nothing.

 

[oldschool]

I wont comment on this again

We get the message. Peace! :emoji_pray:

 

[Cortex]

We get the message. Peace! :emoji_pray:

I'm sorry I do get carried away point taken & funny too

 

[Solarquest]

• when does Emsi get samples from VT?
• does it help to submit malware that Emsi does not detect on VT nor with EAM on a pc or did Emsi already get it from VT (e.g if other AV already detect it)?
• how is Emsi scanner on VT compared to EAM?
• how often do you update BB rules?
• in a previous answer you said that "If malware is vm-aware, I just patch the checks out"...can you make an example?
• how does Emsi handle malware with valid signature? Does BB still monitor them?

Thank you

 

[Jerry.Lin]

Hello Fabian,

How does EAM BB deal wtih the whitelist bypass (eg. a malicious .dll was loaded by a whitelist program( not signed malware))? Does BB auto allow/trust its behaviors or not?

Thank you~

 

[uduoix]

I always use virtual credit card (entropay or skrill) for online shoping. Even if you forget about auto renewal, they can't get your money

 

[Kuttz]

@Fabian Wosar

Consider releasing a Free Anti Virus truly free in the sense that except for security no other tracking from its users and market it heavily that way that a free AV that doesn't make money by using it. Releasing free anti virus improves brand awareness tremendously.