Malwarebytes Premium V4 - A personal Opinion

Product name
Malwarebytes Premium V4
Installation (rating)
4.00 star(s)
User interface (rating)
3.00 star(s)
Accessibility notes
Attractive with lots of colours
Can be hard to navigate for a new user.
Performance (rating)
2.00 star(s)
Core Protection (rating)
1.00 star(s)
Proactive protection (rating)
1.00 star(s)
Additional Protection notes
Ransomware protection is slow and clunky, most ransomware has time to encrypt your files before being detected
Detection ratio of less than 40% is the lowest out of any security product.
Good, not great, web protection.
Browser protection (rating)
3.00 star(s)
Positives
    • Easy to use
    • Simple and non-intrusive
    • Ransomware protection
    • Compatible with other anti-virus software
    • Effective malware removal
    • Well designed, clear and easy to use interface
    • Multi-layer protection approach
Negatives
    • Advanced users may want more control
    • Noticeable negative system impact
    • Resource intensive tasks
    • Antivirus capabilities are average at best
    • Weak protection against zero-day threats
    • Limited web protection
    • Not as many features as some competitors
    • Scans can be rather slow
    • Can slow down your browsing speed
    • Slows down browsing the Internet
    • Opening, copying or saving a file is noticeably slower
    • Significant impact while playing games
Time spent using product
Reviewed over a 30-day period
Computer specs
Lenovo IdeaCentre Y710 Cube

Intel Core i5-6400
geForce GTX 1070
C: drive
Manufacturer: SanDisk
Interface: SATA
Capacity: 119 GB

D: drive
Manufacturer: Seagate
Interface: SATA
Capacity: 931 GB
Recommended for
  1. All types of users
Overall rating
1.00 star(s)

EndangeredPootis

Level 10
Thread author
Verified
Well-known
Sep 8, 2019
461
it conflicted recernlt with kaspersky both v3 and v4 and made computer 100% unstable so i uninstalled - but at same time 4 just came out maybe give them time than judge too fast?
Malwarebytes has always had garbage protection, I dont think they will improve, infact, malwarebytes had better protection 2 years ago than it has now
 

plat

Level 29
Top Poster
Sep 13, 2018
1,793
Was the 4.0 premium the only real time software on your machine when you tested it? The on-demand scanner was optimized with hyper-threading way back when 3.0 first came out. So this, of itself, should not be particularly "slow," relative to one's hardware and other installed software taking up room on the drive.

I totally wonder about its marketing approach in calling itself an antivirus replacement. :unsure: But in general, most vendors consider software optimization on various hardware a priority. So, conflicting real times may be an underlying culprit sometimes. Just trying to be fair here.
 

Digmor Crusher

Level 23
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Jan 27, 2018
1,236
Your cons will certainly not apply to everyone's computer.

It does poorly in AV tests becaue it does not detect all the same malware, in the same way, as other AV's. They base their detection's on behaviour based techniques rather than signatures. Saying it is an anti-virus is nonsense, its a anti-virus companion if its anything.
 

Cortex

Level 26
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Aug 4, 2016
1,465
Malwarebytes seem to think it's a full replacement, but seem to say different things in different places, this says you need for example WD?

'You don't need to pay for a traditional AV anymore! At Malwarebytes, we have always approached things differently and, as many people know based on their own positive experience with Malwarebytes finding and remediating malware that gets past AVs, we know a thing or two about zero-day malware and their infection tactics. We have always believed that no one product can do it all, and the free AV that comes with modern operating systems, in conjunction with Malwarebytes is all you will ever need'

Mbam Blurb

I'm very unimpressed & have 4 (unused) lifetime licenses.
 

Cortex

Level 26
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Aug 4, 2016
1,465
Malwarebytes did say with the previous version it is an AV replacement, but the latest blurb means nothing whatsoever - Though Emsisoft Anti-Malware is product in it's own right & as I recall Fabian did say it's all he uses, Mbam seem to be hedging their bets now - I can't think of a reason to use Mbam anymore but a while ago it was IMHO it was a must - Most badware is now Malware as opposed to viruses, although in essence they are the same? There was quite a few threads some time ago on their forums (stuff you don't want running on your systems that mess things up ware)
 
F

ForgottenSeer 823865

MBAM is just a signature-based real-time scanner, how can it block modern malware, it doesn't have any default-deny mechanism which is mandatory those day.
All malware aren't exploit so it's anti-exploit module won't do much, unless they widen its scope, things I not heard.
 

RoboMan

Level 34
Verified
Top Poster
Content Creator
Well-known
Jun 24, 2016
2,399
MBAM is just a signature-based real-time scanner, how can it block modern malware, it doesn't have any default-deny mechanism which is mandatory those day.
All malware aren't exploit so it's anti-exploit module won't do much, unless they widen its scope, things I not heard.
I will second this. Since Kaspersky 2017 was launched and I very first tested and understood the magnitude of Application Control, anti-execution modules and restriction policies, I never again used any security suite or combo that didn't include at least on type of default-deny mechanism. Refusing to use a default-deny mechanism is just hoping you will never face a zero-day. It's just a stupid practice, blindly trusting signatures is ridiculous nowadays.
 

LDogg

Level 33
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
May 4, 2018
2,261
Malwarebytes seem to think it's a full replacement, but seem to say different things in different places, this says you need for example WD?

'You don't need to pay for a traditional AV anymore! At Malwarebytes, we have always approached things differently and, as many people know based on their own positive experience with Malwarebytes finding and remediating malware that gets past AVs, we know a thing or two about zero-day malware and their infection tactics. We have always believed that no one product can do it all, and the free AV that comes with modern operating systems, in conjunction with Malwarebytes is all you will ever need'

Above I have highlighted two quotes which is a complete alphabet spaghetti, which looks like a squirrel threw a nut at someones keyboard typing out a load of pseudo-intellectual mental gymanastics. This company used our members as bait, then through them back out to sea like by-catch. This companies products are factually only ever good as a web browser extension, Windows firewall companion or as a second opinion scanner.

Negative opinion to make, but like many companies of old; the nostalgia only goes so far.

~LDogg
 
F

ForgottenSeer 823865

Signature based is becoming obsolete
Not becoming, it is. I keep telling it here since half a decade lol.
But the reason why it will never disappear is that the masses aren't capable to handle anything else. AI thingies were an attempt but failed as well.

The big winner is Microsoft, they slowly pushed WD and people now don't even bother use anything else, even me who heavily dislike AVs let WD run on my system, reason: it is there already, seems quite efficient, so why bother removing it or adding something else?
 

Dave Russo

Level 21
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
May 26, 2014
1,041
Running it next to webroot,I can sleep easy knowing,I have the 2 best programs known to PC magazine,Signature based autograph, I believe from the owner of the company is considered a collectors item,maybe worth a little something for a rainy day
 
Last edited:
F

ForgottenSeer 823865

Problem with MB is that they still seems to forget than some kind of default-deny component is mandatory.
Signatures are obsolete, reason they went down the hill. They can't even keep up with modern and sophisticated malware.
 

eonline

Level 21
Verified
Well-known
Nov 15, 2017
1,064
Signature based is becoming obsolete
It's not just signature-based, it has other technologies as well. Here's a link that explains how it really works.
 

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