Updates 12/8/16 - MalwareBytes 3.0

I also note that the paid version (and the 14 day full trial) claim to be a replacement for all AVs. At the same time, it is said not to conflict with any existing AV one might have installed, due to its using different technologies. If true, then those wishing to trial it do not have to uninstall their current AV first.

At first glance, MB3 (can't call it MBAM any more) looks like a tweaker's delight, with so many modules to configure. It will be interesting to see its impact on system memory.

Time to fire up my test system!

For people who have (or want) just MBAE (Anti-Exploit) or just MBARW (Anti- Ransom Ware), these two products will continue to exist separately, as a "stand-alone perpetual Betas".

The Beta of Anti-Exploit will include all Premium features of Anti-Exploit.  The Beta of Anti-Ransomware will include all ransomware blocking capabilities.    New techniques will be added first to these Betas for testing, before they are integrated into Malwarebytes 3.0 Premium.   Users who wish to continue using only MBAE or only  MBARW instead of Malwarebytes 3.0 will be able to do so through the use of these perpetual Betas.

https://forums.malwarebytes.org/topic/191650-malwarebytes-30-frequently-asked-questions/#comment-1077439

MB3 installed over top of MBAM Pemium easily (2 minutes) on Win 7 Pro x64 running Sophos Home AV. My lifetime licence for MBAM was recognized and transferred automatically.

My initial impressions are all positive. Keeping all the default settings (basically, all shields on), there were no conflicts with any of my security programs, no significant impact on system performance, and significantly quicker on-demand scans.

Current users of MBAM will find the GUI fairly familiar,  and easy to navigate and use. 

The only oddity here is that after some reboots, I get an MB alert that "protection layer is off" even though all are on - this is a known issue. A complete list of known issues with MB3 is here:
forums.malwarebytes.org/.../

So far, so good ...

That's a pretty extensive list of known issues... makes me wonder if they pushed the release before they should have.   I would have preferred to see most of these resolved first...

I agree. Those contemplating upgrading are well-advised to read that known issue list first, to see if their operating system and particular circumstances apply.

i'm gonna wait a couple weeks, to see how it all goes, and if the issues get resolved quickly

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/malwarebytes-3-0-review-features

That's a reasonable review of the features offered.

The reviewer seems reluctant to run MB3 (Full trial version) in real-time alongside his security suite, preferring to use it like MBAM 2.x Free as an on-demand scanner only. Fair enough, but Malwarebytes does claim that it can be run in real-time without disabling or uninstalling your AV (which was my experience using Sophos Home AV). Whether it can co-exist nicely with a full security suite is unknown; Malwarebytes is silent on that question.

Of course if you use MB3 as an on-demand scanner only (which is what you will end up with after the trial period expires, unless you purchase an annual subscription) you lose the anti-exploit, anti-ransomware, and website protection features. You end up with essentially the features of MBAM 2.x Free, but with a faster scan, and a slightly slower load time and higher memory usage. Whether MB3 is better than MBAM 2 at detecting/removing malware as a scanner is another unknown - PC Mag's brief review of MB3 Free suggests it might not be:
www.pcmag.com/.../0,2817,2455505,00.asp

Malwarebytes will be making a real mistake if it does not subject MB3 to independent tests by the likes of AV-Test and AV-Comparatives in the new year. However, PC Mag in its review of MB3 explains why this might never happen.

For those unhappy with MB3, and who wish to go back to MBAM 2, you can remove MB3 like any other program via Control Panel>Programs and Features>Uninstall a program. Do not use the uninstall tool MBAM-Clean.exe, which does not yet support MB3.

The Malwarebytes website no longer offers downloads for MBAM 2. You can still download the installer for the last version of MBAM 2.2.1.1043 from here:
data-cdn.mbamupdates.com/.../mbam-setup-2.2.1.1043.exe
... or from bleepingcomputer here:
www.bleepingcomputer.com/.../

I'm still happy with MB3 on my test unit, but I was able to download the installer from both trusted sources (against the day I might change my mind).

Installed this on my older computer with Vista. The ransomware protection is not available on this configuration, but everything else seems to work fine. Transferred my lifetime license to the Win7 machine as this one will no longer find Windows updates for some reason since last August. The only minor problem I noticed was boot up takes longer...after the welcome screen it displays the empty "green" table top for 30-40 seconds before the desktop finally appears. Will probably keep this version

Installed MB3 on the newer computer with Windows 7 several days ago. It is still reluctant to boot up with all protections turned on...takes several attempts to get the Web Protection feature turned on. I guess this is one of those issues that has yet to be fixed. Once on, it stays on and have been happy with the product so far.

Still have the same problem mentioned in the previous post. It only happens occasionally, which is puzzling, This morning, after firing up the Windows 7 system, It briefly showed that everything was turned on, THEN, it showed it that the Web Protection was turned off and I got the little alert down in the lower right corner. SEVERAL times I attempted to turn it on and it simply would say "STARTING".

Finally, did a restart and got it to work. Once on, all protections stay on the rest of the day. Also, the other day, got an alert that the program needed to be updated, but I thought that was automatic with this new version...that only happened once. With this particular system, I have to manually turn on the Windows firewall and Windows Defender, although WD does seem to start on its own after a long delay. Not sure why this happens or what I can do about it, or if it is related to the Web Protection not starting problem.. I believe my settings are correct.

Have not checked with MB's forums yet, and wondered if anyone else has been having this or similar problems. I would think any bugs would have been corrected by now. Thanks as usual for any advice.

Hi Dale:

I'm not seeing the problems you describe (apart from the false alert that some of my real-time protection is shut off), on my Win 7 Pro using MB3 along with Sophos Home AV. What AV are you using?

I'm not using Windows Defender, and note that it is turned off in Control Panel>Windows Defender. The nomenclature is confusing, but on Windows 7 "Windows Defender" is not an AV, or even an anti-malware, just an anti-spyware. In the presence of MBAM (or MB3) WD is probably superfluous, and possibly causing conflicts. I would suggest you turn its real-time protection off.

Thanks joe...I use Panda Anti-Virus and it seems to work well. WD had this same problem before I upgraded to MB3. I still get updates for it so will experiment and let them accumulate until the weekend scan...download and install them...and then run the scan, but leave it off at other times to see if that makes a difference.

STILL having problems with the Web module starting with the rest of them. The most annoying thing is that the problem is not consistent. If can work fine for several days, the refuse to come up the next day. "Fooling" around with it will usually get it to go on. The little roll up "alert" came up once several hours AFTER the computer had been on for awhile, with all protections active! I turned it on manually once again

This past weekend I contacted MB website explaining the problem, He had me uninstall MB3, run the clean up tool, then install the current version, which appears to be 3.0.5.1299. It worked fine for a couple of day, starting up when I fired up the computer the first time of the day. Then a few hours ago, here comes the alert box. I did a restart with Windows Defender turned off and the Web module did not start until I pressed "enable" or whatever the command on the pop up message is!

Anyone else have this problem, or is it just me. The computer is Windows 7 64 Bit, with IE11