(based on 384 reviews)

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.46

Rated 30/50 by ninjeratu at Jul 19, 2008

Reviewing the free version here, of course. It's one of the better tools for finding trojans like Vundo (mentioned below), but the quarantine and removal is, at best, terrible. Sometimes it actually tells you it removed something - when in reality it failed and the infection is still there. Most Vundo infections are good examples of this program's fundamental issues. This is not acceptable. Want to find stuff quickly? Use this and SUPERAntiSpyware. Want to be able to actually remove what you find, use HiJackThis. And, unfortunately, both Spybot and Ad-Aware are competely useless when it comes to serious malware/adware.

Rated 50/50 by JeanInMontana at Aug 18, 2008

Paid or free versions have the same removal capabilities. Only the paid version has a tray icon. Vundo is a mutating trojan and no program will always remove it. The newest version of Vundo must be added to the definitions first. MBAM is always on the cutting edge of removal and often updates several times a day. All issues with BSOD will be corrected for the small percent of machines affected in the next three weeks max. We just keep getting better and we don't have to bad mouth another program to do that.

Rated 20/50 by sorlag at Aug 20, 2008

neat, but very low detection rate :( personally im sticking with mamutu and a-squared, as theire still unreached in therm of detection rates... i hope malwarebytes does some homework on its rates in the future...

Rated 50/50 by darin12 at Aug 27, 2008

I fix computers for a living. I have used malwarebytes on several occasions. It has always performed well in using it. I have used it mostly for removing winantivirus2008-2009 as well as many other nasties.

Rated 50/50 by Trickyrick2 at Sep 8, 2008

Just spent 2 days trying to get rid of the "Win32/Privacy Remover M64" virus. I tried close to a dozen virus remover programs (including Mcafee). Nothing worked until I found a forum (not this one) where someone had downloaded Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and it worked immediately and it was FREE. I'm glad I didn't give up and head over to the "Geek Squad" (I almost did) ..... Malwarebytes worked fast and removed that pesky virus without any problems. Thanks ...

Rated 50/50 by leofelix at Sep 24, 2008

the best antimalware i aver used. It detects and remove the most of rogue, trojans, spyware and rootkit

Rated 50/50 by phiber0ptik at Oct 16, 2008

All right. I don't like all these anti-malware softwares in the first place just so you know :) But since I play around with all kind of viruses, malware and so on I decided to put this one up for a neat dropper. This dropper installed several softwares, like antimalware09, rapid antivirus, another antivirus, two rootkits, some other dropper. All done on a virtual machine so no cows were harmed during these tests... anyhow, I installed Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and let it run thru the whole computer. 37 infections found, all of them deleted! I must admit that I am very impressed. For the record, S&D couldn't remove it all, SUPERAntiSpyware made the computer crash on each reboot, after it deleted some of the infection :) So a flawless victory for this piece of fresh air. Sure it took a few minutes to run thru the computer, but who cares, the program did a very good job.

Rated 50/50 by Genital.Joe at Oct 23, 2008

Positive reviews for a positive product. 'preinterpost': Show proof this software fails where others do not? MAB has spared me countless hours of frustration. Used since early betas, without a single issue.

Rated 40/50 by ir0nw0lf at Oct 23, 2008

preinterpost, your opinion of the product being crap is just that, *your* opinion. I love this program, it's one of the few that actually gets rid of the PITA Winantispyware 2008/2009 crap. I'm giving this a 4 simply because of that.

Rated 10/50 by preinterpost at Oct 23, 2008

The positive reviews here smell of fakes (just compare to reviews of any other product). That alone, besides the product being crap, should make you highly suspicious of considering this for your security.

Rated 50/50 by aszure at Oct 23, 2008

I don't think any 1 program is perfect at cleaning out spyware. But this is one of the ones that I use in my toolbox. I think anyone who scoffs at this program is either an idiot, or has no clue about what they're taking about.

Rated 50/50 by clyfton at Oct 23, 2008

Actually this program works like it says it works, I am a computer tech and we get machines in all the time with fake anti-virus malware and all the main virus/spyware programs wont clean it off. Programs that get better ratings then this one has been getting. about 80% of the time now I don't have to re-install windows just because of a malware virus.

Rated 40/50 by Tenoq at Oct 26, 2008

A good WinAntivirus removal utility. Certainly doesn't have full coverage: nothing does. Arguably the best freebie cleaner at the moment, and it's real-time protection in the paid version is fair to good. Not a patch on SpySweeper for serious spyware protection though, I'm afraid. It still detects far more than any other product, and offers the most comprehensive protection systems. Unfortunately it also costs a small fortune in system performance. :P

Rated 50/50 by MediaHater at Nov 1, 2008

Never have I felt compelled to 'defend' or review any product as I am doing today. I am in no way an experienced IT nor do I have ANY technical experience with computers, but I have been using corporate computers since 1976 and owning and using several personal ones since the early 90's and have learned the hard way how important it is to have security protection installed and running, and installing manual security programs to run, because as has been said here, no one program seems to do it all. Several members of my family have their own computers and they come to me when they have a problem. Not because I'm a technician but because I do try to stay up to date with the latest, best security programs and can usually help them identify and install free security apps to "cure" their problems. NOW .. to the point ... My husband's computer had been running very badly for the last few days even though he has 3 resident security programs installed and running (Ad-Aware, SpyBot S&D, and Avast). After a little research I found some info. stating possibly a problem with having an old version of the JAVA app so I updated JAVA, but of course, that in itself did not "cure" the problem. So then I went online looking for reviews of the latest, greatest FREE security programs and found many recommending Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. When the editors of such tech sites as CNet, PC World, and many 'tech forums' recommend a product, I tend to listen and trust such advice since, as I stated, I personally have no technical experience. Very long story coming to a close .... I installed and ran Malwarebytes' Anti-malware and IT WORKED! It found 6 issues and fixed them. That computer now works as fast as the day it was born. I don't understand the bad reviews on this forum. As a non-technical person, I HIGHLY recommend MALWAREBYTES' ANTI-MALWARE to ALL others, especially non-techies, who want to keep their machines pure and running at top speed. And to MBA

Rated 50/50 by what planet r u from at Nov 14, 2008

I am a computer tech in the trenches everyday for the last 19 years, I found Malwarebytes to be the best tool so far. I used to swear by Spy Bot Search and Destroy, but it is so S L O W and it is now missing infections that Malwarebytes not only detects but also removes. I know that no one-removal tool is perfect but I have found that I can protect my clients if they use both Malwarebytes and AVG free, at least for today that is. PS: MediaHater right on, truth of experience :}

Rated 50/50 by eclipsingdivinity at Dec 3, 2008

I guess I've been living under a rock since my days of getting spyware and viruses. Back then we'd have Spybot and Ad-Aware and even then we'd have to have something like AVG to make sure we're clean. Things have changed. Spybot is old and rusty, and Ad-Aware of broken and bloated. Viruses and spyware are mutating into malware and the what we need now are malware scanners. After just lightly testing this scanner (along with NIS 2009) on a virtual machine, I'm starting to appreciate how powerful MBAM is. It's this generations Spybot or Adaware. It did a great job of sweeping up what NIS missed during its cleaning process and deleted the infections without a hitch.

Rated 50/50 by saku4me at Dec 17, 2008

OK. I was somewhat skeptical of this program when I first downloaded it because of the problems I was having. I kept getting all these pop ups even though I was using FireFox and had installed Ad-Block Plus. The pop ups wouldn't stop even after I scanned my whole system with symantec AV, SpyBot S&D, Ad-Aware and Windows Defender. Everything came back clean even though the problems persisted. So I decided to contact Microsoft and the lady gave me a link to Malwarebytes saying that might help solve the problem. I was thinking to myself "I've never heard of this program and I used Spybot, Ad-Aware, and Windows Defender and everything came back clean. This no-name program won't do me any good BUT I guess it won't hurt". I downloaded the program and scanned my entire laptop and tada, it found 28 problems that were missed by these three "top" anti-spyware programs. I had the Vundo trojan (a bunch) and some other bug and that was what caused all the problems. So all in all, I can't give this program anything less than a 5 and I am deciding whether or not I should upgrade for the paid version. When a program is able to find problems that was missed by three leading programs, you can't say it's not effective. BY FAR THE BEST ANTI-MALWARE/SPYWARE PROGRAM OUT THERE.

Rated 50/50 by Bubba at Dec 20, 2008

I'm a continual computer builder and the one everyone else brings there computer to for fixing. My niece came home from school with her computer loaded with malware. I've never seen one so bad. I tried Spysweeper (that I paid for and used to swear by) and it didn't do much. Adaware and Spybot, nothing. A computer tech where I work recommended trying MalwareByte's anti-malware and it's my new favorite. Took a while to scan, but much faster than reinstalling her operating system. And found/cleaned everything in one shot with no problem. I know nothing usually finds/fixes everything, but the "name brand" products I tried didn't even come close. I don't usually join forums, I'm not a "beta tester", and though I know as much or more about computers than half the techs at the University I work at I don't consider myself a professional in the computer industry. But had to join this forum to give this product a good review. Hopefully they'll keep up the good work better than Spysweeper did. If so, I will seriously consider getting the payed for version and taking Spysweeper off my box.

Rated 50/50 by lucas3x at Dec 27, 2008

i think this is a very effective anti-malware for free especially when scanning from safe mode in windows pc. I had my problem with a rogue known as spyware guard 2008 which always pop-up. It detected and deleted all its infection on my pc. Thanks to Malwarebytes for helping me get rid of this rogue. I recommend this for malware removal especially for malware infected computers. This is the best i think that you could rely on when you are in need from malware infections. Simple but very effective compared to spysweeper and counterspy.

Rated 50/50 by wiak at Dec 30, 2008

Excellent Anti-Malware Tool It finds and removes Vundo, Windows Defender detected one but cant remove it but MalwareBytes Anti-Malware found 16 and removed them all! on older PCs (Celeron/Sempron 2ghz, 1Gb mem, 5400rpm HDs) it cant take upto 2 hours to scan