Just after installation, it recommends launching an initial scan. Above these panels is an area that provides status information and advice. As noted, the real-time protection feature is premium-only-so is scheduled scanning. A banner across the top reports status and offers advice, while three large panels along the bottom offer access to Detection History, Scanner, and Real-Time Protection. For testing purposes, I dug into account settings and declined the Premium trial.Īfter a quick installation, the simple main window appears. It does just one thing: clean up existing malware problems. In particular, the free edition, reviewed here, doesn't include any real-time protection. If you let the trial expire without upgrading, you lose quite a few features.
When you install the free edition, you get a 14-day trial of Malwarebytes Premium. It’s not meant to be your only protection, however-you should use it alongside a full-powered free antivirus like Avast One Essential or AVG AntiVirus Free, our Editors’ Choice winners for free antivirus protection. Malwarebytes Free aims to clean out preexisting malware and hunt down malicious programs that evaded your regular antivirus. In the real world, though, malware sometimes slips past antivirus protection or gets embedded in the system and interferes with installing protection. A perfect antivirus tool would eliminate all malicious software while treating valid programs with loving care.
