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bingefeller

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 25, 2007
605
38
Northern Ireland
I used to use Malwarebytes but you now have to pay for it so I'm after a free virus scanner that I can run periodically when I choose. I don't like having one running in the background all the time. Any recommendations?
 
Still Free:
https://www.malwarebytes.com/pricing/mac/

Have they changed something, that I'm not aware of?

When you get the to install page you get this message:

Code:
Malwarebytes for Mac is a free tool that scans for and removes threats that attack your system or your data, introduce unwanted behaviors, and degrade performance. Making your Mac, once again, your Mac.

Malwarebytes 3.1 now introduces real-time protection, as a Premium feature, to keep these threats from getting a foothold in the first place. When you install Malwarebytes for Mac, you will get a free 30-day trial of this additional functionality.


It seems I misread it - when you install it downgrades to the simple free package.

However, it is always there in my menubar, suggesting that it's always running in the background which I don't want, free or not.
 
When you get the to install page you get this message:

Code:
Malwarebytes for Mac is a free tool that scans for and removes threats that attack your system or your data, introduce unwanted behaviors, and degrade performance. Making your Mac, once again, your Mac.

Malwarebytes 3.1 now introduces real-time protection, as a Premium feature, to keep these threats from getting a foothold in the first place. When you install Malwarebytes for Mac, you will get a free 30-day trial of this additional functionality.


It seems I misread it - when you install it downgrades to the simple free package.

However, it is always there in my menubar, suggesting that it's always running in the background which I don't want, free or not.

Right. The new malwarebytes is constantly running which sucks
 
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I don't believe Malwarebytes is running all the time, what you see in the menubar is a shortcut to start it called Malwarebytes Agent. Got to Malwarebytes Preferences and you will see a check box to hide it. Activity Monitor says it is using 0% CPU. When you activate it you will see that change.
 
I don't believe Malwarebytes is running all the time, what you see in the menubar is a shortcut to start it called Malwarebytes Agent. Got to Malwarebytes Preferences and you will see a check box to hide it. Activity Monitor says it is using 0% CPU. When you activate it you will see that change.
It is with the latest version. If you install it and check you will see it has installed a kext extension and some launch items.
 
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Thanks for the replies.

I managed to get the old standalone version from archive.org, although I'm not sure if this means the library that it uses as a scan will be constantly outdated?
 
Thanks for the replies.

I managed to get the old standalone version from archive.org, although I'm not sure if this means the library that it uses as a scan will be constantly outdated?

Using the old version (1.3) here and can confirm it's still updating with new signature files, at least for now it is. In fact I think they released a bug fix update recently (after the new 3.0 version came out) if I remember rightly? I'm definitely sticking with this version till they drop support for it. No interest in the 'upgrade' if it's going to have always on scanning.
 
Using the old version (1.3) here and can confirm it's still updating with new signature files, at least for now it is. In fact I think they released a bug fix update recently (after the new 3.0 version came out) if I remember rightly? I'm definitely sticking with this version till they drop support for it. No interest in the 'upgrade' if it's going to have always on scanning.

Great to hear - thank you!! I'm using 1.2.6 so I'll just keep this one.
 
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