Malwarebytes has been working on the beta version of an update to their Anti-Malware product. The second release of the popular malware fighting product is looking good.
Along with a new look to the application, Malwarebytes also improves some functionality of its scanning. Two such examples include scans now cover all user registry hives instead of just HKCU and utilizes their Chameleon product. For more details about the changes in Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 2.0 beta test 2, see this post on the Malwarebytes forum.
Here’s a quick walk-through of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 2.0 in a series of screenshots:
The install looks like a standard Windows application install and the current Malwarebytes Anti-Malware installer. At the end of the installation, the option to update Malwarebytes is removed. There is an option to start a Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium trial and to launch Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.
Once you launch Anti-Malware, you will start with the new dashboard, which looks more modern than the current version but does feel a little like some of the common Fake AVs out there. It immediately complains that it has never scanned the system and the definitions are out of date.
When you select to do a scan, you are given new options. The Threat Scan is the comprehensive scan that checks all the places. The Hyper Scan checks for active threats and will run the Threat Scan if anything is found. Custom Scan allows you to define the rules.
Continuing through with running a scan, it offers to update the definitions in-line with the process similar to Malwarebytes Anti-Rootkit.
From there, the scan will commence and goes through multiple levels with information as to what it is scanning and if it has found anything. The comprehensive Threat Scan was very fast.
After the scan completes you can view the detailed scan log.
The scan completion screen summarizes what was found and how long it took.
The Settings tab has a new look to it and gives a lot of options to customize Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to behave to your preferences.
After a scan has completed and the definitions are updated, the dashboard will look a bit happier.
With Malwarebytes 2.0, the company is moving to a subscription model (Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium) at $24.95/year and moving away from the lifetime license (Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro). However, in this forum post announcing the 2.0 beta, it is said lifetime licenses will continue to be honored. Malware removal will also continue to be free in 2.0, the subscription is only required for real-time protection.
If you would like to try out the Malwarebytes 2.0 beta 2, you can download and install it from here: