Dear Computer Lady,
My computer was compromised, and somewhere in the fix, I lost my Malwarebytes Free Anti-Malware program. I had it for years, installed by the place that fixed my PC years ago.
I download the free version, that I found in the search engine, but it only lasted about 30 days, and it wants me to purchase the 1 year one for $30.00. Can you help me with this, or is there something else you would suggest?
Thank you, John
Dear John,
The first thing to do is make sure you have the real Malwarebytes program downloaded from www.malwarebytes.org. When you search using a search engine, you sometimes end up with an impostor. The real Malwarebytes program costs $24.95 per year, if you choose to purchase it.
If you download and use Malwarebytes, but choose not to purchase it, the program will still work after the 30 days, you just have to remember to check for updates and run scans manually. The only thing purchasing the program will do for you is run real-time protection, and schedule automatic updates and scans. You can still use the unregistered version to manually update and run scans.
I have purchased Malwarebytes for my computer, and I find that it removes threats from my computer every now and then that I would have not caught otherwise.
Elizabeth
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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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I always choose to download programs from http://download.cnet.com/windows/ You can get the free version there.
Your last newsletter had several questions about the Malwarebytes program. I have an additional question. I use Norton Antivirus and it has a anti-malware program. If I were to download Malwarebytes, would these 2 programs cause problems running together? I have my Norton program running in real time so I am assuming the anti-malware is running constantly also. Thanks, Cindy.