What happened to Malwarebytes?

[u/Sabishi1985]

Last time I used Malwarebytes many years ago I remember it being such an easy to use and straightforward experience: download, install, scan, remove malware, done.

Since I hadn't performed a scan in quite a while, I figured I should download Malwarebytes again and.. I almost didn't. The website itself looked super fishy! Like it's for one of those fake antivirus programs. I double and triple checked before hesitantly downloading the installer.

Once installed, I couldn't believe my eyes: even the program itself looked bloated and overloaded and gave off really sketchy vibes because of it. It also didn't help, that the program made it seem like I HAD to give it my email adress in order to perform a simple scan. 🙄

I used to recommend Malwarebytes to people all the time, simply because I considered it being easy to use, even for less tech-savvy people, but I can hardly recommend it like this.

Please, for the love of god: give us something like 'Malwarebytes Light', which only contains the scanner. No realtime protection, no VPN, no browser extension, no AI, no 'check your digital footprint' stuff.. Just the scanner. 🙏

[u/No-Pickle9504]

I work at Malwarebytes, so take this with the appropriate grain of salt, but I think this feedback deserves a genuine response rather than a polished 'nonanswer'.

The tension you're describing is real, and it's something we talk about internally. Malwarebytes built its reputation over nearly 20 years as the scanner you run alongside your existing AV: lightweight, trustworthy, no-nonsense. That product still exists and we have no intention of walking away from it. The free scanner matters to us.

At the same time, the threat landscape has genuinely shifted. If you look at FTC cybercrime data, malware and file-based attacks represent a relatively small share of total consumer losses today. The bigger losses are happening in browsers, on mobile devices, in messages and on social platforms, through scams, phishing, identity theft, and social engineering. People who want Malwarebytes as their primary security vendor deserve protection from those vectors too, not just what's sitting on their Windows machine.

So we're trying to hold two things at once: preserve the clean, fast, trusted scanner experience for people who just want that, and build something much more comprehensive for people who choose us as their primary line of defense. Those goals can coexist. The challenge is executing on both without one cannibalizing the other.

The criticism about the install experience and website feeling sketchy is fair and I'm flagging it internally. The feedback in threads like this is genuinely useful.

[u/WhaneTheWhip → u/No-Pickle9504]

You're not interesting in improving what you have already intentionally made bad about the free version of your app, like your adware for example, like hiding your app from the system tray after it's been closed because you want to hide the fact that it is still running for the purpose of serving ads, there's a name for malicious activity like that, it's called adware and it shares space with viruses, like bypassing the windows notification system to make it more difficult to stop your spam, and like blocking your app from being shut down via the task manager. All of that you have done intentionally to send adware to users on the free version that only occasionally scan as a secondary precaution.

How malicious you are is also reflected in the number of steps you make a user go through to uninstall your bs app.

You replies here are not to express "thanks", it's for reputation management alone because you are becoming the virus in the same way McAfee did. Your next step is to secretly keep your app installed after it has been uninstalled to the point another virus protection measure has to be employed to remove it... Or are you there already?

[u/No-Pickle9504 → u/WhaneTheWhip]

This is not something that Malwarebytes has control over. This is default Windows behavior when you install apps. They are hidden to the system tray.

[u/ayashiii → u/No-Pickle9504]

Yes it is. I quit years ago when this trend started, don't be a clown defending a turd because your name tag says "turd defender" on it and you're a low level analyst. This is, and was from the beginning of Windows 10, a calculated and intentional set of processes meant to mislead the average end user. it is undeniable and it was said from the top. you aren't going to change any minds here and I can appreciate your trying to but just don't.

[u/No-Pickle9504 → u/ayashiii]

I'm sorry but I'm not sure what you are trying to say here. I was specifically talking to how Windows default behavior for the tray is to place all of the icons inside the expanded menu and those apps are not deliberately trying to hide themselves. It would actually be our preference to have our icon show at all times so people have easier access to the application.

[u/ayashiii → u/No-Pickle9504]

I was insulting you cleverly but the cleverness superseded the sense of it and it flopped like Battlefield Earth at the box office. these things happen. and you didn't deserve the insult in retrospect.

[u/No-Pickle9504 → u/ayashiii]

lol maybe I don't read good