4 Questions regarding Malware Programs

I disagree. I have used Avast Free from time to time, & still use MBAM Free occasionally for 3rd opinion on-demand scans. I have never been tempted to buy their non-free products. My *main* security apps are not free now & never were. They offered a 30-day trial. I tried them then bought. The ox who plows the field is worthy to be fed.

Now -- as to HMP not cleaning up after it detects: I find it difficult to understand why anyone would want an AV to clean malware. Such clean-ups are not always a 100% certainty. IMO, it's much better to image one's system disk at least weekly & retain 3-4 months of prior images( FIFO). The best cure for an infection this week is to restore a healthy image from a prior week.

 

I regularly clean malware from customers computers, who don't have an image to restore their system from. Cleaning the infections is much quicker and easier than backing up any data they need, doing a clean install of Windows and then reinstalling any software they need. For my own sytems, I only ever use images as an absolute last resort. If I remove the malware then maybe I will learn something about malware removal, and what software works best, which will be of help when cleaning other peoples computers. If I restore from an image, I learn nothing. It's the same when I have computer problems. If I fix the problems, it's a learning experience.

 

I applaud computer repair folks. I'm strictly a numbers & briefs person -- when it come to mechanical aptitude, I can't walk & chew gum at the same time.

I have a very good computer repairman named Conan. He has taken care of my computers for over 20 years. From the get-go, Conan taught me to install AVs on each of my computers -- as I recall my first one was called Dr. Solomon. Also from the get-go Conan taught me to regularly backup. Also from the get-go, when good imaging programs came to be , Conan taught me to image weekly. In a way, teaching me cost Conan $$$ because, from the get-go, I have never needed help in recovering from providentially rare infections, & other bad stuff that can totally "confuse" a computer (such as my grandson & his interesting "experiments").

Perhaps one day soon every "good antivirus suite* will incorporate an automatic process for periodic imaging onto a removable thumb drive or into a cloud. Until then, imaging can & should be as simple & habitual as any other back-up process. All my friends have been taught to image. It's not rocket science -- it's easy to teach & easy to learn.

Re OP's question #4 -- Another useful antimalware is a File Integrity Checker. AdInf is a good one. Its latest version runs on Windows 7, 8.1, & 10. It should be run (on-demand) daily, else the list of changed files can become somewhat too large to review.

 

Bd free 2017 and MBAM premium work for me. Light weight, play well together and great protection years now.

 

I use BD paid and mbam 3.0 premium with all real-time protections turned on and don't have any problems also.

 

The 3 malware programs I am running are: Malwarebytes, Reason Core Security and MalwareFox.
I have 4 questions:

(1) In your opinion, which is the best and the worst of these three?
Malwarebytes (Best) ~ Reason Core Security (Worst)

(2) Considering I have Kaspersky Total Security, would it be of any benefit to upgrade to the paid version of one or more of them?
Nothing in particular...

(3) Is SpyBot Search and Destroy still an active company and if so, is it worth considering?
I've used it as another on-Demand Scanner; nothing more...

(4) Are there any other malware programs that you would recommend?
HitmanPro