Why is there fewer and fewer dedicated malware scanners?

Okay so back in the days we had several pretty good real time malware scanners:
- malwarebytes
- super antispyware
- lavasoft adware
- spybot search and destroy

Today there is only malwarebytes. The other 3 became irrevelant with exception of Adaware that became an AV.

Im asking because I'd like to have a 2nd real time guard next to my main AV. I do like malwarebytes but I think there should be some more options out there.

 

Anti-virus's nowadays are more than just AV's. They have Anti-malware definitions as well. No need for a dedicated AM when the AV you're running has AM definitions already, so the AM companies lost support.

 

IMO secondary scanner running in real-time is not needed. The benefit is just ain't worth the extra used resource. Better use them as on-demand. If I was running a real-time AV I'll pair it with something that has different approach, like a classical HIPS or an anti-exe or Sandboxie.

 

You're only looking at the popular ones. Plus you missed HitmanPro, which might be better than MBAM. For virtually all of them:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/probably-best-free-security-list-world.htm?page=0,2
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/probably-best-free-security-list-world.htm?page=0,3
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/probably-best-free-security-list-world.htm?page=0,4

I'll add Cezurity and possibly more tomorrow.

 

Emsisoft Emergency Kit

and many others on J_L list
its not dead, it just not that popular anymore

edit : not popular for "normal" people, but extremely popular here at wilders

 

The key is real time scanners.

 

Cezurity and EEK are indeed not real-time.

MBAM is great and they added PUP detection a few days ago, by the way.
Forticlient is good enough to be run alone in real-time methinks. (and do on-demand scans with MBAM)
OTOH, I'd run MBAM real-time if I was running MSE.

 

Simple reason.

AV nowadays are not just about "viruses". Their scope of duty includes malware (which inc. viruses, spyware, etc etc) and by technical terms, should have been referred to as "anti-malware". It's just that the marketing side decides that the benefits of familiarity outweighs the technical precision for the masses.

http://anti-virus-rants.blogspot.sg/2008/02/what-is-anti-malware-anti-virus.html

Some anti-malware programs like MBAM market themselves as 'complementary' programs and they are right in doing so because their range of coverage omits certain things that other AVs (which are technically AM) detects.

http://helpdesk.malwarebytes.org/en...ytes-Anti-Malware-replace-antivirus-software-

Then, there are AVs (technically AM) that claim to be designed to work along with other AVs (again technically AM). This even adds more to the confusion.

In short, there are actually more real-time malware scanners - just that they are not termed/marketed as such. Don't get lost by the terms used.

 

Then there's only Windows Defender, Immunet, and Rising PC doctor left as somewhat reputable names. There are some little known ones of unproven quality as well.

 

You can try Crystal Security, which uploads to Virus Total, all the suspicious executables running in your system and if the result is 100% safe adds the file to a whitelist. Also it has an on-demand scanner.

It's a real time scanner (with a little delay) with more or less 50 engines

I really don't understand why Crystal Security is not very popular, at least here in wilders.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=317258

http://www.crystalsecurity.eu/index.php

 

Few DAYS ago?
Am I missing something here?

 

As of July 28 Malwarebytes adopts a more aggressive PUP policy.

 

Hitman Pro uses all the detections from the best A/V programs in the world, I have been using it and its the best malware detector and remover there is. Bar none.