Compatability with Malwarebytes Pro

[Guest]

Hi, There is a lot of information and possible mis-information on the internet (various forums) about the use of Malwarebytes Pro and Kaspersky Free Antivirus together. Some community FAQ's say it is not allowed (recommended). Others say it is not supported but works okay with mutual exclusions and the following article makes no mention of Malwarebytes being an incompatible program to Kaspersky. Article from Kaspersky: https://support.kaspersky.com/14286 This article implies (by its absence) that the official stance is that it is fine. I wish to keep my lifetime subscription to Malwarebytes and have in fact been running the two intandem with no ill effects at all. I do want to install Kaspersky Free on a few machines of family members however (who also have Malwarebytes Pro) and don't want any hassles going forwards with Kaspersky updates refusing to install because of hte presence of the Malwarebytes realtime modules. can someone from Kaspersky please clarify. I am NOT going to remove their Malwarebytes - it has saved their skins on many occasion and is a trusted application for me. I appreciate there may be no "theoretical" need for it with Kaspersky but that is not the point. I like it and would desire to keep it. If it comes to a choice the Malwarebytes stays and I will find an antivirus that will play nicely with it (even if that AV is slightly inferior to Kaspersky). thanks Paul

[Schulte]

Hi Paul, it has never been a good idea to run two real-time scanners at the same time. In normal operation they may get along, but you can't tell what will happen if one (or both) of them detects malware. The system may crash - or the malware may be let through. No one can say for sure. Since you want to keep MBAM in any case, I wouldn't use an additional Kaspersky in your case.

[Guest]

Hi, Appreciate the answer Schulte, The thing is that Malwarebytes was (and many still say is) the exception to the rule. Most of the other AV companies play nicely with it. It also doesn't explain the KB article above not mentioning Malwarebytes. It used to mention it but it seems to have been removed from the list of "incompatible" applications. thanks Paul

[kmscom]

https://support.kaspersky.com/12963

[Schulte]

... It used to mention it but it seems to have been removed from the list of "incompatible" applications.

There's nothing wrong with trying it. But expect the unexpected. If MBAM or KL provide an update, the situation can change quickly.

[mole]

Hi Schulte,

Not sure whether this is an issue for this thread or an issue for the technical support (by the way: didn´t find an according German thread up to now): Up to now I have used following  OS and AVs on both my Laptop (HP EliteBook x360 G5) and PC (HP Workstation z240):

• Windows 10, Version 1909;
• KIS 2019 (version 19.0.0.1088 (up to and including patch k);
• Malwarebytes Premium version 4.0.4.;
• Firefox browser versions 72 resp. actual 73.0.

All worked fine together and both systems/computers run well and stable (even Malwarebytes blocked several PUPs and PUMs while KIS detected nothing) – but unfortunately only until I updated KIS from 2019 version to 2020 version on my laptop. Parallelly I tried to set up a brand new HP workstation Z2 G4 (with a NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000), and of course I tried to install the same software combo as described above (with actual KIS 2020 version). And since then on both Laptop and new workstation nothing worked well anymore and a lot of problems occurred (ok, to be honest in case of the new workstation I suspected an incompatibility between GPU and HP components, and therefore I sent it back under warranty). Fortunately I didn´t upgrade KIS on my “old” workstation which runs unchanged stable. The problems can be described as follows (list maybe not complete):

1. Programs not able to install. 

2. Skype freezing.

3. Add/Remove programs not opening.

4. Not being able to open Firefox after closing it (massive problems incl. system crashs)

5. Icons disappearing in the taskbar.

6. Desktop icons losing their image.

7. Various freezing and glitches.

8. Not being able to open file explorer.

9. Not being able to open search box in the taskbar.

10. Not being able to use Power shell (neither in the standard mode nore in the Administrator mode) – Power shell froze completely.

11. Not being able to uninstall MalwareBytes properly.

12. Programs not closing properly and even after trying to force close with task manager still being open, especially Firefox browser.

13. Extremely slow shut down of system (in case of the new workstation shut down froze completely too).

On my Laptop I used a former system recovery point after uninstalling KIS 2020 and Firefox, and I tried to set it up newly, but ultimately the same problems occurred again.

In case of the new workstation I tried to recover the complete system 5 (!) times again and again with different installing sequences – without any success but more or less with all problems listed above. And by the way: During installing KIS 2020 after Malwarebytes version 4.0. was installed KIS detected "Incompatible software" being “Malwarebytes version 3.x” – which was never installed on the brand new HP system before!).

After wasting days by days to find the effective reason of this disaster I tried on my Laptop the following:

• Uninstall Firefox comoletely.
• Uninstall Malwarebytes Premium 4.0.4. completely (which was only possible by using "dirty tricks" and not by regular processes).
• Uninstall KIS 2020 completely.
• Run Registry First Aid 11 and delete all error messages which RFA detected.
• Install Firefox version 73.0 newly.
• Install Malwarebytes Premium 4.0.4. newly.
• Install KIS version 2019 (!) by using the full offline installer kis19.0.0.1088aen_14170.exe in a complete offline and flight mode (KIS 2019 also detected "Malwarebytes version 3.x" as incompatible software – but here goes is deactivating this conflict message).
• After going online again and running Database update the KIS 2019 version was updated from patch a to patch k automatically (before that I deactivated the automatically update of KIS in its settings).

And what I shall say after doing this: I´m extremely happy to have had success and to bring back the Laptop system to a full stable matter without occurring any of the problems described above again.

So here are my burning questions to you: Why run all software components including KIS and Malwarebytes both as real time scanners absolutely stable under KIS version 2019 but not a bit stable under KIS version 2020? What did Kaspersky change between version 2019 and 2020 so that all these massive system attacks could happen? And do you intend to solve these problems by an adequate update in the future?

 

[Anonymouse]

I have been using KTS and malwarebytes premium together for a very long time with no issues whatsoever.

Today, after a KTS update, I received an incompatible application recommendation.

KTS is my primary AV, but I do not want to remove MB as it gives me an extra sense of security, particulary when browsing websites (where I find MB seems to be more effective at preventing connections to potentially malicious website components). In short, I want to keep both!

Malwarebytes recommendations on this issue are that it IS compatible with Kaspersky, so I’m perplexed as to why Kaspersky are now advocating the removal of MB.

A stated above, if I’m having no issues, why should I stop using it?

 

Please can Kasperksy update guidance on this to re-instate compatibility with MB.

 

Thank you!

[Anonymouse]

Hi Paul,

it has never been a good idea to run two real-time scanners at the same time.

In normal operation they may get along, but you can't tell what will happen if one (or both) of them detects malware.
The system may crash - or the malware may be let through. No one can say for sure.

Since you want to keep MBAM in any case, I wouldn't use an additional Kaspersky in your case.

But Malwarebytes states that it is compatible with Kaspersky, and my understanding was that it allows Kaspersky (or whatever AV package you’re using, if you have one) to do the heavy-lifting.

[Anonymouse]

https://support.malwarebytes.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038522974-Malwarebytes-for-Windows-antivirus-exclusions-list

 

“Malwarebytes for Windows is designed to coexist with other antivirus software, but you should consider adding the other antivirus' files and drivers to Malwarebytes for Windows' exclusions.”