Malwarebytes Releases Public Beta of Anti-Malware 2.0 Software
The web is a treacherous place and even the safest of surfing habits won't necessarily keep you completely isolated from all the dangers out there. You can visit a site that you've loaded up in your browser a thousand times, but if it's been compromised, you could be the one to pay the price. Luckily there are capable software solutions for the good guys, one of our favorites being Malwarebytes, a popular anit-malware tool that just received a makeover.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 2.0 is now available to download in beta form. The new version sports a completely redesigned user interface designed to make it easier to navigate and more informative, as well as provide quicker access to key functions.
The new version is more than just a pretty face -- the company's Anti-Rootkit and Chameleon tools are baked into the latest release (turned off by default). In addition, the developers have rewritten the Malicious Website Blocking module, improved the software's native x64 support, and beefed up its detection and removal engine. According to Malwarebytes, this is the biggest rewrite they've ever done.
That's the good news. The bad news is that Malwarebytes is moving to a subscription licensing model that runs $24.95 per year (valid for up to 3 PCs).
"As more and more people have come to rely on us for malware protection and cleanup, our costs in bandwidth, hosting fees, infrastructure, salaries of our researchers, QA department, and more have grown immensely," Malwarebytes explained in a forum post. "Though our company is about more than just making money, we are a company and we do have to make money to pay our staff to continue doing what they love, which is fighting malware. The subscription model will help us to be sustainable for the future while staying true to our roots that we will always make malware cleanup free for everyone."
f you already purchased a lifetime license for version 1.x, Malwarebytes says it will also apply to version 2.x. There will also be a few thousand more lifetime licenses offered when version 2.0 launches. In the meantime, you can grab the beta here and view a list of known issues here.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 2.0 is now available to download in beta form. The new version sports a completely redesigned user interface designed to make it easier to navigate and more informative, as well as provide quicker access to key functions.
The new version is more than just a pretty face -- the company's Anti-Rootkit and Chameleon tools are baked into the latest release (turned off by default). In addition, the developers have rewritten the Malicious Website Blocking module, improved the software's native x64 support, and beefed up its detection and removal engine. According to Malwarebytes, this is the biggest rewrite they've ever done.
That's the good news. The bad news is that Malwarebytes is moving to a subscription licensing model that runs $24.95 per year (valid for up to 3 PCs).
"As more and more people have come to rely on us for malware protection and cleanup, our costs in bandwidth, hosting fees, infrastructure, salaries of our researchers, QA department, and more have grown immensely," Malwarebytes explained in a forum post. "Though our company is about more than just making money, we are a company and we do have to make money to pay our staff to continue doing what they love, which is fighting malware. The subscription model will help us to be sustainable for the future while staying true to our roots that we will always make malware cleanup free for everyone."
f you already purchased a lifetime license for version 1.x, Malwarebytes says it will also apply to version 2.x. There will also be a few thousand more lifetime licenses offered when version 2.0 launches. In the meantime, you can grab the beta here and view a list of known issues here.
