anti malware
is there a recommend or favourite anti malware program that folks like to use with webroot ?
Userlevel 7
Hi krahl
As WRSA is an antimalware application there is no real need to use a secondary AM application with it...as it provides great protection by itself.
However, if you are intent on adding to WRSA then many here also run Malwarebytes' MBAM (the freeware version is more than enough) with no known issues.
Regards, Baldrick
As WRSA is an antimalware application there is no real need to use a secondary AM application with it...as it provides great protection by itself.
However, if you are intent on adding to WRSA then many here also run Malwarebytes' MBAM (the freeware version is more than enough) with no known issues.
Regards, Baldrick
only reason I ask is I got nix video player popup that would not go away with clicking X or trying to close it in taskmanager on my pc today, webroot didnt have a problem with it being on my PC and I ended up having to use one of my disk images to get rid of it
Userlevel 7
No worries, krahl
If you are constantly seeing an pop-up alert re. installing the NIX Video Player (Recommended)”, then it is possible that you have an adware program installed on your computer. This ad is usually caused by adware installed on your computer.
This is in fact a non-malware program we commonly refer to as a PUA or Potentially Unwanted Application. These are in general very annoying at best in that they cause pop-ups, redirect your browser home page, and other behaviour that may slow down the computer and direct ads your way, but they are not actually doing anything bad like damaging files or stealing information. Often, they are installed intentionally by the user as browser add-ons for various tasks such as quick search tools. But they also come with the result of added annoying pop-ups and ads. Other times they 'piggy back' with other software that the user installed.
The key to avoiding them is to make sure that when downloading apps one does so from the author's own website or one that they have recommended, and not 3rd party downloading site.
WSA does detect and remove many PUA's, and more are being added, but WSA does not detect all of them. A simple browser add-on with PUA behaviour that is easy to identify and easy to remove is not likely to be detected and removed by WSA. Those that are intentionally difficult to locate and remove are. Please see THIS LINK for more information regarding Webroot's stance on these annoying programs.
To make sure that your WSA is checking for PUAs proficiently, it sometimes helps to reset the PUA detection within WSA's settings. For PUA's that had previously been scanned and determined to be OK, but have since been added to detection/removal, you may want to complete the following steps:
If that does not helps and you feel or consider yourself technically proficient then you can try these steps to remove it from your system.
And if that does not work or you do not feel technically capable then the best thing to do is to Open a Support Ticket & ask Webroot Support to take a look and remove these for you. There is NO CHARGE for this for valid WSA license holder.
Also, we have had a lot of discussion regarding at times in the Community, and one of our gurus@ has posted an Idea for Webroot to consider asking them to increase PUA detection. The more users that need help removing a particular PUA the more likely and faster that PUA will be added to detection.
I hope this helps!
Regards, Baldrick
If you are constantly seeing an pop-up alert re. installing the NIX Video Player (Recommended)”, then it is possible that you have an adware program installed on your computer. This ad is usually caused by adware installed on your computer.
This is in fact a non-malware program we commonly refer to as a PUA or Potentially Unwanted Application. These are in general very annoying at best in that they cause pop-ups, redirect your browser home page, and other behaviour that may slow down the computer and direct ads your way, but they are not actually doing anything bad like damaging files or stealing information. Often, they are installed intentionally by the user as browser add-ons for various tasks such as quick search tools. But they also come with the result of added annoying pop-ups and ads. Other times they 'piggy back' with other software that the user installed.
The key to avoiding them is to make sure that when downloading apps one does so from the author's own website or one that they have recommended, and not 3rd party downloading site.
WSA does detect and remove many PUA's, and more are being added, but WSA does not detect all of them. A simple browser add-on with PUA behaviour that is easy to identify and easy to remove is not likely to be detected and removed by WSA. Those that are intentionally difficult to locate and remove are. Please see THIS LINK for more information regarding Webroot's stance on these annoying programs.
To make sure that your WSA is checking for PUAs proficiently, it sometimes helps to reset the PUA detection within WSA's settings. For PUA's that had previously been scanned and determined to be OK, but have since been added to detection/removal, you may want to complete the following steps:
- Open Webroot SecureAnywhere
- Click on ‘Advanced Settings’ from the top right
- Select ‘Scan Settings’ from the left side
- Unselect the option “Detect Potentially Unwanted Applications”
- Click on the Save button (you may have to enter in a CAPTCHA)
- Reselect the option to “Detect Potentially Unwanted Applications”
- Click on the Save button
- Run another scan with Webroot and remove any items that get detected.
If that does not helps and you feel or consider yourself technically proficient then you can try these steps to remove it from your system.
And if that does not work or you do not feel technically capable then the best thing to do is to Open a Support Ticket & ask Webroot Support to take a look and remove these for you. There is NO CHARGE for this for valid WSA license holder.
Also, we have had a lot of discussion regarding at times in the Community, and one of our gurus
I hope this helps!
Regards, Baldrick
Thank, very helpful info 😃
Userlevel 7
You are most welcome, krahl :D
Always happy to help where one can.
And to get back to your original question; MBAM has a different policy to Webroot when it comes to PUAs (or PUPs as Malwarebytes terms them) so you will find that it will trap more of these annoying pieces of software...but in all honesty whilst I have an MBAM license I use it as a second opinion scanner...occasionally, and it rarely finds anything that WRSA has not.
I put that down to the approach (as previously advised) of making sure that one downloads software from the author's own website or from one recommended by the author...and then always carefully reading the installation panels for any spurious/pre-checked offers to install 'other software', etc.
It pays, in the first instance, to prevent rather than having to cure retrospectively.
Regards, Baldrick
Always happy to help where one can.
And to get back to your original question; MBAM has a different policy to Webroot when it comes to PUAs (or PUPs as Malwarebytes terms them) so you will find that it will trap more of these annoying pieces of software...but in all honesty whilst I have an MBAM license I use it as a second opinion scanner...occasionally, and it rarely finds anything that WRSA has not.
I put that down to the approach (as previously advised) of making sure that one downloads software from the author's own website or from one recommended by the author...and then always carefully reading the installation panels for any spurious/pre-checked offers to install 'other software', etc.
It pays, in the first instance, to prevent rather than having to cure retrospectively.
Regards, Baldrick
My problem was a stubborn popup that would not go away I got from mediafire while downloading a track for our sim racing league, so if people, some who I know and know they would not try to infect people on purpose, are going to post tracks and cars at that website to share, either a adblocker is what I need or probaly even better just not risk it from websites like that ?
Userlevel 7
Hi krahl
It is always a difficult one when it comes to people one knows who post things for friends to use...but if they do not take the requisite care when they download software they can unwittingly propagate adware and also, more dangerously malware, with out being aware. :(
An ad blocker will not necessarily prevent this sort of thing as it will only block ads over the Internet whereas here it looks like there is an unwanted application on your system that is generating the ads. That is not to say that an ad blocker is not of use generally (and we can offer some suggestions as what to consider if you would like?) but really here the only sensible approach is to avoid risky websites, whether they belong to friends or 3rd parties when downloading.
At least with friends you could try a little education and see if they can check out what they are putting on the sites with whatever AV/AM they use or if they don't then they could always try using VirusTotal online scanner to check the download before posting, etc.
Not sure if that helps?
Regards, Baldrick
It is always a difficult one when it comes to people one knows who post things for friends to use...but if they do not take the requisite care when they download software they can unwittingly propagate adware and also, more dangerously malware, with out being aware. :(
An ad blocker will not necessarily prevent this sort of thing as it will only block ads over the Internet whereas here it looks like there is an unwanted application on your system that is generating the ads. That is not to say that an ad blocker is not of use generally (and we can offer some suggestions as what to consider if you would like?) but really here the only sensible approach is to avoid risky websites, whether they belong to friends or 3rd parties when downloading.
At least with friends you could try a little education and see if they can check out what they are putting on the sites with whatever AV/AM they use or if they don't then they could always try using VirusTotal online scanner to check the download before posting, etc.
Not sure if that helps?
Regards, Baldrick
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