Malwarebytes seemed to have detected TotalAV as a threat

Alex Adamson · 31 May 2020 at 15:09

So recently I got worries that I had installed a trojan onto my PC and I've been running Windows security and Malwarebytes over and over again. They discovered no threats for a long period of time, until I installed the free version of TotalAV and ran a system check on it, just to be sure. Then suddenly Windows Security discovered, what it described as a major threat, and Malwarebytes discovered almost 500 threats when I did a quick scan. I panicked and told Malwarebytes to delete all the malicious files before looking at them which it needed to restart to do, and when my PC started up again TotalAV had been uninstalled. I did another quick scan with Malwarebytes and saw 6 malicious files and they were all from TotalAV within what remained of the files. I have since deleted all the files and Malwarebytes is saying everything's good.

What on earth was this about? Do multiple antivirus softwares not work well with eachother? Did I install a fake TotalAV? I installed from this link: https://www.totalav.com/en/free-antivirus

postmanfw · 31 May 2020 at 15:22

I think you will find that TotalAv is fake period.........

Akagi · 31 May 2020 at 15:24

Never heard of TotalAV and I regularly check which free AV is the best.

Get rid and install something else.

Alex Adamson · 31 May 2020 at 15:27

postmanfw said:
I think you will find that TotalAv is fake period.........

Thank you, I should've looked it up first.

Acme said:
Never heard of TotalAV and I regularly check which free AV is the best.

Get rid and install something else.

I found TotalAV here: https://www.antivirussoftwareguide.com/free-antivirus-software It was the first result that came up when googling: Best antivirus.
Do you think Malwarebytes is good?

Akagi · 31 May 2020 at 15:39

Ah OK, never heard of the the top two, and I wouldn't trust a source that recommends Norton or McAfee personally. I tend to skip any Google results which say "ad" next to them.

Yes Malwarebytes is fine.

As for free AV, I'd use Panda, Avira, Avast, Kaspersky Free, Sophos Free, AVG, etc. Take your pick.

I personally use Sophos free because I can easily monitor several machines from the console.

Alex Adamson · 31 May 2020 at 15:47

Acme said:
Ah OK, never heard of the the top two, and I wouldn't trust a source that recommends Norton or McAfee personally. I tend to skip any Google results which say "ad" next to them.

Yes Malwarebytes is fine.

As for free AV, I'd use Panda, Avira, Avast, Kaspersky Free, Sophos Free, AVG, etc. Take your pick.

I personally use Sophos free because I can easily monitor several machines from the console.

Thank you for your help. I apologise for my ignorance in the matter, but is Malwarebytes not a free antivirus software? I was under the impression it was. May I also ask why you don't trust Norton or McAfee?

Akagi · 31 May 2020 at 16:06

Alex Adamson said:
Thank you for your help. I apologise for my ignorance in the matter, but is Malwarebytes not a free antivirus software? I was under the impression it was. May I also ask why you don't trust Norton or McAfee?

Maybe it has changed now, but Malwarebytes never used to have real time protection, it was always just a tool to scan and remove things.

If it has real time protection then use that by all means

It's not that I don't trust Norton and McAfee, it's that they usually aren't as good as free alternatives, and you have to pay for them.

Edit: it seems only the paid version of Malwarebytes is a fully fledged antivirus.

Alex Adamson · 31 May 2020 at 16:13

Acme said:
Maybe it has changed now, but Malwarebytes never used to have real time protection, it was always just a tool to scan and remove things.

If it has real time protection then use that by all means

It's not that I don't trust Norton and McAfee, it's that they usually aren't as good as free alternatives, and you have to pay for them.

Edit: it seems only the paid version of Malwarebytes is a fully fledged antivirus.

Thank you once again.

james.miller · 31 May 2020 at 16:15

Total AV is legit.

https://www.av-comparatives.org/vendors/total-av/

2 stars. Not the best, not the worst.

LoadsaMoney · 31 May 2020 at 17:24

Ive been using the free Avira for years, its highly rated.

Nutella33 · 31 May 2020 at 17:53

Acme said:
If it has real time protection then use that by all means

Real-time is the paid for version. free version is still just manual scan.

postmanfw · 31 May 2020 at 18:07

james.miller said:
Total AV is legit.

https://www.av-comparatives.org/vendors/total-av/

2 stars. Not the best, not the worst.

being on a random website saying its legit doesnt make it so...trust malwarebytes on this....avoid totalav.

nightmare99 · 31 May 2020 at 18:25

So the website the OP linked to is owned by the company that owns the number one and two products on their list.

postmanfw · 31 May 2020 at 19:33

nightmare99 said:
So the website the OP linked to is owned by the company that owns the number one and two products on their list.

lol...says it all then...i have seen totalav on many customers computers....it was the cause of their problems not the solution.

Akagi · 31 May 2020 at 19:45

nightmare99 said:
So the website the OP linked to is owned by the company that owns the number one and two products on their list.

I thought that may be the case.

The_Arbiter · 31 May 2020 at 19:49

My Dad's laptop had that TotalAV cack on. Defo not a legit AV. No legit AV should be difficult to remove.

james.miller · 31 May 2020 at 20:26

postmanfw said:
being on a random website saying its legit doesnt make it so...trust malwarebytes on this....avoid totalav.

umm av-comparatives is not some random website, they're an ISO accredited independant company. They are the people to go to for AV testing. Just because you havent heard of them doesnt make it any less valid ...

and LOL if you've never had a false positive with malwarebytes before.

postmanfw · 31 May 2020 at 20:47

james.miller said:
umm av-comparatives is not some random website, they're an ISO accredited independant company. They are the people to go to for AV testing. Just because you havent heard of them doesnt make it any less valid ...

and LOL if you've never had a false positive with malwarebytes before.

okay fair enough I didn't know that.....but still not convinced...please install and test for us

only joking

james.miller · 31 May 2020 at 21:00

postmanfw said:
okay fair enough I didn't know that.....but still not convinced...please install and test for us

only joking

I just did

. Well, i scanned the install exe. The malware detected is pup.optional.totalav.

From malwarebytes:

Type and source of infection
PUP.Optional.TotalAV is a potentially unwanted program marketed as a system optimizer. These so-called “system optimizers” use exaggerated scan results or sometimes even intentional false positives to convince users that their systems have problems. Then they try to sell you their software, claiming it will remove these problems.

So yeah. Crappy practice that we've seen from other vendors before, but not any type of malware that's going to spy on you, steal information etc.

I still wouldnt use it myself, just based on the performance. Why bother when others do better?

Top Tier:

mrk · 31 May 2020 at 22:37

james.miller said:
I just did . Well, i scanned the install exe. The malware detected is pup.optional.totalav.

From malwarebytes:

So yeah. Crappy practice that we've seen from other vendors before, but not any type of malware that's going to spy on you, steal information etc.

I still wouldnt use it myself, just based on the performance. Why bother when others do better?

Top Tier:

Bitdefender

ESET

G DATA

Kaspersky

Total Defense

VIPRE

Hmm think I will give BitDefender a shot having read the latest AVC performance and malware reports. Microsoft's system impact seems quite noticeable.