is Malwarebytes good for my mac

lately I have noticed something interesting happening on my MacBook Pro, I can't really to explain it, kind of weird, kind of like the keyboard got too sensitive, I keying one note and it popped up two, and some search bar on some webpage got very dull, after I typed in what I wanted to find, they didn't react or react fast enough when you tried to search something.

I was trying to get what virus protection program I could download for my Mac, and found out here in the community that virus protector is the virus to slow down or cause the problem. Then I remember years ago, one of apple tech told me to download Malwarebytes on the phone when I was looking for help, I wonder if I should have uninstalled it.

Thank you, and appreciate any help.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.1

Posted on Feb 4, 2022 11:48 AM

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HWTech

Level 9

69,734 points

Posted on Feb 4, 2022 4:21 PM

You can use MalwareBytes to scan your Mac if you believed you may have been infected with malware or adware, but there is no reason to keep it installed. Stay away from all other anti-virus apps, cleaning apps, and third party security software since they usually cause more problems than they solve since they interfere with the normal operation of macOS. MalwareBytes is the only exception to the rule. FYI, MalwareBytes has an "uninstall" option which can be found on one of the app's menus IIRC.

To look for possible software issues you can also run EtreCheck and post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper. If you give EtreCheck "Full Disk Access", then the report will include more information including a summary of recent logs which may contain clues.

See if you have the same issues while booted into Safe Mode which disables third party Startup & Login items. If Safe Mode works fine, then you likely have an issue with some third party software or a login item.

You may also want to run the Apple Diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are detected.

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18 replies

a brody

Level 10

85,326 points

Feb 6, 2022 9:14 AM in response to Kurt Lang

Is Sophos or ClamAV as good at detection and less apt to sell your personal information? I'll be a monkey's uncle before I pay for something like McAfee or Symantec.

tbirdvet

Level 6

17,223 points

Feb 6, 2022 9:23 AM in response to Kurt Lang

The free version has an auto update box when checked off keeps the program up to date.

HWTech

Level 9

69,734 points

Feb 5, 2022 4:53 PM in response to a brody

a brody wrote:

but complementing with Avast

No, stay away from Avast! They have already been caught at least two different times selling personal information, and these forums are full of users reporting major system issues when Avast is installed. I would stay away from all anti-virus apps except for MalwareBytes since all the other anti-virus products tend to install dozens of drivers & startup items which makes them much more likely to interfere with the normal operation of macOS. I don't even recommend any third party anti-virus solution even on Windows these days for the exact same reasons (just run Microsoft's built-in Defender these days). I actually used to use Avast on Windows many years ago long before any of this came to light.

Unfortunately I cannot locate the second reference of Avast being caught selling user data, but here are a couple of articles:

https://antivirus-review.com/blog/avast-programs-spy-on-their-users

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/01/avast-kills-off-jumpshot-the-subsidiary-that-sold-all-your-web-data/

Users just need to follow safe computing habits such as are outlined in this very well written post by a respected contributor:

Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community

Here is an article with similar findings although it mostly pertains to Microsoft Windows although Macs are also mentioned and matches my own personal observations over the years:

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/best-antivirus/

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is Malwarebytes good for my mac