Iobit Advanced System Care and Malwarebytes

fixer · Nov 9, 2023

On reflection I think the thread title should have been ASC OR MB as it's quite clear there is no way these two can live peaceably together on the same system. For those who haven't had this tiresome experience MB scans will always mark all ASC processes as PUPs and suggest they are quarantined. Personally, apart from this irritation, I quite like having both programs so I just put up with this nonsense but what's the general view here?

johnlgalt · Nov 9, 2023

You can edit your post and then edit the title.

And MB may seem like they are being persnickety about it, but that will never change - because IOBit was caught directly using the definition files from Malwarebytes Anti-Malware without permission or attribution, and actually, vociferously, denied doing so. It was tantamount to them stealing Malwarebytes' Intellectual Property.

They may be more legitimate about their stuff now, but I still won't ever have any of their products on my machine either.

Disclaimer - I am a long, long, long time Beta tester for MBAM, since the days of version 0.x, back when Marcin was a high school student and had only just started developing MBAM. So, naturally, my opinion on this is biased.

garioch7 · Nov 9, 2023

@fixer

You asked for opinions, so mine is that ASC would never be on my computer. You might be familiar with this topic at the MB Forums:

Why does Advanced Systemcare Keep being removed

Do a Google search on negative ASC reviews.

Personally, I consider it to be"snake oil," like all the optimizers and driver boosters out there.

That is my PERSONAL OPINION only.

I do not claim at all to reflect the views of ElevenForum, of which I am unaware.

Just my two cents. Have a great day.

Regards,
Phil

fixer · Nov 9, 2023

After 20+ years of Windows I do find basic system maintenance tasks tiresome and time consuming so any software that that significantly helps in that respect without causing other problems has to be welcome for me, and Iobit's software does meet that need. Shabby history indeed but I don't think I'm likely to drop their current software because of it.

garioch7 · Nov 9, 2023

@fixer

Your choice, your computer! You asked for opinions. I gave you mine. I will bow out now.

Have a great day.

Regards,
Phil

johnlgalt · Nov 9, 2023

fixer said:
After 20+ years of Windows I do find basic system maintenance tasks tiresome and time consuming so any software that that significantly helps in that respect without causing other problems has to be welcome for me, and Iobit's software does meet that need. Shabby history indeed but I don't think I'm likely to drop their current software because of it.

I've found other ways (and when necessary, other products) that accomplish the same tasks. But, as garioch7 writes:

garioch7 said:
@fixer

Your choice, your computer! You asked for opinions. I gave you mine. I will bow out now.

Have a great day.

Regards,
Phil

It's indeed your choice. And I'm not making it out to be a bad choice, either. I like a lot of different things personally and dislike other things personally (in life in general). Others like things different from what I like - it's what makes us human. So, while I prefer to never see another of their products ever installed on any machine of mine, I'm never going to tell anyone else that they should (or should not) install them on their machines.

Porthos · Nov 9, 2023

To install ASC you can exit Malwarebytes then install ASC then open Malwarebytes and do the following

To exclude these items you need to perform a scan (a Threat scan or Hyper scan should do) and then at the end when it shows the list of detections, uncheck any item that you do not want removed and click Next. When prompted on what to do with the remaining unchecked items, select Ignore Always and they will be added to your exclusions and will no longer be detected by future scans.

You can also turn off PUP detection completely

fixer · Nov 9, 2023

I just wanted to see if any of the members here had a serious reason for removing ASC, as MB suggests you should. While it's clear some members do have fairly strong feelings about Iobit, which I can completely understand, no one has actually said its presence presents a danger to the system, not yet anyway. So I'm ok atm just allowing it to be detected.

Flashorn · Nov 9, 2023

johnlgalt said:
They may be more legitimate about their stuff now, but I still won't ever have any of their products on my machine either.

Disclaimer - I am a long, long, long time Beta tester for MBAM, since the days of version 0.x, back when Marcin was a high school student and had only just started developing MBAM. So, naturally, my opinion on this is biased.

What John said. It is certainly Not a good choice of program.

I was one of the first to introduce MBAM to PC World Forum
back when they had a forum and I was told that it wasn't going
to amount to anything Until they tried it.

BobOmb · Nov 9, 2023

I think the title here should be, “Malwarebytes and ADWCleaner.”

MBAM has gotten us through thick and thin

They support developers like Fabrice Parisot “Fab’s AutoBackup Pro” and have been a net positve to the community as a whole. (With the obvious contribution of second to none protection/remediation)

johnlgalt · Nov 9, 2023

Porthos said:
To install ASC you can exit Malwarebytes then install ASC then open Malwarebytes and do the following

To exclude these items you need to perform a scan (a Threat scan or Hyper scan should do) and then at the end when it shows the list of detections, uncheck any item that you do not want removed and click Next. When prompted on what to do with the remaining unchecked items, select Ignore Always and they will be added to your exclusions and will no longer be detected by future scans.

You can also turn off PUP detection completely

View attachment 77184

Ahhh, yeah, I glossed over the PUP / PUM mention by the OP.

I always set PUPs and PUMs to Warn, but that's just me - I'm pretty sure I know what is good, at least for the most part.

And, my bad for not tagging you in the first place - I should have.

Porthos · Nov 10, 2023

fixer said:
I just wanted to see if any of the members here had a serious reason for removing ASC

ASC "cleans and optimizes" the registry as one of its functions. That is the main reason I will not touch it or recommend it or ANY program that does that.
I have had too many clients over the years who had unexplainable issues with their computers that narrowed down to registry cleaning and optimizing and were corrected only by reinstalling Windows.

I read and saved this long ago and agree with it.

A few recommended articles to read on registry cleaners:

Registry cleaners are not supported by Microsoft

"Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the use of a registry cleaning utility can be solved. Issues caused by these utilities may not be repairable and lost data may not be recoverable"

Microsoft support policy for the use of registry cleaning utilities

An often posted and quoted article (Ed no longer hosts the site but did mention again on Twitter), Ed Bott's Why I don't use registry cleaners

miekiemoes' Blog Registry Cleaners and System Tweaking Tools

Registry cleaner - From Wikipedia

In most cases regardless of which Registry Cleaning tool you use it's not going to outright break Windows from booting or running. Normally the damage done is rarely seen or even attributed to the cleaning. How it can sometimes manifest itself is with an application simply not behaving as it used to, a program feature that no longer launches. In some cases on a computer with detailed auditing enabled it can show errors that were not there prior to the cleaning, but again these are typically things that would be nearly impossible to know after the fact what caused it.

The bottom line is WHY are you cleaning the Registry? The system can typically read through the entire Registry in under a minute, but that is not how software reads, writes to the Registry. It makes a specific call to a location where it expects its configuration to be or where it needs to possibly interface with other COM objects to complete an operation and can typically make that read in milliseconds. Reading all the keys for my HKCU hive took 249 ms with a total of 21047 keys. So how is removing a dozen or a few dozen going to really help speed up my computer?

If you can show proof positive 100% that some value in the Registry is actually causing an issue then change or remove THAT entry. Not hundreds or dozens of entries because someone that has been programming for a few years now somehow feels they or their team know the Billions of possible values and every single one that is good or bad and can automate fixing it. Sorry but I call BS, no one knows every single entry and what it means let alone if its good or bad.

johnlgalt · Nov 10, 2023

I'm with you - I don't do reg cleaners of any kind from any company, not even CCleaner - Only registry cleaning that happens on my machine is from uninstalls and when I need to remove something I do it myself.

And I don't do IOBit lol.

TairikuOkami · Nov 10, 2023

fixer said:
I just put up with this nonsense but what's the general view here?

Malwarebytes decided to detect PUPs in order to artificially boost detection, pretty lame.
I despise that company, they destroyed everything they touched, like AdwCleaner, Spyhunter.

A Guy · Nov 10, 2023

It might be considered bad blood except other programs also flag Iobit as PUP. They aren't claiming malicious, or dangerous just potentially unwanted. Personally, I'd not use them knowing their history

A Guy

BobOmb · Nov 10, 2023

TairikuOkami said:
Malwarebytes decided to detect PUPs in order to artificially boost detection, pretty lame.
I despise that company, they destroyed everything they touched, like AdwCleaner, Spyhunter.

Adw cleaner is still great, free, and faster than everything else

PUP’s were added to identify software that often finds its way into the machine on its own without a user knowing, which is why its classified as “potentially unwanted program”. The description itself spells out why they are detected.

garioch7 · Nov 10, 2023

I completely agree with @Porthos. I know of no credible malware removal expert who would recommend the use of registry cleaners. Like Porthos, I have seen computers damaged by using them. In the old days, when I was younger and stupider, I used Wise Care. It eventually messed up my computer at the time in a big way. Stay away from them.

Just my two cents.

Regards,
Phil

Iobit Advanced System Care and Malwarebytes

Well-known member

My Computers

Antidisestablishmentarianist

My Computers

Retired R.C.M.P. Veteran

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computers

Retired R.C.M.P. Veteran

My Computers

Antidisestablishmentarianist

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computer

Antidisestablishmentarianist

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computer

Antidisestablishmentarianist

My Computers

Microsoft 365 Basic

My Computer

Righteous Dude

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computer

Retired R.C.M.P. Veteran

My Computers