Malwarebytes For Mac User Guide: 7 August 2018
Malwarebytes For Mac User Guide: 7 August 2018
Malwarebytes For Mac User Guide: 7 August 2018
Version 3.4.0
7 August 2018
Notices
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CMC13-3040a
Table of Contents
Improvements
• Added the ability to schedule scans
• Improved the first installation experience
• Fixed minor issues
When you click Activate Protection, a notification will appear to inform you that a system extension was blocked.
Click OK to display the window shown below, then click Open Privacy Settings to make changes necessary for Malwarebytes to
function fully on the computer.
You will be returned to Malwarebytes, confirming that real-time protection is now active. Click Done to begin using the program.
The next window is displayed if Malwarebytes is fully enabled to protect your computer. If you have already purchased a license,
you may wish to activate your copy of Malwarebytes at this time. You can do that now (or at any time) by clicking the Activate
License button at the top right portion of the Malwarebytes user interface. That is covered on the next page of this guide.
Activation
Malwarebytes is available for users of any modern Mac client to download and install at no cost to them. They can also purchase a
subscription, which entitles them to take advantage of real-time protection and update scheduling. If no license has been installed
into the product, the blue title bar at the top of the screen will show two buttons, Activate License and Upgrade Now. When clicked,
Upgrade Now launches a browser window which will take them to the Malwarebytes web site to purchase a license.
Your license information will be in an email sent to you by Malwarebytes at the time of purchase. Locate your license information
and click the Activate License button. Please note: You must be online with an active Internet connection in order to successfully
activate your Premium license. Please focus your attention to the top center portion of the screen shown below.
If you do not already have a license key, click Purchase a License to purchase one from the Malwarebytes website. After entering
your license information, click the Activate License button. The two license-related links in the Menu Bar have been replaced by a
link called My Account. Also note that the License has changed from Malwarebytes Trial to Malwarebytes Premium.
Click Close to dismiss the notification, or click Download to download the latest Malwarebytes version onto your system. To install
the update, you will need to relaunch Malwarebytes once the download has completed. The update will be available on the
Dashboard, as shown below.
Uninstallation
Should you ever need to uninstall Malwarebytes from your computer, you will find an option to perform this task in the Help menu.
Please note that admin rights for the computer will be required to perform this task.
Malwarebytes Menu
The Malwarebytes menu is visible in the menu bar at all times, and is represented by the Malwarebytes icon in the right side of the
menu bar. Click on the Malwarebytes icon to launch the following screen directly below the menu bar. Descriptions of the settings
are shown below as well.
The upper panel contains Version Information. The Resources section provides contact addresses (URLs) which may offer
assistance for sales, support, and educational purposes. In addition, you can view the third-party notices (open source software
which we use in our products) as well as a link to our End User Licensing Agreement (EULA).
Status Pane
The main area of the screen is the Status Pane, providing current system status. The first item displayed in system status is always
the severity level. Severity levels are shown here:
Critical: Immediate attention is Warning: Please take action OK: No problems noted.
required. before the situation becomes
critical.
There are many variations in the message and sub-message which may be presented for each severity level.
If you click Close, the notification will be dismissed. Click Show to launch the Quarantine screen, as shown on page 14. There may
also be instances when real-time protection quarantines a threat and determines that a restart is necessary to remediate the threat
fully. That notification looks very similar. It is shown here.
When a restart is required, please remember to save all work before clicking Restart.
You may note that the screen shown here says that two threats were found, while it appears that four items are shown. The items
shown in bold are the names of the threats themselves, while the information immediately below the threat name is a component
of the threat. Threats may have several components. When that is the case, they will all be displayed.
You may click Cancel to skip further processing of the detected threats. You may also uncheck threats you do not wish to remove,
then click Confirm. Using the above screen as a reference, if we uncheck Adware.IronCore (the first threat) and click Confirm, we
will be presented with the following screen.
Threats which have been moved into Quarantine cannot harm your computer. They are neutralized as part of the Quarantine
process, and can be processed further at any time.
That will open a new system window showing the contents of the Quarantine folder. That system window is only there for your
inspection. If you wish to delete the contents of the Quarantine folder, you should click Clear Quarantine in the Malwarebytes
Quarantine screen. You will be presented with a confirmation window before the deletion takes place.
If a restart is required to complete remediation of threats detected during a scan, the following notification is shown instead.
When a restart is required, please remember to save all work before clicking Restart.
You can sort the events in Reports using the Date and Time – Click the header to change the sort order. The menu at the bottom
of the interface allows you to filter the category of Report shown. The checkbox to the left of each entry allows you to delete
events. You can quickly select or deselect all events by clicking the top-most checkbox. Delete will become active once you have
selected one or more events. Over time, Malwarebytes automatically deletes older report events to make room for new entries.
General
The default tab when you open Settings is General. You will note that General is highlighted in blue, indicating it is the selected
settings group. Available settings are:
• Default action for potentially unwanted programs determines the action taken on PUPs. The default option is to
Quarantine PUPs, although you may also choose to Skip processing instead. This would exclude PUPs from scans. You
may still quarantine PUPs by selecting them after a manual scan.
• Automatically check for database updates may be selected or deselected. We strongly recommend that you select this
option in order to benefit from the most current database updates. When selected, the Check every setting allows
updates to be scheduled for once an hour (the default) up to once per 24-hour day (in 5 discrete steps).
• Hide application icon causes this icon in the menu bar to not be displayed. This setting is unchecked by default.
• Black & White icon will cause the application icon in the menu bar to be displayed in monochrome when selected, or in
color when not selected. The default is Black & White (selected).
• Automatically receive beta versions of component updates and full releases will cause the application to download beta
(pre-release) updates in addition to normal releases. This setting is unchecked by default. After enabling this setting,
you will receive an additional screen to confirm your choice.
• Help fight malware by providing usage and threat statistics will cause the application to send anonymized data from the
application to us for analysis. This data helps our researchers and engineers improve the product and help protect you.
For a full list of information that is collected, please see the Malwarebytes Privacy Policy, at:
https://www.malwarebytes.com/privacy/
The second variation is for Trial users. It offers the opportunity for the user to purchase a license, to enter a license that they have
already purchased, or to deactivate the Trial. If you deactivate your trial, you will no longer be able to use Real-Time Protection,
and you will not be able to resume the Trial at a later time.
If you are using the Premium version of Malwarebytes, a slightly different screen is shown. This version takes into account that you
have already purchased a license and will display your license key, should you require it. The three buttons at the bottom are
replaced with the Change License Key button, and the Deactivate License button. The screen is shown here.