Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware on-demand scan

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Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware on-demand scan

In this tutorial: How to perform a Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware quick or full scan, or scan just one file or folder in Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8

Last modified: 2012-03-16 13:05:18 EET

In case you need to check just one item (a file or a folder), right-click it and then click Scan with Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.
To scan just one item, right-click the item in Windows Explorer and select Scan with Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.

Windows Vista, 7 and 8 users will see a User Account Control warning about MBAM making changes to this computer. Click Continue or Yes.
Windows 7, User Account Control warning about Malwarebytes' Anti-malware. Click Yes.

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware opens and scans the item. If something malicious is detected, move down here to read about removing the detected items.

Running and updating Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

If Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is not running, Windows XP users can start it by opening Start menu, All Programs, finding Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware folder and clicking Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.
Windows Vista and 7 users can open Start menu, type "malware" into Search box and click Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.
Windows 7, to open Malwarebytes' Anti-malware open Start menu, type "malware" into Search box and then click Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.

Windows Vista, 7 and 8 users will then see a User Account Control warning. Click Continue or Yes.
Windows 7, User Account Control warning about Malwarebytes' Anti-malware. Click Yes.

Updating Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware first

Before scanning it would be wise to update malware definitions first - just in case your computer is infected with some new malware. Malware database is updated several times a day, so updating guarantees best detection rate.

Click Update tab and then click Check for Updates:
To update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware definitions or the program itself, click Update tab. Then click Check for Updates.

If there are no updates available, you will see the following message. Click OK.
If there are no Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware updates available, click OK.

In most cases, there are database updates available. Updating Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware window opens, stand by until download is complete.

After database update is complete, a window opens. Click OK.
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware database update complete. Click OK.

In case there is a program update available, MBAM will download it and notify you. Click OK to close program and update it to the latest version.
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware program update downloaded. Click OK to close the current window and update the program to the latest version.

Wait until the program is updated.
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware program update running. Stand by.

After program update, a database update will be performed again. Please stand by.
Updating Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. Stand by.

After successful program update, the following message appears. Click OK to open Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware again.
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware program update successful. Click OK to continue.

Performing a quick or full scan with Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

After updating is complete, open Scanner tab to select the type of scan you want to run.
Quick scan takes up to ten minutes only and it checks for malware in memory, running programs and startup items. This type of scan is recommended for casual checks.
Full scan takes up to several hours and it checks everything on your computer. This scan should be run once a month to ensure your Windows computer is clean of malware.

Click Perform quick scan or Perform full scan and then click the Scan button.
Please note that the third option, Perform flash scan, is not available in free version of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, Scanner tab. Click Perform quick scan or Perfrom full scan. Then click Scan button.

In case you selected the full scan option, a disk drives selection dialog appears. By default, all hard disk drives are selected, but you can also include any USB flash drives or external drives in the scan. Please note that large USB drives take a long time to scan!
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, Perform full scan dialog. Select all hard drives you have. Then click Start Scan.

Now just wait for the scan to complete. In case you need to do something processor-intensive meanwhile, click Pause scan. Do your stuff and then continue scanning by clicking Resume scan.

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware scanning. To pause a scan, click Pause Scan. To continue scanning, click Resume Scan.

If your computer is clean, you will see the following message after the scan is complete. Click OK. You can then close MBAM using keyboard shortcut Alt+F4 or by clicking Exit button in Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware window.
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware scanning complete, computer clean. Click OK.

But if something was found, a different message will pop up. Click OK.
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware scanning complete, infected objects found. Click OK.

Click Show Results button in the lower right part of MBAM window.
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware scanning complete, infected objects found. Click Show Results in the main window.

A list of detected items will be displayed in Scanner tab.
To remove all detected items, click Remove Selected button.
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware scanning complete, malware items found. Click Remove Selected.

After disinfecting and quarantining is complete, a message will inform you of results. Often a restart is required to make sure the malware is really gone. Click Yes to restart your computer.
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware malware removal complete, but restart required. Click Yes to restart your computer.