Hijackthis + malwarebytes to replace anti-virus.

[blue4paper]

I'm wondering if those 2 programs (plus others possibly) are effective enough to replace an anti virus.

The only time my anti virus is in use is when it blocks a malicious url (which is usually my fault on purpose because of torrents lol) and troajns/exe also from torrents.

Otherwise it just sits there taking up space.

I never run realtime scans anyways... So frankly I don't see the use.

Just wondering what your opinions are on this.

 

[joelm3103]

These cannot replace an AV. AV's has specific a specific role in the system as it updates with the latest definitions and also has a full time scanner in progress. HijackThis only scans what is running at that particular time and Malwarebytes is a good Anti-Malware/Spyware software, it doesn't however always find infections. It may however find it when it's already nested.

 

[KSoD]

There is no replacement for an antivirus program. MBAM does help prevent, but it is only as good as the definitions that run it. Just like any AV program out there. So if a new infection hits before you get the update, guess what? Your infected even when running MBAM. It will help remove it, but it will not be able to block it.

MBAM may block some legit sites as well. So you dont want to fully rely on it. I have noticed several times that it has attempted to block various Microsoft sites, cause it says that they were reported as malicious. Either someone was being a joker and submitted that or the program needs to be tweaked cause it most certainly not malicious. Just like it blocked another site that i visit cause like this site they do some infection removal and it had a link present. Not anything malicious but still blocked the site for no reason.

HiJack This is not a prevention tool. It removes the entry from starting up, nothing more, nothing less. It doesnt prevent anything. So no these tools will not take place of an AV at all. Using an AV like MSE which gets updated 2x times a day or more will be your best option.