IObit Malware Fighter Pro is the professional anti-malware program from IObit. It packs some impressive features that far outweigh its free counterpart, and all of it can be had for a fairly low price.
If you don’t currently have threat protection on your computer, you should consider installing this program, even if it’s the free edition first just to see how it works. As you’ll learn, however, IObit Malware Fighter Pro is genuinely superior to the free version.
Keep reading for all the details on IObit Malware Fighter Pro. You’ll see what I thought about the program, learn what all the different screens look like and what they do, and how the pro version compares with the free edition so that you know exactly what you’re paying for.
IObit Malware Fighter Pro Initial Impression
IObit’s professional anti-malware program is to the point. As you can see in the image above and as you’ll learn as we walk through the screens below, the user interface is super modern and avoids clutter.
Everything you need is tucked away in a side menu, scans are understandable and simple to run, and at no point was I ever confused about how something worked.
IObit Malware Fighter Pro Price
You can order IObit Malware Fighter Pro for $30. Use techyzone as your IObit Malware Fighter Pro discount code when you order here, for 20% off.
Payment options include: credit card, PayPal, wire transfer, cash at 7-Eleven/ACE, or check.
For an additional $7.99, you can order what they call “download insurance service,” which lets you download the program for 24 months in case you ever lose the setup file and need to reinstall it. They also offer IObit Backup CD for $9.99, which is just a physical version of the digital download.
However, these additional items are completely unnecessary because you can always download the free version of IObit Malware Fighter and use your Pro license code there, like this:
IObit Malware Fighter Pro System Requirements
This program works on Windows computers only. You can use it on Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, and XP.
IObit Malware Fighter Pro Features
There are quite a few really helpful features in this program:
- Runs all the time to identify viruses as they reach your computer
- Locates threats on USB devices
- Detects hundreds of millions of threats
- Combines two malware-fighting engines for double the protections
- Protects your camera from unauthorized use
- Stores any files of your choosing in a safe lockbox
- Always updates to the latest version
- Force-deletes files
Below are several screenshots and more information on what you can do with IObit Malware Fighter Pro.
Installation of IObit Malware Fighter Pro
I’d have a better impression of IObit Malware Fighter Pro if during installation, it didn’t try to convince me to install another program. I was asked to add the Opera web browser to my computer, too. The second time I ran the installer, it tried to install the Dashlane password manager.
While these programs are fine to use and free from malware, it’s unnecessary to ask during this program’s setup because they’re completely unrelated. It’s also too easy to fly through the installer and accidentally install the extra program.
If you want to avoid it, be sure to select No, thanks when you reach that screen.
Using IObit Malware Fighter Pro
The menu along the left side of IObit Malware Fighter Pro is where you access all the different tools. There are six screens you can open, five of which are useful; the sixth one is just a shortcut to other tools from IObit.
IObit Malware Fighter Pro Home
The home screen in IObit Malware Fighter Pro is super basic. It’s where you go to run a smart scan. When you select the Smart Scan button, the antivirus program scans critical areas where viruses could do the most damage, checks for threats in running processes, locates malicious files and registry entries, and finishes with a rootkit check.
The IObit Malware Fighter Pro smart scan feature is great for a quick virus check. It won’t look in all your files and hard drives (the scan feature we’ll look at below is for running full scans) but it does a great job at locating threats that could do lots of damage to your operating system files, cause your computer to stop booting, etc.
Any issues it finds during this particular scan will be listed on this screen where you can then decide to delete the threats, ignore them, white list them to prevent detection again, or view their location on the drive.
As you can see in the image, you can tell the program ahead of time to automatically remove any malicious items it finds. You can also have IObit Malware Fighter Pro control what happens to your computer after the scan: auto-remove and shut down, auto-remove and restart, auto-remove and hibernate, or auto-remove and sleep the computer.
IObit Malware Fighter Pro Scan
There are two other scan types supported by IObit Malware Fighter Pro. The full scan is for running a comprehensive malware check on your entire computers, including all files in every folder. The custom scan lets you choose which hard drives and folders to scan.
These scan types can be customized to enable the scan of compressed files, enable skipping over files larger than you specify (great for skipping movie files), change the scan priority (low, normal, or high) to speed up or slow down the overall scan time, enable the scan of potentially unwanted programs, and enable auto-quarantine when deleting threats.
When you run a custom scan, you can pick not only the individual folders and hard drives you want to scan, but also include critical areas and suspicious processes.
IObit Malware Fighter Pro Data Protect
The Data Protect screen in IObit Malware Fighter Pro is where you can go to turn on the anti-ransomware engine. This will protect the file types you specify so that only the programs you define will be able to access them. You have full control over which applications are allowed and blocked from using any of the file extensions you choose.
Safe Box is the other tool on this screen. It’s a literal safe box where you can hide files and folders that can only be opened if the right password is entered through IObit Malware Fighter Pro.
You can add multiple files and folders to Safe Box with the buttons that line the top of that screen. You can also do it by right-clicking the file/folder where it’s stored on your computer, and choose the Add into Safe Box option.
In the settings for Safe Box are some options you can enable to hide the protected data even from showing up in Windows Explorer, deny read access to the files, and/or deny write access.
IObit Malware Fighter Pro Browser Protect
IObit Malware Fighter Pro has several “browser protect” features you can turn on.
The DNS Protect option is particularly useful because there’s a list of alternative DNS servers you can use if you’d rather not stick with your default ones; you can pick from servers from Google, Verizon, Comodo, OpenDNS, and DNS Advantage, or enter your own.
IObit Malware Fighter Pro Security Guard
Security Guard lets you turn on a pro-only feature called Bitdefender Engine, which pairs IObit’s malware fighting with Bitdefender’s for even more solid protection.
Some other features unique to IObit Malware Fighter Pro users include the ability to turn on protection for the master boot record, protect webcams from unauthorized access, disinfect USB drives, and more.
IObit Malware Fighter Pro Action Center
Action Center is simply a page full of shortcuts to other tools from IObit. If you have these other programs installed, this is a quick way to open them. Otherwise, you’ll be asked to install them.
IObit Malware Fighter Pro vs Free
IObit also offers free protection through IObit Malware Fighter Free. However, there are several features that are only available in the Pro version:
- Pro detects more threats by using both Bitdefender & IObit engines
- Pro prevent ransomware attacks like WannaCry and NotPetya
- Pro safeguards your webcam against unauthorized access
- Pro prevent virus infections that are carried via USB devices
- Pro detects malicious processes that are currently running in RAM
- Pro detects threats by analyzing common malicious actions
- Pro protects your personal data by stopping ransomware from encrypting your important files and holding your data hostage
- Pro provides a safety area for your files that can only be accessed with a password
- Pro helps you avoid malicious tracking on the web by automatically cleaning your surfing traces
- Pro auto-updates you to the latest software version to ensure that you have the latest features all the time
- Pro offers 24/7 tech support whenever you need it
That’s quite a list of differences. However, IObit Malware Fighter Free still includes the latest malware database to protect your computer from malware, provides real-time protection that you can turn on and forget about, protects against cryptocurrency mining and pop-ups, and includes DNS protection.
The two programs are similar, but it’s clear that IObit Malware Fighter Pro has lots of extra features that, in my opinion, are worth the small one-time fee.
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