Why does MBAM use so much memory?

[tsmith]

I've been a happy MBAM user for years, recommending it to many and purchasing multiple licenses for the family. I am quite happy with the performance of the software, but I have one question: why such high memory usage? On my current machine, running Windows 7 x64, mbamservice.exe is using 102mb of memory. This isn't an issue on my current machine, since I have 8gb of available memory. But mbamservice is the second-highest user of memory on the PC. Only svchost uses more (about twice as much).

In comparison, Explorer uses 54mb, SearchIndexer only uses 51mb, my Antivirus uses 13mb, and Acronis TrueImageMonitor uses 10mb.

Again, no issues here, but just curious about it.

[exile360]

Greetings

The reason it uses so much RAM is because it loads the detection database into memory. That being said, we do plan on looking into ways of optimizing it and reducing the overall RAM usage by the protection module in the future, however that's likely going to take a considerable amount of time for development as well as benchmarking assuming we are successful so I can't provide any ETA at this time on when such improvements might take place.

[tsmith]

Thanks for the reply. As I said, I was just curious, but it would be nice to see something else take the #2 spot for memory usage.

If I had a suggestion, it would be about something completely different: I like to carry MBAM around on a thumb drive for fixing up infected computers. The problem is, there's no easy way to keep the latest detection database on the drive. Even with the latest version of MBAM, the database is usually quite out of date. I've been getting around that problem by copying it from a working (and updated) computer, but it would be nice to simply download the latest version (or a reasonably late version). Quite often, I must use MBAM on a computer without web access (either due to malware or because someone brought their PC to work for me to look at -- can't connect to the company network, of course).

After getting a computer cleaned up, I always recommend that the owner get the pro version of MBAM to help keep the PC clean, so having a recent version of the database would make my life easier and would provide a more impressive demonstration of MBAM's abilities. Just a suggestion.

[exile360]

We are working on getting mbam-rules.exe, our offline updater, compatible with 1.6x versions of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and once we've done this, we'll also keep it much more current.

Also keep in mind that since you're using our product for repairs of customers' computers that it does require a form of Corporate/Technicians' licensing. If you've not acquired proper licensing then please consider doing so. You may find out more about the costs and what we have to offer for your specific needs by contacting our Corporate Sales team by filling out the form on this page.

[tsmith]

We are working on getting mbam-rules.exe, our offline updater, compatible with 1.6x versions of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and once we've done this, we'll also keep it much more current.

Also keep in mind that since you're using our product for repairs of customers' computers that it does require a form of Corporate/Technicians' licensing. If you've not acquired proper licensing then please consider doing so. You may find out more about the costs and what we have to offer for your specific needs by contacting our Corporate Sales team by filling out the form on this page.

I do fix computers, but they're not customers: they're my friends, family and co-workers. I fix them for free. I just like helping people get their computers working right.