Bitdefender Not Working

mstevens

Greetings,

I have been using Bitdefender for a while now, however, recently, it seems the security is not working properly. It does not load when I start up my computer, and when I manually load it, it states it is "loading user interface...", when I go to click on the icon, is suddenly vanishes, and I verify that the software is not running at all, as Windows Action Center says I have no antivirus running. Please help.

Please note: I have been running Malwarebytes Antimalware, and it does not seem like anything "malware" is on my system.

Rohugh

Hello mstevens,

MBAM does not always play nicely with Bitdefender, please uninstall MBAM and then repair Bitdefender (Start>Control Panel>Programs and Features>Bitdefender 2015, double click and choose Repair). Let the process finish and reboot your computer.

I have MBAM installed but only use it very occasionally as a check, if you have MBAM Pro it is never a good idea to have two active security scanners running at the same time, although there are other users on here who have no problems, I guess it depends on individual set ups.

Ro.

[Deleted User]

I hesitate to differ with Rohugh as he has graciously assisted me in the past with issues and I respect his knowledge of BD. That being said, many security sites recommend a good anti-virus solution,

plus an antimalware solution.

I am using Bitdefender 2015 Total Security, plus Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) Premium (has real-time scanning), and Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit (MAE) Premium. The Malwarebytes Forums suggest, if issues

are encountered, or as a useful precaution, to add exceptions to your a/v application to exclude the five MBAM processes and the two MAE processes. Similarly, instruct MBAM to ignore the BD folder.

This is only necessary if you are running the Premium version of MBAM, since the free version does not offer any real-time protection, just on-demand scanning to check if your computer has been infected.

I consult with many friends and customers and that is the setup that I recommend, and all of those who have implemented the "solution" have been virus and malware free since. While a/v solutions, like BD do

offer some protection against malware, that is not their specialty. Similarly, the MBAM Forums absolutely recommend running a robust anti-virus solution alongside MBAM, since MBAM is not programmed to detect,

or disinfect, viral infections, and the variants thereof.

If you do a search of the web on this issue, you will find all variations of conflicting opinions.

Antivirus and AntiMalware?

It is important that if you are going to follow Rohugh's advice to do a "repair" of BD (and I totally concur with his advice in that regard), that you first uninstall MBAM first, using the MBAM_CLEAN tool

available on their website. If you have the Premium version of MBAM, ensure that you copy your ID and Key numbers to an external drive or write them down or print them. After the BD install

or repair is complete, then reinstall MBAM. Configure the exceptions. It is advised, during the uninstall and reinstall of MBAM that you disable BD Active Virus Scanning so that BD does interfere

with the removal or reinstallation of MBAM.

I have not had any issues, nor have my friends or customers. It is just a matter of being aware that both programs are powerful, low-level utilities and you need to treat them with respect.

That means disabling BD active scanning when updating MBAM, and removing MBAM entirely before repairing, upgrading, or reinstalling BD.

This might be a lot more work than some are willing to put into security, but if you take a hop over the the Mawarebytes Forums, or BleepingComputer Forums, you will see dozens of posts daily by those who

have been infected by nasty malware that was not detected by their anti-virus solutions, and who, all too often, in the absence of a recent backup, have irretrievably lost valuable data.

Just my two cents. As Rohugh stated, everyone has an opinion, and mine is no more valid than his, probably less. Research and come to your own conclusion. Hope this helps. Have a great day.

Regards,

-Phil

Rohugh

Hiya Phil,

Your imput is as valuable as mine and as I said in my post there are a number of members here who, like yourself, run those two programs together without any problems they are aware of. I based my advice on that given by Bitdefender themselves who will recommend that the two not to be used together - support did with me when I was having a few problems (although I did re-install after we had finished - but don't tell them! )

mstevens. I forgot to ask, I assume that you don't have any other security software running, anti-malware, -spyware, -adware?

Ro.