Installed & ran Malwarebytes Free ... quarantine or delete items?

[Muse]

The free version I just downloaded and installed gave me an option to include a trial version of the Premium version, and I left that checked and proceeded with the install and let it update and did a Scan. It found 22 items. The default was quarantine. Is it a good idea to go ahead and click "Delete?"

I think I'm going to install and run Superantispyware next. I used to have its freeware version on my PCs and update it and run it occasionally, don't on this one.

I did this stuff partly because I've been experiencing mysterious slowdowns, they appear to be lockups but usually resolve after a minute or two. It's not like I have that much stuff open, something's amiss.

 

[mikeymikec]

I just do quarantine. One disadvantage of deleting outright to begin with is that a bit of malware could also have a booby-trap that stops the system starting properly/normally if the entire bit of malware isn't completely removed.

 

[Muse]

I just do quarantine. One disadvantage of deleting outright to begin with is that a bit of malware could also have a booby-trap that stops the system starting properly/normally if the entire bit of malware isn't completely removed.

Not sure I understand this. Maybe you meant advantage instead of disadvantage.

I left things quarantined and restarted the computer. It would not successfully restart. I had to press and hold the start button (Windows 7 Home Basic machine) to turn it off, I restarted it and was given the option to try to repair (recommended) or start normally. I stuck with the default repair recommendation and after a while it said I could try to restore from a previous point or not and that I might lose some recent installed software. I opted to not do a restore and it again went into an attempt to repair. After a while the screen said that it couldn't repair the installation. I clicked OK or something and the machine turned off. I turned it on and it seemed to start normally, which was a surprise. Why would it start normally if it had said it couldn't be repaired? I then restarted, and again it seemed to start normally IIRC. I'm rescanning right now with Malwarebytes.

 

[mikeymikec]

Re: "disadvantage"
Let's say that malwarebytes missed a bit when you did a scan, it got rid of most of the files/registry entries related to a single infection, but not all of them. A remaining registry entry could perhaps funnel file system handling through a now missing driver file, instant BSOD.

 

[Ketchup]

When working on others' machines, I quarantine when it first finds the offending items. If I can do a successful reboot with no issue, I delete them. I have never had to un-quarantine files, but just a precaution of mine.

One thing I recommend you do at this point is to go ahead and remove previous restore points, and make a new one with the malicious files removed (if you use that feature).