The freeware version of the application has also received a major update today

Mar 25, 2014 15:40 GMT  ·  By

Malwarebytes yesterday announced a Premium version of its anti-malware software solution, but the company has prepared many more goodies for its users.

Today, the security vendor rolled out a completely revamped version of its freeware Anti-Malware app, thus providing users with a bunch of improvements that could help protect their computers and block any potential malware from reaching their data.

In addition to renaming the Pro version of Anti-Malware to Premium, Malwarebytes implemented a completely redesigned interface for the freeware application, which is supposed to make everything “easier to use, more informative, and to provide quicker access to key functionality.”

Of course, since we’re talking about a security app, engineers have also focused on making the protection offered to users better. This is possible thanks to improved versions of Anti-Rootkit and Chameleon, both of which have been in the beta development stage for the past year, but can now provide superior protection to users on Windows.

What’s more, the new 2.0 version of the application comes with enhanced Malicious Website Blocking and improved native x64 support, which means that you can now install the application on all Windows versions on the market.

And speaking of supported Windows builds, Malwarebytes yesterday said that its Anti-Malware solution will support Windows XP forever, as plenty of the company’s customers are still running this particular OS version that’s going to be retired by Microsoft in April.

The extended XP support will, however, be offered by the Premium build exclusively, which means that you’ll have to purchase a license if you’d like to keep your computer protected.

“Premium will support XP users for life, who currently make up 20% of Malwarebytes’ user-base and could be at greater risk when updates stop on April 8,” the company briefly said.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 2.0 will remain free forever, the company promised, so unless you’re running XP, you can continue running it to make sure that you stay away from malicious files.

Malwarebytes also announced that it’s switching to a subscription-based system that would require users to pay for the application every year, rather than to purchase a single license once in their lifetime.

“Though our company is about more than just making money, we are a company and we do have to make money to pay our staff to continue doing what they love, which is fighting malware. The subscription model will help us to be sustainable for the future while staying true to our roots that we will always make malware cleanup free for everyone,” it said.

Of course, the new update is clearly quite a good addition to your malware-fighting arsenal, so download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 2.0 right now for free to make sure that your computer is entirely clean.