I restarted the system, as per Zemana’s instruction, and everything was tickety boo. So, I installed Zemana AntiMalware free then scanned the system and it identified all items associated with the infections – it cleaned and repaired 6 items associated with and quarantined 2 items associated with the PC optimizer scareware, one of which was a file labeled “driver” that had been sneakily tucked away in the Windows > System32 folder. That situation has since changed and the program is now available in both free (without real time protection) and Premium (with real time protection) versions. I was about to try the scanner in Emsisoft Emergency Kit when I remembered writing an article some 12 months ago regarding the then new Zemana AntiMalware which, at that stage, was only available in a free edition with no real-time protection. I decided to try a different malware scanner/remover but, convinced that Malwarebyes Anti-Malware was about as good as they get, wasn’t sure which one to choose. After Malwarebytes had finished doing its thing, the two infections remained active… so, no joy there.Īt this stage it was obvious that cleaning this system could turn into a long and arduous chore. The first thing I did was uninstall the rogue PC optimizer and then scanned the system with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware – which resulted in 17 flags all associated with relatively harmless PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs).

One was the browser hijacker and the other a rogue PC optimizer program which randomly initiated a scareware popup. Just recently I worked on a client’s Windows 10 laptop which had fallen victim to two nasty and persistent infections.

Zemana antimalware free review