MalwareBytes Techbench/Toolset Review

"Byte or Flight" -- Malwarebytes Techbench/Toolset

Review by: Jennifer Griffiths

Video & Testing by: Philip Griffiths

Introduction :

Diagnostic tools are great, IF you have an idea of what is wrong to begin with. So, in reality, they are not diagnostic tools, per say, but more like confirmation of what you thought and repair tools. What if I told you that I will be reviewing a tool that diagnoses and fixes your problems like these do, but, it even does it when you have no clue where to start? Malwarebytes Toolset is the tool I am looking at today. If you are like me, time is money and the faster I can get diagnostics done, the better. Now, from what I have read, this tool will diagnose for me the cause of the software problem and in most cases, fix it. Sounds like a tech dream come true, right? So, if you are half as excited to read this as I am to review it, well, sit back have a drink and read on!

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Manufacturer statement:

Malwarebytes Techbench is a comprehensive computer repair shop program built for technicians, by technicians. It's a mix of portable tools as well as a re-seller program all designed specifically for computer repair shops.

About Malwarebytes

Malwarebytes proactively protects people and businesses against dangerous threats such as malware, ransomware and exploits that escape detection by traditional antivirus solutions. Malwarebytes completely replaces antivirus with artificial intelligence-powered technology that stops cyberattacks before they can compromise home computers and business endpoints. Learn more at http://www.malwarebytes.com.

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Packaging:

There is no packaging this is a download.

Installation:

Simply put, you download the tool. You can either launch the tool from the PC or save it to a USB device of choice as it will not install itself to the computer. This is a good thing in that you do not have to worry with un-installing it when you are in a hurry doing remote support or call outs to a customer. It is an EXE file so, launch it, use it, close it and go. No un-install needed.

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Testing:

When you first launch the program you will get a nice clean and user friendly interface with information about the computer you are working on. Here you will see information like this:

System

OS: Windows 10 Pro x64

Updates

Device Manager

Services

Hardware

Generic PC

16 GB RAM

Intel HD Graphics

Intel Cor i7-4790K CPU

ASRock Z97X Killer Motherboard

AC Power

Disk Drives

112 GB SSD OCZ

112 GB SSD Team

Samsung 932 GB HDD SATA

Toshiba 1.82 TB HDD SATA

57.7 GB Drive DataTraveler 3.0 USB

From this, you can see many details that are good to know before you even begin the diagnostics. At least if I need to reinstall Windows I will have seen that I need to run the Pro version of Windows 10 and I need the 64 bit version as well. That takes out the guess work and chance of re-installing the whole thing twice. Think time saving.

Under the same area here are other tabs like the Security tab and from this you can adjust firewall settings, see what AV program is on the system, if it is up to date and enabled.

The next tab is the Network tab and this allows you to adjust proxy settings and open shared folders. There you will also see the IP address. One of the cool tools in here that we found was the Network devices, where you can scan to see what devices are connected to your network. You can see the IP address for all the devices as well as MAC Address, manufacturer and device type. You can Ping the devices as well as Configure them. It takes you to the setup pages for the item like a router. All of this information took less then 10 seconds to load.

In the History tab you can see if there are any system restore points and if so how many. Boot History, Crash History, System Events and USB history are also under this section. Boot History allows you to see how long the machine takes to actually boot up. Why is this important? Well, just say you have a machine in for a service, and after you see the normal boot time, you give the machine the service and check it again here, you might find you have decreased the time it takes to boot up by a certain percentage. That is something you can brag to the customer about impress them with. "Hi Mrs Jones, you will be pleased to know your computer is running 50% faster than when it came in". You can even use this in marketing. "Get your computer serviced here and it will run 50% faster" for example.

Scan Section

This is divided into two sections. On the left is the Breach Remediation and the right is the Issue Scanner.

Breach Remediation

This scan will pick up and remove malware. It is very easy to use and in under two minutes it scanned my system. It found a PUP and allowed me to decide if I wanted to remove it or untick the box and leave it on the machine. Being this PUP was something I put on the machine for my own use, I unticked the box and closed out.

Issue Scanner

This scan took under a minute to run and alerted me of three issues. I chose to Start Repairs and in under five seconds it reported them as successfully fixed.

Toolbox

This may very well be the tech's dream section. It is divided into five sections. Under Tools, you have My Tools Editor and Check For Updates. This allows you to create a toolbox of your favorite programs to use within this one. For testing purposes, I threw in CCleaner and Techsuite. I wanted to see how it did with a paid for tool and a freebie. Both worked with the tool and I could not find anything negative to say.

In the Protect section, it allows you to install or uninstall Malwarebytes programs.

Remediate section lets you run AdwCleaner, Malwarebytes, Anti-Bundleware *my fave*, AntiRootkit, Command-line Malware Scan, and Laund Windows Defender. All very useful things. Under the name of each there is a description of what it is for. Very easy to use.

The Repair section is an area with ease of access to tasks that we so often use in the tech industry but they are nice and tidy under one roof.

Firewall Reset
System File Checker
WMI Reset
Bopt to Windows RE
Disable Legacy F8 Boot Menu
Network Reset
Winsock Reset
DISM Health Scan
Enable Legacy F8 Boot Menu

And last but not least we have the OS Tools

Command Prompt
Device Manager
Disk Part
Reg Edit
Settings
Computer Management
Disk Management
Event Viewer
Services Manager
Task Manager

This is a compilation of the most used tools in problem solving issues within the OS. To have all of this under one roof is as I said earlier "a tech's dream come true".

Settings

This is where you will find general information like the licences details, what version of the program you have, when it expires and things of the nature.

The program is easy to navigate in and so clean looking that it is easy on the eyes as well. Let's face it, after a long day of being at the computer screen, clean interfaces are a blessing.

Some Hidden Things

A standalone Windows CLI version of Malwarebytes Breach Remediation is also included (Malwarebytes\MBTS\mbbr.exe). Great for people that need to do some sort of automation or scripting of a malware scan, also included is access to Malwarebytes Breach Remediation for Mac (GUI and CLI) with the Toolset license. It can be downloaded using the MBTS Updater (Toolbox > MyTools > Check for Updates) or manually from the Techbench forums. Great for techs that service Macs.

Reseller Portal

Basics is this area is easy enough to navigate in...it is your purchase area etc.

Malwarebytes Techbench is available in two tiers: Basic and Advanced

Basic: free!
20-25% margins on Malwarebytes products
15-day trial of the Malwarebytes Toolset
5 Malwarebytes for Windows, Mac, or Android licenses (not for resale)

Advanced: $349 per year
40-72% margins on Malwarebytes products
Access to the Malwarebytes Toolset
5 Malwarebytes for Windows, Mac, or Android licenses (not for resale)
Promo: currently includes 25 resellable Malwarebytes Premium licenses ($1,000+ value) (TFT Members get an extra 5 licenses)

Retail / regular price:
Techbench: as advertised above
Malwarebytes 3: $39.99
Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection: $69.99

Additional note!

The team at Malwarebytes seem passionate about what they do, you can tell from the layout of the program itself they have pride in what they do as its neat and clean, compared to a lot of tech companies we have worked with they seem to offer a high level of service and have always responded quickly with any questions we have had.

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Pricing:

Toolset sells for $349 USD (on offer at time of print for $249 USD) The Malwarebytes Premium prices vary depending on if you have purchased Toolset or not and the quantity you buy. More information in the previous section. *See Reseller Portal info*

Renewals (statement from Malwarebytes)

We encourage and support renewals of Malwarebytes products to happen via our tech shop partners. There are some limitations with our software and commerce platform (which we are actively addressing) where some renewals may go through a tech shop's client - but we proactively share details with every partner on how to avoid this and how to keep the recurring revenue going to them.

Current option: to avoid getting cut out of the equation, we recommend tech shops start working with their clients 90 days before the renewal is set to happen. Once ready to renew, the tech shop purchasing a new key and then swapping it is how it will need to happen. Cool part is the price they paid last year is the price they pay this year.
Future option: tech shops will be able to renew their reseller keys right from within the commerce platform. The price they pay the first year is the same price they pay on the renewal.
- If the end user ends up renewing on their own (for whatever reason), tech shops will get a 5% cut of the renewal - we recommend the tech shop perform the renewal to ensure the renewal happens and at the highest profit for them.

Coming soon/Plans for Techbench (statement from Malwarebytes)

Techbench is both sweet tools and reseller options. Here are a few things happening within the next few weeks and months. We're very open about our roadmap and encourage all to ask us about it and to keep us honest as we move forward.

On the reseller side: we'll be moving to a new commerce platform which will help enable better renewals (aka recurring revenue). It will also open up a less-than-a-year option (we haven't decided on monthly or quarterly yet) for the toolset.
On the toolset side: you'll see a big update on the malware engine within the next month or so. After that, we'll be looking to add some scripting capabilities to the toolset so you can further automate some of what we do within your own processes. We also have some WinPE work happening and are aiming for a (very early) beta of that before summer is up. As with most of our new technologies, we like to share them with our Techbench partners first - our anti-bundleware app (scanner and real-time protection), iOS app, browser extensions, and completely overhauled AdwCleaner 7.x series all spent many weeks in the hands of our partners before even showing up as public betas.

Sign-up at:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/techbench/

This is your sign up address for an account.

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