Should I remove Emsisoft Anti-Malware?

What percent of users and experts removed it?

8% remove it92% keep it

Overall Sentiment

Good

What do people think about it?

(click star to rate)

How common is it?

Global Rank #4,238

United States Rank #4,644

Reach 0.1258%

Lifespan of installation (until removal)

< 12.64 days

372.88 days >

Average installed length: 195.92 days

Versions

Version	Distribution
9.0	15.49%
8.1	37.88%
8.0	13.19%
7.0	25.66%
6.6	4.84%
6.5	2.54%
6.0	0.40%

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#4,238 Emsisoft Anti-Malware
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Emsisoft Anti-Malware

from Emsisoft GmbH

Remove Emsisoft Anti-Malware

What is Emsisoft Anti-Malware?

Emsisoft Anti-Malware (formerly named a-squared Anti-Malware) is a antivirus and antispyware protection suite developed by Austria-based Emsisoft GmbH. The program makes use of three different security layers and has a dual-engine scanner (BitDefender and Emsisoft's own Anti-Malware scanner) with more than 13 million signatures. Behavior blocker which is developed inhouse since 2005 and is able to detect unknown zero-day attacks without signatures.

About (from Emsisoft GmbH)

Emsisoft Anti-Malware uses two full scan engines in the battle against viruses, Trojans or backdoors, spyware or adware, worms or bots, keyloggers and all other types of Malware that are waiting on the internet. But there is no doubling of the scan duration as it would be the case with two separate scanning programs. C... Read more

Overview

The most common release is 8.1, with over 98% of all installations currently using this version. During setup, the program creates a startup registration point in Windows in order to automatically start when any user boots the PC. Upon being installed, the software adds a Windows Service which is designed to run continuously in the background. Manually stopping the service has been seen to cause the program to stop functing properly. It adds a background controller service that is set to automatically run. Delaying the start of this service is possible through the service manager. A scheduled task is added to Windows Task Scheduler in order to launch the program at various scheduled times (the schedule varies depending on the version). The software is designed to connect to the Internet and adds a Windows Firewall exception in order to do so without being interfered with. The primary executable is named a2start.exe. The setup package generally installs about 53 files and is usually about 224.14 MB (235,031,848 bytes). The installed file a2update.dll is the auto-update component of the program which is designed to check for software updates and notify and apply them when new versions are discovered.

Program details

URL: www.emsisoft.com/en/software/antimalware

Help link: support.emsisoft.com

Installation folder: C:\Program Files\Emsisoft Anti-Malware\

Uninstaller: "C:\Program Files\Emsisoft Anti-Malware\unins000.exe"

Estimated size: 224.14 MB

Files installed by Emsisoft Anti-Malware

Program executable:	a2start.exe
Name:	Emsisoft Anti-Malware
	Security Center
Path:	C:\Program Files\emsisoft anti-malware\a2start.exe
MD5:	1a08df52286d9a0c3a68f610ec18b4e9

Additional files:

a2engine.dll - Emsisoft Scan Framework
evcdiff.dll - Emsisoft VCDIFF library
a2acc.dll - Emsisoft Anti-Malware (Emsisoft Anti-Malware File Guard)
a2accx64.sys
a2accx86.sys
a2cmd.exe - Command Line Scanner
a2contmenu.dll - Emsisoft Anti-Malware shell extension
a2contmenu64.dll
a2core32.dll - Emsisoft Anti-Malware Behavior Blocker module
a2core64.dll
a2ddax64.sys - Emsisoft Direct Disk Access Support Driver
a2ddax86.sys
a2dix64.sys - Emsisoft Anti-Malware Behavior Blocker
a2dix86.dll
a2dix86.sys
a2framework.dll - Framework Module
a2framework64.dll
a2guard.exe - Background Guard
a2hooks32.dll - Emsisoft Anti-Malware Behavior Blocker user mode hooks
a2hooks64.dll
a2mor.dll - Emsisoft Anti-Malware move file on reboot library
a2service.exe - Emsisoft Anti-Malware Service
a2toast.dll - Emsisoft Toast Notify (Emsisoft toast notification library)
a2update.dll - Updater Module
a2util32.sys - Emsisoft Malware-IDS utility driver
a2util64.sys
a2wizard.exe - Security Wizard
a2wsc.dll - Emsisoft Anti-Malware WSC
clean32.dll - Emsisoft Anti-Malware Cleaning Engine
cleanhlp32.dll - Emsisoft Cleaning Helper Driver
cleanhlp32.sys
cleanhlp64.sys
frme32.dll - File and Registry Modification Engine
logging.dll - Emsisoft Debug Logger (Debug logging)
Outlook2003Scanner.dll - Outlook 2003 Scanner Add-in
Outlook2007Scanner.dll - Outlook 2007 Scanner Add-in
Outlook2010Scanner.dll - Outlook 2010 Scanner Add-in
Outlook2010Scanner64.dll
quarantine.dll - Quarantine library
resource.dll - Emsisoft GUI resource library
unins000.exe - Setup/Uninstall

Behaviors exhibited

2 Scheduled Tasks

a2start.exe is scheduled as a task with the class '{FE0B4AD7-DEE8-4292-A0ED-16988033B4A5}' (runs on registration).
a2guard.exe is scheduled as a task with the class '{583C3B1B-EB46-4EBC-A33B-A959B8839A1A}' (runs on registration).

Service

a2service.exe runs as a service named 'Emsisoft Anti-Malware 6.0 - Service' (a2AntiMalware) "Scans the PC for unwanted software and provides protection from malicious code".

Startup File (User Run)

a2start.exe is loaded in the current user (HKCU) registry as an auto-starting executable named 'Security Center' and executes as C:\Program Files\Emsisoft Anti-Malware\a2start.exe.

Startup File (All Users Run)

a2guard.exe is loaded in the all users (HKLM) registry as a startup file name 'emsisoft anti-malware' which loads as "C:\Program Files\Emsisoft Anti-Malware\a2guard.exe" /d=60.

6 Windows Firewall Allowed Programs

a2start.exe is added as a firewall exception for 'C:\Program Files\Emsisoft Anti-Malware\a2start.exe'.
a2guard.exe is added as a firewall exception for 'C:\Program Files\Emsisoft Anti-Malware\a2guard.exe'.
unins000.exe is added as a firewall exception for 'C:\Program Files\Emsisoft Anti-Malware\unins000.exe'.
a2wizard.exe is added as a firewall exception for 'C:\Program Files\Emsisoft Anti-Malware\a2wizard.exe'.
a2service.exe is added as a firewall exception for 'C:\Program Files\Emsisoft Anti-Malware\a2service.exe'.
a2cmd.exe is added as a firewall exception for 'C:\Program Files\Emsisoft Anti-Malware\a2cmd.exe'.

Resource utilization averages
Show technical details

a2service.exe
Memory:	39.5 MB	21.09 MB average
Total CPU:	0.0068538918%	0.031193% average
Kernel CPU:	0.00379721%	0.016088% average
User CPU:	0.00305668%	0.015104% average

How do I remove Emsisoft Anti-Malware?

You can uninstall Emsisoft Anti-Malware from your computer by using the Add/Remove Program feature in the Window's Control Panel.

On the Start menu (for Windows 8, right-click the screen's bottom-left corner), click Control Panel, and then, under Programs, do one of the following:

Windows Vista/7/8/10: Click Uninstall a Program.
Windows XP: Click Add or Remove Programs.

When you find the program Emsisoft Anti-Malware, click it, and then do one of the following:

Windows Vista/7/8/10: Click Uninstall.
Windows XP: Click the Remove or Change/Remove tab (to the right of the program).

Follow the prompts. A progress bar shows you how long it will take to remove Emsisoft Anti-Malware.

HOW IT STARTS

Automatically starts? Yes

(Found in the run registry)

USER ACTIONS

Uninstall it 8%

Keep it 92%

GLOBAL RANK

#4,238

Windows

Which Windows OS versions does it run on?

Windows 7	63.30%
Windows 10	23.89%
Windows XP	7.41%
Windows Vista	5.40%
Which OS releases does it run on?
Windows 7 Home Premium	35.76%
Windows 7 Ultimate	14.43%
Windows 7 Professional	11.30%
Windows 8.1	7.48%
Microsoft Windows XP	7.31%
Windows 8.1 Pro	4.79%

Geography

42.39% of installs come from the United States

Which countries install it?

United States	42.39%
Germany	14.19%
France	4.37%
United Kingdom	4.16%
Canada	3.63%
Italy	3.49%
Netherlands	2.67%
Australia	2.31%
Brazil	1.85%
Belgium	1.60%
Czech Republic	1.17%
Poland	1.14%
Russia	1.03%
Spain	0.89%

PC manufacturers

What PC manufacturers (OEMs) have it installed?

Hewlett-Packard	25.81%
Dell	21.60%
Acer	16.35%
ASUS	9.99%
GIGABYTE	8.36%
Toshiba	7.03%
Lenovo	2.81%
Samsung	2.66%
Medion	2.37%
Intel	1.33%
MSI	0.89%
American Megatrends	0.81%
Common models
HP Pavilion dv7 Notebook ...	5.36%
HP Pavilion g6 Notebook P...	5.36%
HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook ...	4.41%
HP Pavilion g7 Notebook P...	3.83%
ASUS All Series	3.26%
Dell XPS 8500	2.49%

1 comment

Beauregard•over a year ago

Biggest pain in the asp I've ever had. You either swear at, or you swear by it. This is not an application for amateurs. It is very aggressive, runs in the background constantly, unless you manually disable whatever you don't want, in which case what would be point of using it? I loathe, hate and despise steep learning curves in any programme. I swear at EmiSoft - all the time. As I see it, it is testosterone prone for male Geeks. It gives me false read outs, the reports are as confusing as they can be, for the average home P.C. user. I have not decided what to do with it yet. I firmly believe in KISS (Keep it simple Stupid). Should you remove it? No. Should you keep it? That's a personal choice.