How do I get Rid of Malicious Software Removal Tool?

I have been trying to find a way to get rid of this as it keeps updating and it's another MS product I don't need as I have Kaspersky Standard , which does this for me. Kaspersky protects me from Malware as per their website below.

Use anti-virus protection​

Protect your computer from malware with Kaspersky Anti-Virus. Our advanced software automatically scans your computer to find threats, and if your system has been infected by malware, our technology will remove it from your device and inform you.

I also disabled it so I could avoid having to update it.
Disable Malicious Software Removal Tool From Installing - WinAero

I don't think anybody needs it. I have never seen any convincing explanation for its existence. The installed anti-malware utility [including Defender] will always remove detected malware without any help from MRT.

All the best,
Denis

Can't say that i ever installed Malicious Software Removal Tool - since you can also download/use it as a portable tool.

Also, can't say for sure in what build of Windows was introduced (cause in Windows 10 i used only Windows Defender) - but as i noticed last time i installed an AV - despite of Disabling Windows Defender - you'll still get windows updates (which apparently are meant for other windows security tools).

neves said:

Can't say that i ever installed Malicious Software Removal Tool

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It comes by default. No installation is required.
C:\Windows\System32\MRT.exe

All the best,
Denis

Try3 said:

It comes by default. No installation is required.
C:\Windows\System32\MRT.exe

All the best,
Denis

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Now that you mentioned it - i think i remember seeing it among Windows Updates...

Yet, i completely forgot about it. Since i used to download it individually - a portable scanning tool.

neves said:

Now that you mentioned it - i think i remember seeing it among Windows Updates...

Yet, i completely forgot about it. Since i used to download it individually - a portable scanning tool.

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You may be confusing MSRT with Microsoft Safety Scanner which is a separate tool.

csun said:

You may be confusing MSRT with Microsoft Safety Scanner which is a separate tool.

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My memory can be rusty at times (only human - so to speak), but when it comes to Windows Updates - there is such a thing as Update History. And, what do you know...



...my memory did good (for a change - cause i did forgot about it in the first place).

neves said:

Now that you mentioned it - i think i remember seeing it among Windows Updates...

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There's a new one every month, usually issued on Patch Tuesday. This from a W10 machine....



...and this in W11.

Since the subject has come up, I always thought Malicious was a scanner that was run as a precursor to the rest of WU. My reasoning is that whenever I ran WU on the old W10 system and watched things on Task Manager, Malicious would download and install first and it sucked up resources for a significant amount of time before the rest of the updates would download and install. No proof here, just observation.

Bree said:

There's a new one every month, usually issued on Patch Tuesday. This from a W10 machine....

View attachment 56180

...and this in W11.

View attachment 56192

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I dealt with all kinds of issue related to one Windows Update or another - and at times it even took awhile to realize that a given update was the culprit - since it was an automatic process (except for the ones who needed a restart - to complete the install). Thus, for quite some time now - Windows Updates are "a manual task" for me - even part of my weekly routine (something i check once in awhile - be it daily or every 2 or 3 days or so). It's just easier to spot a broken update - this way. Anyway, since most a-v/a-m/a-r products - release a definition update on a daily basis (which is probably BS - but since everyone is doing it - this play pretend practice became a standard) - while occasionally they also release an update for the tool itself - i trained my brain to ignore this particular updates. Since they rarely caused any issue (once in a blue moon - an update to Windows Defender would cause memory leak).

That being said... at times while doing a full scan or while checking a particular tool - i use multiple scanners (as I've also been in situations were a popular AV tool couldn't detect all current malware or viruses) - and MSRT was one of them...

Download Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool 64-bit from Official Microsoft Download Center

Just another security ritual of mine - which i picked-up out of necessity when i stopped using 3rd party AV products (less noticeable this days - with modern CPUs, 16 GB ram and an SSD storage becoming mainstream - but for older systems - this tools kept getting heavier and heavier with every new release). Fortunately, that's not the case anymore (even a mainstream rig can handle a 3rd party AV).

I wouldn't rrust Kaspersky as far as I could throw them.

Try3 said:

I don't think anybody needs it. I have never seen any convincing explanation for its existence. The installed anti-malware utility [including Defender] will always remove detected malware without any help from MRT.

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The malicious software removal tool works against very specific stubborn/dangerous malware. Malware can slip past AV's all the time (as it is not known about). Once in the system, they will hide itself and start doing its thing. Once it has bypassed the antivirus the first time it can spread across the system and keep avoiding detection. In fact some have managed to even add themselves to your antivirus exclusions list. Which is less obvious then disabling your antivirus. The malicious removal tool is research on these hand picked selected dangerous pieces of malware that was used to discover these threats, how they work, what they do, and how to remove them if they reside and hide on your system. Remember this is not the 90's anymore, malware hides and does everything it can to not be discovered. It does not slow down your computer and make it obvious it is infected.

It is very important and a second line of defense and should not be disabled imho.

andrew129260 said:

The malicious removal tool is research on these hand picked selected dangerous pieces of malware

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Please state exactly what capability I am missing without MRT.
- It is not the ability to remove malware since Windows security handles that [and, according to MS documentation, Windows security can remove malware that the MRT is not able to remove].
- Similarly, it is not the ability to detect malware since Windows security handles that for both running & dormant malware.

Oh, and if you have had malware alter your Exclusions list then it must have elevated itself so I suggest you check that UAC is set to its highest level and I suggest you consider only logging in to Standard user accounts when you are going to go online.


Denis

Try3 said:

Please state exactly what capability I am missing without MRT.
- It is not the ability to remove malware since Windows security handles that

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It does have the ability to remove malware, that is the whole point of it. From their site:

You do not have to disable or remove your antivirus program when you install the MSRT. However, if prevalent, malicious software has infected your computer, the antivirus program may detect this malicious software and may prevent the removal tool from removing it when the removal tool runs. In this case, you can use your antivirus program to remove the malicious software.

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So in certain cases the antivirus tool could conflict with it and prevent the tool from allowing it to be removed, therefor they then in that case recommend using the antivirus tool to remove the infection should it fail to do so. That is assuming your antivirus is able to and isn't already compromised.

Try3 said:

Similarly, it is not the ability to detect malware since Windows security handles that

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Yes, it does. Every month a targeted selection of malware is provided to the tool and it searches for these on your pc once downloaded from windows update. These are this months infections it is looking for:


The MSRT differs from an antivirus product in three important ways:

• The tool removes malicious software from an already-infected computer. Antivirus products block malicious software from running on a computer.
• The tool removes only specific prevalent malicious software. Specific prevalent malicious software is a small subset of all the malicious software that exists today.
• The tool focuses on the detection and removal of active malicious software. Active malicious software is malicious software that is currently running on the computer. The tool cannot remove malicious software that is not running. However, an antivirus product can perform this task.
  Note The MSRT focuses on the detection and removal of malicious software such as viruses, worms, and Trojan horses only. It does not remove spyware.

Again, it's a second opinion. No antivirus is 100% bullet proof. If you are using windows defender it's of course got the latest definitions of what microsoft has. But windows defender can have issues or not be fully working correctly on a system letting an infection through. The removal tool helps to come in and clean up a system where defender was disabled or not working properly.

If your using a third party antivirus, it's possible it might not have that definition yet. Depends how good your third party av is.

While the linked below reports are older, the tool is effective at removing malware from systems, and does help keep large infections at bay.

While it is of course a choice and if you feel you don't need it fine. But it is a secondary scan and uses no resources, so why not let it run?
You don't gain anything by blocking it?

neves said:

with modern CPUs, 16 GB ram and an SSD storage becoming mainstream - but for older systems - this tools kept getting heavier and heavier with every new release). Fortunately, that's not the case anymore (even a mainstream rig can handle a 3rd party AV).

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I would say you are most likely to break Windows, by trying to disable MSRT.

With decent spec PC, and fast disk, you won't even notice it's operation.

Better to to disable superfluous services, to gain performance.

When I said, "It is not the ability to remove malware since Windows security handles that", and, "it is not the ability to detect malware since Windows security handles that" I was referring to my question, "Please state exactly what capability I am missing without MRT".
In other words, I was saying that I was not missing the ability to remove or detect malware as a result of disabling MRT.
I am not disputing the capabilities of MRT.
I am disputing its ability to add anything to the defences established by Windows security [including Defender].
I have studied MS articles on the subject and not one of them says what MRT adds to my defences.

Silvio said:

I would say you are most likely to break Windows, by trying to disable MSRT

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Disabling MRT has had no adverse effect on Windows 10 or Windows 11.


All the best,
Denis

Try3 said:

When I said, "It is not the ability to remove malware since Windows security handles that", and, "it is not the ability to detect malware since Windows security handles that" I was referring to my question, "Please state exactly what capability I am missing without MRT".
In other words, I was saying that I was not missing the ability to remove or detect malware as a result of disabling MRT.
I am not disputing the capabilities of MRT.
I am disputing its ability to add anything to the defences established by Windows security [including Defender].
I have studied MS articles on the subject and not one of them says what MRT adds to my defences.


Disabling MRT has had no adverse effect on Windows 10 or Windows 11.


All the best,
Denis

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Good to hear.

I don't mess spend much time tinkering with my W11 PC, as I use it for Work/Citrix, so it must be stable.

I will shortly be disabling superflous services, from a viewpoint of enhancing privacy, and reducing telemetry send.

Try3 said:

When I said, "It is not the ability to remove malware since Windows security handles that", and, "it is not the ability to detect malware since Windows security handles that" I was referring to my question, "Please state exactly what capability I am missing without MRT".
In other words, I was saying that I was not missing the ability to remove or detect malware as a result of disabling MRT.
I am not disputing the capabilities of MRT.
I am disputing its ability to add anything to the defences established by Windows security [including Defender].
I have studied MS articles on the subject and not one of them says what MRT adds to my defences.


Disabling MRT has had no adverse effect on Windows 10 or Windows 11.


All the best,
Denis

Click to expand...

I agree that it does not add anything to the defense of malware. It is a second opinion scanner. So it cannot prevent infections. But again it barely takes any resources to run.

Understood.

Try3 said:

I ... disabled it so I could avoid having to update it.

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I got bored spending time during manual updates keeping something that I regarded as useless updated.
WU has settled down a lot since the start of Windows 10 so I might un-meter my connections one day to let it all happen automatically, including MRT.


All the best,
Denis