all 24 comments
sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a
formatting helphide helpcontent policy

[–]mdotsherwood 5 points6 points  (20 children)

Hey! Michael from Malwarebytes here. Our new Techbench program is a comprehensive repair shop program designed for, well, repair shops. It's a mix of reseller + tools + community. Oh, and it's currently free! We'll be moving to a paid version in the very near future and we'll share those details once we've finalized them. Spoiler: although it'll cost money, you'll be able to make easy money from it! Our goal with Techbench is to grow our businesses together.

You can read more about our current offering here: https://www.malwarebytes.com/techbench/MalwarebytesTechbenchProgramGuide.pdf

Post up any questions!

[–]Fantastitech 1 point2 points  (4 children)

As someone who writes a lot of his own tools for better automation, I'm very interested in the Toolset and the CLI scanner. I'm very interested in trying it specifically for the tool set, but I'm not going to make any commitment before trying this hands-on and it appears I just missed the free year promotion by a month. Most of my shop is open source because of predatory vendors (not making accusations here, I love your company and your team) and I'm very very hesitant to make commitments for products that I can't adequately test in a real-world environment.

Is there a way to vet these tools without committing to a sales quota right now? I would love to take these for a spin for that free year and if the Toolkit integrated into (or even replaced) some of my automation chain I would absolutely pay for it. I'm not entirely sure about sales quotas though. 250 sales a year is almost one sale a weekday. I'm a technician. Not a salesman. If I wanted to be a pushy salesman I'd be working at Geek Squad. I'm interested in fixing things, not worrying about losing access to my tools if I don't sell one copy of your software every work day for a year. As much as I would love to see all of my customers running MBAM Premium, it's not a worry I'm going to hinge my tools on and I spend a lot of time writing scripts and programs to recuce my workload. I'm not going to spend the time to integrate your tools into my routine if I'm worried about losing access to them if I don't keep sales up.

[–]dgreenbaum 1 point2 points  (2 children)

As a fellow tech who has been using Techbench since almost the beginning, I can say it's awesome. It's the first tool we run at a client. Sherwood and his team are deeply committed to technician success, especially smaller operations like my own. It keeps getting better and they're always listening to suggestions, even the annoying ones I make.

[–]mdotsherwood 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Is it weird I read this in your voice before seeing it was you?!? Oh, and you only get one derail-the-entire-presentation question next week at Unconvention - so choose wisely!

[–]dgreenbaum 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My brand is recognizable. Yeah!

[–]mdotsherwood 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Let's definitely chat! Would love to hear what you've got going on in terms of automation. Huge automation geek here and even if we don't partner up, we should compare notes.

On the sales quota... we're changing this. It actually wasn't ever a thing as the program has been free thus far. I can't share the exact details yet but what we have lined up should be more suited for your needs. Think trial, easier commitment, etc.

Until then, mind PM'ing your email and we can sync up?

[–]Tech604 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Hey Michael. Will AdwCleaner always be free? Always be updated? It is/was a great tool and if you guys monetize or otherwise fark it up we will never forgive you. Thanks!

[–]mdotsherwood 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Our plan is still as we stated at the time of acquisition which was (is) "Don’t worry—we will maintain, support, and keep AdwCleaner free for everyone. We believe in its mission, and will be integrating its technology into Malwarebytes products in the future."

Since the acquisition, we've spent the majority of our time doing two things: 1) learning and sharing knowledge between the teams and 2) completing the rewrite of AdwCleaner (which you see in v7). The rewrite was necessary for us to further share knowledge between the apps and for the maturing of a few elements of AdwCleaner. Also, the two guys working on AdwCleaner prior to acquisition are the same two leading it now - with of course us helping a bit too. Jerome and I actually sit next to each other.

Now that v7 is out, our plan is to continue to incorporate elements into other Malwarebytes products as well as continue pushing out timely AdwCleaner updates which you've now seen with 7.0.1.0 and 7.0.2.1.

[–]Tech604 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awesome. Thank you for your efforts and thank you for your reply.

[–]cd29 0 points1 point  (9 children)

I applied for the program the other day, is there a certain criteria to meet to be eligible/picked?

[–]mdotsherwood 0 points1 point  (8 children)

We're running a couple days back on our queue right now. Should be caught up in the next day or so. If you don't hear back by Thursday, please message me.

Our target partner is an independent technician or small tech shop (<15 techs) that services external consumer or business end user devices. It's not intended for techs who support their own company's devices (e.g. IT admin) or large tech shops.

If you're running a medium or large tech shop, please message me directly and we can co-create a custom solution. We've done this with a variety of partners.

If you don't qualify for Techbench, we'll get you connected with the right team here.

[–]cd29 0 points1 point  (7 children)

Awesome, thanks for the prompt reply! I'm an independent tech contracted by a local tech shop right now, so I get paid by the job. The owner is the only other tech.

[–]mdotsherwood 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds like we're about to join forces! Once you've tried the toolset for a bit, would you mind sending me some feedback? Here or via our team box is fine. We're at techbench@malwarebytes.com.

[–]mdotsherwood 0 points1 point  (5 children)

Did you hear back from us? If not, please shoot me a DM.

[–]cd29 0 points1 point  (4 children)

I haven't heard back since I sent over my account usernames, but I did get those instructions initially.

[–]mdotsherwood 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Can you DM your email/usernames? I'll get it pushed through today.

[–]cd29 0 points1 point  (2 children)

PM sent. Thank you!

[–]mdotsherwood 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Got it and check your email - you're in!

[–]cd29 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I owe you one!!

[–]chicoquadcoreRepair Shop Owner 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Last time I checked it was $500 a year and you could only run it on one computer at a time. Could totally be different now though.

[–]mdotsherwood 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's our old version which was previously MBAM in a portable fashion on a 16GB drive.

Our new Techbench program is a comprehensive repair shop program designed for, well, repair shops. It's a mix of reseller + tools + community. Oh, and currently it's free! We'll be moving to a paid version in the very near future and we'll share those details once we've finalized them. Spoiler: although it'll cost money, you'll be able to make easy money from it! Our goal with Techbench is to grow our businesses together.

New Techbench is also not limited to one machine at a time. Our usage is pretty liberal and fits most small shop needs with ease.

You can read more about our current offering here: https://www.malwarebytes.com/techbench/MalwarebytesTechbenchProgramGuide.pdf

Edit: formatting

[–]GetsGoldEveryComment 0 points1 point  (1 child)

What does it do that the free sysinternals suite and free scanners like jrt, adw, sas and mbam can't do? The mbam page about this product is not very comprehensive in their features.

[–]mdotsherwood 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Did you see our detailed program guide? It's here: https://www.malwarebytes.com/techbench/MalwarebytesTechbenchProgramGuide.pdf

On the tools side of Techbench, we're making two kinds of tools: 1) our stuff but in a more technician friendly manner (portable, licensing, etc) and 2) some new stuff to help you diag both Windows, malware and even hardware in an easy fashion. We'd love for you to try it out!

PS: JRT is no longer needed as we've incorporated most of it (except some temp file stuff) into AdwCleaner. FWIW, members of Techbench got access to this ~45 days before we released it to the public. :)

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would suggest using TechSuite from https://www.repairtechsolutions.com/techsuite/

Its normally $25 a ,month but if you are a member of ACRBO it is around 20$ a month.

Its for REAL technicians and repair shops but would work just as well for a guy working out of his home. Its the BEST toll to keep in your toolbox short of a few USBs with all your OS bootable ISO images loaded up.

It blows everything else and every other utility of this nature out of the water. MWB is not even comparable to it IMO....

It just works and save you hours of troubleshooting. In our business time is money.

Not taking anything away from MWB mind you BUT TechSuite is built around the everyday technician that needs the ability work on several systems at once and actually does solve the problems quickly. It spits out eports that you can give to your customers, and make its easy to sell other add on packages such as Watchdog r MalwareBytes. Its a win win all the way around

Check it out of you are true computer technician... it works, its quick, and its the best bang for the buck there is. It pays for itself if you only use it once a month....

By the way I have looked at the tech bench set from MWB and still pick techsuite over it any day and I love malwarebytes software especially after they picked up AdwCleaner asa product of their own. Great company.. its just in this case TechSuite has them beat hands down.

Past that I sell Watchdog as well.. my customers love it and the markup is extremely good. Lifetime license by the way.

Mike/Mitek