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You are here: Home / Tech Questions & Answers / Q&A: Why am I getting a Rootkit Driver Error with Malwarebytes 2.0?

Q&A: Why am I getting a Rootkit Driver Error with Malwarebytes 2.0?

Posted on March 31, 2014

malwarebytes-logoQuestion from David K.:  I upgraded Malwarebytes to version 2.0 last night, and now every time I try to run a scan it gives me this error message:

Error: Malwarebytes was unable to load the Anti-Rootkit Driver. Error code: 20026
Do you want to continue the scan without anti-rootkit support?

And then it follows up that error message with this one before I can choose to scan without rootkit support:

Scanner Failed with Error Code: 20026

My computer is an HP ENVY TouchSmart 15-j009wm laptop running Windows 8.1.

What do I need to do in order to fix this error? I’ve re-installed Malwarebytes 2.0 three times with no success. Thanks for your help!

Rick’s answer:  David, this is a known issue with Malwarebytes 2.0. I’m guessing that your drive is encrypted with BitLocker, and unfortunately Malwarebytes’ Anti-Rootkit driver doesn’t support Bitlocker encrypted drives. Why it doesn’t is anyone’s guess – a real head-scratcher!

Anyway, until MalwareBytes decides to support BitLocker encryption in the latest version, you’ll have a couple of choices to choose from – neither of which I like:

1 – Turn off Bitlocker encryption on your hard drive. This video explains how to do it:

2 – If you prefer to leave Bitlocker encryption turned on, you’ll need to disable scanning for rootkits (argggg) in Malwarebytes 2.0 by clicking Settings > Detection and Protection and then disabling Scan for rootkits.


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