Today a strange thing happened when I clicked on Emsisoft A-squared update
I saw the below pop-up on my screen
I had no idea what it meant and went to the emsisoft website and found nothing about the news
After much googling, i found this
The 1st link takes us to
There I found the news which had the same screenshot that I posted above
End of a-squared Free
As announced earlier, the product lifecycle of a-squared Free has ended now.
All users will be asked if they want to continue with the freeware mode of Emsisoft Anti-Malware (which is feature identical with a-squared Free) or switch to the new Emsisoft Free Emergency Kit which is a software bundle that includes a portable malware scanner with the same scanning capabilities as a-squared Free.
So what does this mean? Is it no longer freeware?
Here, read this statement quoted from
Free version
When downloading, you'll get the full version including all protection features for 30+3 days for free. Afterwards the unpaid software switches to a limited freeware scanner mode that allows you to scan and clean your PC whenever you want, but does not include the protection features against new infections.
Here is a download link for the new Emsisoft Anti-Malware