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Ad-Aware Free

Version: 8.1

Downloads Count: 15,932,162

License Type: Free

Price: Free

Date Added: Oct 13, 2009

Operating Systems: Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Vista

Requirements: Pentium 600 MHz or better; 100MB hard disk space; operating system RAM plus 100MB; fully patched OS

File Size: 75280 KB

Author: Lavasoft

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Avg. User Rating 2

Editorial Review of Ad-Aware Free

Ad-Aware Free has long been one of the most popular spyware killers on the planet, and with good reason. It's simple to use, does an excellent job of detecting and killing spyware, and stays out of your way as much as possible. The fact that it's free for personal home use doesn't hurt, either.

The newest version of Ad-Aware Free improves on an already solid product, notably by expanding its protection. At first glance, the program looks substantially the same as previous versions. Tell it to scan your system, and it finds spyware and other malware, and then deletes it or quarantines it for you. But even though it looks and works largely the same, under the hood there are a substantial number of changes, primarily aimed at beefing up system protection. Ad-Aware Free now protects against rootkits, which are stealth attacks designed to escape detection and burrow their way into the operating system. Ad-Aware also includes several types of heuristic detection, which protects you by examining complex system behavior, rather than just looking for known malware signatures. If the program's heuristics work as well as do the heuristics in other anti-malware software, it should provide better protection against emerging and unknown threats, as well as threats that are already known.

In addition, Ad-Aware Free promises to protect you against malware that tries to restore itself after a system reboot. And it now integrates with Internet Explorer to scan files as you download, alerting you to any malicious files you may send to your system.

Also new to this version of Ad-Aware is a "Simple mode" that lets you set your configuration once, and never have to do it again. If you prefer, you can toggle to Advanced Mode, where you can select advanced features for customization.

Note that Ad-Aware Free doesn't protect against viruses or provide full real-time protection. To get those features, you'll need an antivirus product. Lavasoft's for-pay products, the $27 Ad-Aware Plus and the $40 Ad-Aware Pro, include antivirus protection--though it's not yet clear whether those products are superior to their antivirus competition.

The upshot of all this? The newest version of this popular piece of software is well worth the download. If you don't already have Ad-Aware Free, this is a good time to try it. If it already lives on your PC, go ahead and upgrade to the new version.

--Preston Gralla

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Most recent User Reviews for Ad-Aware Free

Reviewed by: Zeckery

11-20-2009

Duration of ownership: 3 Years

Strengths: Used to be the BEST OF THE BEST until they 'upgraded' the product and it's no longer compatible with Vista.

Weaknesses: This product no longer functions with Vista unless you run it in Safe Mode - hardly worth the trouble.

Overall Evaluation: It went from number one to non-functional with Vista with its most recent version.
Reviewed by: ClemSnide

11-03-2009

Duration of ownership: 3 Weeks

Strengths: None.

Weaknesses: Causes crashes under Windows 7. I was getting 5 or 6 crashes a day, categorized as "BSOD," always during idle time. After examining logs I suspected Ad-Aware Free and uninstalled it, changing nothing else about the system. My computer has not crashed or mysteriously restarted since then.

Overall Evaluation: Not ready for release. Its recommendation by PCWorld makes me leery of anything that the magazine supports.
Reviewed by: gwbaierl

11-01-2009

Duration of ownership: 1 Years

Strengths: easy interface

Weaknesses: Newist version doesn't work with Vista. Runs for app 5- min hits a problem the shuts down. No support for free version. When you try to reinstall have to buy 3rd party product. Not worth the hassles

Overall Evaluation: Until new version problems are fixed and support will talk to free users avoid this product
Reviewed by: edgerton

10-22-2009

Duration of ownership: 6 Years

Strengths: None that I can find because it does not work at all.

Weaknesses: Everything, it does not work.

Overall Evaluation: Don't waste your time installing this program. I used to be a great program, what the heck happened?
Reviewed by: landman586

10-19-2009

Duration of ownership: 5 Years

Strengths: Have used for years but this version will not work after multiple downloads on 2 different computers.

Weaknesses: I will not function. Start a scan and then freezes and cannot stop it. Have to restart computer to stop it.

Overall Evaluation: Sucks
Reviewed by: iphonedied

07-24-2009

Duration of ownership: 4 Years

Strengths: Used to be one of the best.

Weaknesses: USED TO BE one of the best.

Overall Evaluation: I gave up on AdAware and SpyBot, Malware Bytes Atni-Malware is the current king. give it another 9-12 months and it will probably be somebody new.

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Editorial Review of Ad-Aware Free

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Most recent User Reviews for Ad-Aware Free

Reviewed by: Zeckery

Reviewed by: ClemSnide

Reviewed by: gwbaierl

Reviewed by: edgerton

Reviewed by: landman586

Reviewed by: iphonedied

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Ad-Aware Free

Editorial Review of Ad-Aware Free

Add Your Review

Submit your Review

Most recent User Reviews for Ad-Aware Free

Reviewed by: Zeckery

Reviewed by: ClemSnide

Reviewed by: gwbaierl

Reviewed by: edgerton

Reviewed by: landman586

Reviewed by: iphonedied

See more user reviews »

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