- Advanced Spyware Remover 37,286
- CWShredder 1,885,143
- HijackThis 484,344
- Kaspersky Anti-Virus 116,249
- F-Secure Blacklight Rootkit Eliminator 77,389
Ad-Aware Free
- Downloads Count: 32,165,162
- License Type: Free
- Price: Free
- Date Added: Feb 16, 2010
- Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows 7
- Requirements: 32- or 64-bit OS, Intel Pentium 600MHz, RAM for OS plus 100MB RAM, 100MB free hard drive space
- Author: Lavasoft
Most recent User Reviews for Ad-Aware Free
-
Reviewed by: damianj
Duration of ownership: 10 Years
Strengths: Familiarness & ease of use
Weaknesses: Slow & sometimes renders PC unuseable
Overall Evaluation: I've been using & recommending this for ad protection for as long as I can remember, but since the last update my machines have been rendered useless on many occasions & that's often when I'm meant to be working, so is completely unaceptable. Now forced to find an alternative. Still it's Lavasofts loss as I'll no longer be installing the paid for version in any of my projects.
-
Reviewed by: JeetuYadav
Duration of ownership: 1 Years
Strengths: Ad-Aware most antivirus
Weaknesses: plz give me
Overall Evaluation: 1year
-
Reviewed by: Redwin2012
Duration of ownership: 5 Months
Strengths: beatefull
Weaknesses: beatefull
Overall Evaluation: beatefull
-
Reviewed by: momozamzam
Duration of ownership: 0 Months
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Overall Evaluation:
-
Reviewed by: vladimirhtg
Duration of ownership: 9 Years
Strengths: consistency, thoroughness.
Weaknesses: gui. gosh.
Overall Evaluation: this page makes me laugh. im 19, been a part time pc tech for 2 years, im studying engineering at a very respectable institution. enough credentials. i decided to look up others feelings in reference to the adaware gui cuz its given me a few bugs but i didnt expect to find a page that was almost completely devoted to the perpetual flogging of adaware. i like adaware. ive used adaware for 9 years. ive also used just about every other antivirus software on the market. i know all the flavors and toppings and i know which ones taste bad. so when i got here and found so many 1 star reviews, i was surprised. i laughed. for example, the review beneath this one. to the writer (chasmick)--im about to fix all of your problems. GET RID OF VISTA. holy schnitzel, vista is like the armpit of microsofts anatomy. i cant believe youve tolerated it this long. to all of you who dont enjoy the long wait time for adaware to scan: ummm...do you think that you can scan your systems ENTIRE registry faster than adaware can? an interesting thought. i do a lot of software work, in fact i do muchmuch more software work than anything else. i work with a lot of softwares and tools that create a hundred false postives. adaware hasnt failed to find them, while other softwares have consistently failed to. adawares virus definitions and engines havent disappointed to me yet. notice the 5 star rating. now ive actually upgraded to adware pro somewhat recently and enjoyed it. i definitely didnt mind throwing some funds in the direction of the company whose provided me with some quality software for many years--without charge. to all of you cheap wankers: gosh. spend some money. quit expecting so much for free. you might have to throw up a little bit of your american culture to do it, but it could potentially be beneficial in the future. oh. did i mention that im bilingual? the english on these forums is hilarious. i think americans forget about how they sound when they get mad. lol. well, i like adaware. i like it enough to register with this silly website and write a good review. im sure theres a better antivirus out there. there has to be. i just havent found it yet and im not even sure that ill change from adaware if i find it. enjoy yourselves. cheers. ps: if you seriously blame adaware for screwing up your 32 bit registry (and if your pc tech actually accepts payment for looking at it) then you might consider doing something drastic and unecessary. like shooting yourself in the face. or writing a retarded review on this afflicted website.
-
Reviewed by: ChasMick
Duration of ownership: 10 Years
Strengths: SE Ad-aware and versions before that worked well. The latest version is poor in comparison and it is with regret that, after installing it 6 times, or so, and still having problems with it, I finally gave up the ghost and called it a day. Binning it was like throwing away a good friend, but I felt I had no choice.
Weaknesses: With the latest updated version, it was one problem after another. Sometimes it wouldn't initialise on start-up or the icon in the system tray was greyed out and I had to reboot my computer. Other times a message told me, time after time, to reboot my computer to initialise Ad-aware. I thought I was going nuts until I came across this web site (PC World) and read all the negative reviews about it. By the way, my computer, running Visa 32, has dual core processors and I still had problems. The last time I installed it, Ad-Aware worked intermittently and, as I've already said, I chucked it out.
Overall Evaluation: Up to, and including, the SE and Anniversary versions, it was fine. I noticed the Anniversary version was slower when performing a full scan, otherwise I found that it was fine to run, also; although I noted, like many of you, all versions of Ad-Aware seemed to find only cookies, mainly, and not usually any thing more serious. I think I'll stick with AVG, Spybot, Malwarebytes' AntiMaleware, Glary Register Cleaner, Glary Utilities and CC Cleaner, among many others I've used. Also I'd recommend SUPERAntiSpyware Free Edition for good all round performance; it gives plenty of updates and catches lots of cookies and harmful software, etc: a proper 'little terrier', you might say. All of these aforementioned utilities/software, etc, are available as completly free and legal downloads. I also have the free editions of Commodo Firewall and Verification Engine, for good measure, just to complete my computer security. Look them up on your browser and give them a try. PS, Although I've had computers for about 20 years, I don't consider myself to be an expert or an authority on computers, just an experienced user (with the help of a computer progammer friend who helped me out from time to time, in the past) who's learning more and more all the time, thanks to web sites like this one and people like you, helping one another by voicing your opinions and concerns. Hope I've made a useful contribution to these reviews. Kind regards, ChasMick.
-
Reviewed by: cta102
Duration of ownership: 10 Years
Strengths: was great
Weaknesses: now SUCKS can't get the download to work anymore.
Overall Evaluation: Can't download any free editions, don't need the PRO edition They got the BIG HEAD, now they won't support the ones who supported them. I sent them some money once.
-
Reviewed by: obwan8
Duration of ownership: 8 Months
Strengths: Seems to do the job that other software wont do.
Weaknesses: It takes far too long to run.
Overall Evaluation: Ive always used Ad-Aware in conjunction with other Security, and Im not that offay with computing. It always seemed fine, but the last one I downloaded is totally crazy! Not only does it take HOURS to scan (before it was minutes!) but it appears to have slowed my computer down to a crawl. If thats not enough, I can utilise the computer when the scan is running. I have read reviews on here and wish to GOD I hadnt downloaded, now Im going to have to try and remove it, apparently thats not easy either! Im so disappointed I cannot possibly properly express my utter disgust with this product.
-
Reviewed by: HillsboroughDave
Duration of ownership: 5 Years
Strengths: seems to catch most adware.
Weaknesses: VERY SLOW!!! in excess of 3 1/2 hours for a system scan.
Overall Evaluation: will be removing after it is done. You get what you pay for.
-
Reviewed by: 12345678
Duration of ownership: 0 Years
Strengths: Find spyware
Weaknesses: Bloated 20 MB plus
Overall Evaluation: Good and companion for IE 8 users. FireFox and IE 8 do allow for elimination of cookies, and this product allows for unseen spyware.Wanna Pay more? That is for beginners.
-
Reviewed by: varionj
Duration of ownership: 1 Days
Strengths: Don't know. Could not run it.
Weaknesses: Ditto
Overall Evaluation: Should have red the reviews before I installed it. Now I can't uninstall it! Stay clear!!
-
Reviewed by: Joseph326
Duration of ownership: 1 Days
Strengths: None
Weaknesses: installed on feb 26,rebooted computer and got "system 32 file missing or corrupt. Had to take computer for repair.
Overall Evaluation: I'll never install this or anything from Lavasoft again
-
Reviewed by: blottobot
Duration of ownership: 5 Years
Strengths: Free. Can be uninstalled.
Weaknesses: Everything else.
Overall Evaluation: "All-Time Favorite Freebies" That was the headline for Daily Downloads newsletter March 1, 2010. This shows how out of touch PCWorld.com is with users. This app has consistently sucked since the SE version was replaced a few years ago (the download count includes all the SE downloads, as well, which is false in characterization). Look at all the other reviews. The people still downloading this are obviously not reading these reviews.
-
Reviewed by: bobells
Duration of ownership: 3 Months
Strengths: lavasoft
Weaknesses: Memory hog
Overall Evaluation: It slowed everything down, when running on Windows XP, on both our PCs. I ended up after several months removing it. My wife could not use her PC at all until Adaware completed its scan. Sadly, I agree with most of the others. It was good in the past but the developers have wrongfully assumed everyone has the latest and greatest out there. Probably tested it on their server, instead of one several years old. The reality is most of us poor citizens are trying to just to hang on. Why else would we be looking for free programs?
-
Reviewed by: tahwos
Duration of ownership: 11 Years
Strengths: Simple, user friendly interface. Ability to customize search options and add items to ignore list. Newer versions have a clearer description of items found, to give the user a better understanding of what was found. Best add program on the web until the Anniversary Edition.
Weaknesses: As of the Anniversary Edition - very slow and a resource hog when starting. The tray icon rarely works and the program will randomly go ahead and remove items without requesting permission first. Most of the advanced settings have been turned off and they no longer offer support for older versions of the program that are more efficient and less of a burden on the system.
Overall Evaluation: (Today - Avoid) I have been a user of the free versions for over a decade and was planning on paying for a license to get the full package. As of this writing and the current issues presented by their latest product - I am looking at other products as this one has lost its value.
-
Reviewed by: Zeckery
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
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
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
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
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
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.
-
Reviewed by: sephira01
Duration of ownership: 1 Years
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Overall Evaluation:
-
Reviewed by: Chappy
Duration of ownership: 1 Days
Strengths: It still finds tracking cookies
Weaknesses: It slows down the initialisation of IE and Outlook Express from immediate to about 20 seconds
Overall Evaluation: Don't make the same mistake I did, don't even download it, it's a dog, I have been using Ad-Aware for a bout 6 years and it's been a great product, the version I had on before the Anniversary Edition which I put on today, was SE Personal V 1.06 it was really good but about 4 or 5 weeks ago Ad-Aware in their (Dubious Wisdom)stopped giving anymore updates for V 1.06, so I thought I'd try the Anniversary Edition, what a mongrel of a program it is, it took ages to do a scan but worse was to come, after the installation which I had no problems with (I noticed some did) I decided to check my email and go back on line, this is where the problems began, before the installation of Anniversary I could double click my shortcut and IE would come up immediately, so would outlook express, now Explorer is taking 20 seconds to initialise and outlook 10 seconds, I had a look to see if I could find anything in the configuration that could fix this problem without any luck, I then uninstalled the program but I still have the initialisation problem, if anyone has any ideas I'd appreciate them because I'm that pissed off and I'm probably going to have to reformat my computer because Ad-Aware doesn't have any Tech support for the free version. Don't touch it with a 10 foot pole it's a dog.
-
Reviewed by: mljackson1269
Duration of ownership: 5 Years
Strengths: Used to be excellent but after version 6, it went to crap.
Weaknesses: Won't install correctly tried several attempts and finally went to their forum where I got some help to get it to install. The installer with full of bugs, users shouldn't have to go get help to install it. Then when I tried to run it, it would crash before completing a full scan. It was like trying to run a program that was in alpha stage, I've used many beta programs with less issues. It wasn't my system either, I tried it on 3 other system and all had the same issues.
Overall Evaluation: Version 6 was the best, but then they discontinued updates for it. The bottom line, Ad-Aware just sucks to put it plain and simple. It is very sad to watch such a excellent program go to crap.
-
Reviewed by: gemalin
Duration of ownership: 6 Years
Strengths: Seems that its strengths are almost endless
Weaknesses: None that I can tell
Overall Evaluation: I've been using ad-aware since it first appeared on the web. Thank goodness it's reached the level of refinement that it has - when it first came out it was verrrry slowww.
-
Reviewed by: rnealw
Duration of ownership: 5 Months
Strengths: Easy to use simple to understand
Weaknesses:
Overall Evaluation: This just keeps getting better and better. . . Microsoft should take notes
-
Reviewed by: frannie
Duration of ownership: 2 Days
Strengths: My computer almost on lockdown and after running it 3 times in a row I can even get online now. I will keep running it 3 times a day until it is thoroughly cleaned up.
Weaknesses: well, in two days I haven't seen any...too soon to tell. If anything happens disatrous or I find a bug I will be sure to report it here.
Overall Evaluation: so far it has saved me from having to hire someone...all kidding aside...I just had my computer gone for 3 months and I've only had it back for 2 weeks...so naturally I need to keep it clean.
-
Reviewed by: joeveck
Duration of ownership: 0 Months
Strengths: none
Weaknesses: everything
Overall Evaluation: it sucks! would not run after 3 attempts to install!
-
Reviewed by: RW13
Duration of ownership: 3 Days
Strengths: none
Weaknesses: the free system does nothing
Overall Evaluation: This just a add system that does nothing.Maybe the $$$ system works, the free download is a waste of time
-
Reviewed by: mjnelson99
Duration of ownership: 4 Days
Strengths: Not sure if there are any
Weaknesses: Kept asking me to restart my computer to finish installing AdWatch. Never did finish installing per the messages. I could not start it manually either. Maybe you need a paid version to get better performance.
Overall Evaluation: Removed it after 3-4 days. Was a pain. I did not have this problem with older versions.
-
Reviewed by: Casey3561
Duration of ownership: 1 Years
Strengths: Good overall detection.
Weaknesses: Extremely slow. 45 minutes to scan on an XP computer with 1.5GB RAM.
Overall Evaluation: I miss SE- took about 5 minutes, not nearly an hour.
-
Reviewed by: AlfredD
Duration of ownership: 11 Months
Strengths: The only things it ever finds are cookies. I wonder if it even works?
Weaknesses: This thing is slow as molasses! It takes over 30 secs after starting it just to see the first screen. And the scan... geez.. I have to run it over night cause it is slooooooowwwww.
Overall Evaluation: Too slow!!!
-
Reviewed by: JohnRemax
Duration of ownership: 1 Days
Strengths: Do not know.
Weaknesses: price is shown as free, but to remove any threats you have to buy the software.
Overall Evaluation: F-
-
Reviewed by: myloginname
Duration of ownership: 1 Days
Strengths: average security software
Weaknesses: downloaded this onto my refurbished 4 GB 500 GB 64-bit vista system that i just got yesterday, next thing you know the systems freezing like crap. i uninstall it, doesnt help at all
Overall Evaluation: horrible
-
Reviewed by: THeinrich
Duration of ownership: 1 Years
Strengths: It finds some Spyware that Spybot & Spyware Doctor do not find.
Weaknesses: It does not have real time protection or immunization. Spybot & Spyware Doctor together do enough together to be the only Software you need, instead of clunky AdAware.
Overall Evaluation: Product is Fair, but not robust enough to use by itself. Spybot & Spyware Doctor are Free as well. You may only be able to get Spyware Doctor Free thru the Google Updater program.
-
Reviewed by: marietta
Duration of ownership: 6 Months
Strengths: Free Spyware and trojan detector. real nice> I really recommend it
Weaknesses: Finds Trojans but doesnt remove all.
Overall Evaluation: Does lot better than McAfee Norton.great spyware and trojan detector.Cant remove all but nice program.It saved my LAptop
-
Reviewed by: bobj
Duration of ownership: 7 Years
Strengths: seems to work well on all versions ,up to 2008,easy to run and doesnt affect other programs
Weaknesses: runs slow ,,should be faster ,, 2008 version have had some problems in my several computers ,have reloaded it seveal times in each and always seems to be better ,but slow updating and seems slower scanning than should be. older versions were faster ,i think
Overall Evaluation: is extra measure of back up to run manually if think need to ,myself i never got anything but tracking cookies and mru's wth it in 7 years .
-
Reviewed by: OldNavy
Duration of ownership: 3 Years
Strengths: Used to be very good at removeing unwanted items.
Weaknesses: Unable to customize. Bloated.
Overall Evaluation: Unless you have a very basic system, stay away from it.
-
Reviewed by: Don3932
Duration of ownership: 2 Years
Strengths: -it's free -pretty good spyware/malware remover -great for the average user (easy to use)
Weaknesses: -you need to remember to update & run it at least 1x a week -i've noticed on more than one occasion on multiple computers that if you don't keep it updated that spyware will actually disable it from getting updates (to fix that you need to uninstall it and install a fresh updated copy)
Overall Evaluation: It's a good second cleaner. I use it to get the leftovers from Spybot.
-
Reviewed by: davidis99
Duration of ownership: 2 Months
Strengths: Does an adequate job of removing adware and spyware for a free program.
Weaknesses: A free program that provides NO realtime protection should not need to have a background-resident program running.
Overall Evaluation: There are free programs that provide better protection and do better at removal. It's ok as a supplement to other scanners, but that's it.
-
Reviewed by: loneeagle1938
Duration of ownership: 4 Years
Strengths: Very Few other then its FREE!
Weaknesses: Too Slow,hangs up or freezes too often and so LavaSoft took a great product and turned it into JUNK! Ihave had to unistall and download it again several times and this program has went really downhill in the 2008 Free Edition so I refuse to buy it's upgrades.
Overall Evaluation: A very poor program that its becoming more and more worthless each new version. Someoned needs fired.
-
Reviewed by: teacha1
Duration of ownership: 3 Years
Strengths: Very thorough.
Weaknesses: Slower than molassess compared to previous versions.
Overall Evaluation: Heavy firepower when you need it.
-
Reviewed by: BearGFR
Duration of ownership: 3 Months
Strengths: There aren't any
Weaknesses: CPU/resource hog (their registry tool is the culprit), daily crashes, crash "loops" that you have to use task manager to get out of.
Overall Evaluation: It's an embarrassment and an insult to what used to be a good product. I purchased the 2008 Pro upgrade and have regretted it since the day I installed it. Avoid this thing like the plague. I've reported issues to their tech support and they have been completely non-responsive. I've completely uninstalled it and have written their sales department asking for a refund of my upgrade fee.
-
Reviewed by: lions
Duration of ownership: 1 Months
Strengths: None!
Weaknesses: Couldn't uninstall 2007, did what it said, but didn't completely uninstall, so reinstalled and uninstalled. Then I installed AA 8 and now it says I have AA8 but version 7.1.
Overall Evaluation: I would uninstall it if I could!
-
Reviewed by: ajtrek
Duration of ownership: 1 Days
Strengths: Free, and is a good second option to your primary product.
Weaknesses: None, as a free product
Overall Evaluation: Ran the SmartScan twice...did not find any threats worth mentioning. Both scans took 26 and 24 minutes to complete respectively. I have a CPU and RAM monitor on my desktop. CPU usage averaged about 35% with spikes of 65%-70% upon opening an application/program. RAM usage was about 3% additional. Had MSOutlook and IE7 running during scans and encountered no problems. I'd have to agree with another reviewer that using a dual core processor as I am with sufficient RAM (I have 4G's)will probably make a difference. FYI, my OS is Vista Ultimate.
-
Reviewed by: Prokingdom
Duration of ownership: 1 Months
Strengths: Ad-Aware SE=Tons of strength...Ad-Aware 2007=little strength....Ad-Aware 2008=no strength at all
Weaknesses: Sluggish scan and alway incomplete,if you tried open some other program while scanning,the scanner will give you a error msg and close the program,i think you really need to have a good computer to use this program.After update when you want to scan it say scanner is busy,i only can continue by close it and end it process and restart.Even updating it still freeze.i don't think it had a much different from this free version and paid version
Overall Evaluation: I had use back Ad-Aware SE Personal,althrough it not supported by lavasoft anymore,i am still able to get it's defination update from softpedia.com.Ad-Aware 2008 had a very serious problem,but lavasoft seem doesn't care about it despite a lot of us gave feedback to lavasoft.it also maybe a plan to make us pay for the program to make it Lag-free
-
Reviewed by: marikavs
Duration of ownership: 5 Years
Strengths: Wouldn't know (can't install it...)
Weaknesses: Can't install it.
Overall Evaluation: My previous review(06-20-2008)got lost when I tried to edit out a typo, but since aaw doesn't install I don't suppose it matters. I'll take Prokingdom's word for it and try reinstating SE.
-
Reviewed by: heathwater
Duration of ownership: 4 Days
Strengths: Finds some products that SpyBot S&D and CCleaner miss.
Weaknesses: Installs it's self as a service.
Overall Evaluation: 2007 version was better, I now consider this software bloatware and am not remcomending it's use for me friends. Highly recomend switching the service to "Manual".
-
Reviewed by: HA2000
Duration of ownership: 2 Years
Strengths: It is the best out there
Weaknesses: The latest version can not be updated. I tried it on 3 different computers with same result.The blogs do not offer any solution
Overall Evaluation: It used to be a very good program. I found spyware terminator and switched to it since it can not be updated
-
Reviewed by: emuny01
Duration of ownership: 1 Days
Strengths: None noted or that are available on the free verxion
Weaknesses: Nothing is available for the free verxion. It does not even scan. All you get is the opening screen and some ADS.
Overall Evaluation: STINKS BIG TIME. DO NOT DOWNLOAD. WASTE OF SPACE ON THE HARD DRIVE. YOU CANNOT EVEN TRY THE FREE VERSION. YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW IT WILL WORK WITHOUT BUYING IT.
-
Reviewed by: RodeoRider
Duration of ownership: 4 Years
Strengths: Earlier free versions worked very well. This version of Ad-Aware 2007 Free is just OK; not in same league as other versions. You get what you pay for.
Weaknesses: Takes forever to scan my PC. Likes to freeze my PC and I have to reboot to clear the problem.
Overall Evaluation: I tried the Ad-Aware 2007 Plus 30day test version. What a waste! Slowed my PC to a crawl and grabbed all few RAM. Don't waste your time/effort on this dud. I uninstalled both versions and my PC now runs much faster.
-
Reviewed by: 007rjc
Duration of ownership: 3 Months
Strengths: none
Weaknesses: This version of this long standing favourite is truly horrible. A full scan with the previous version would take about 20 mins but with this version it takes about 4-5 hours. I had trouble getting updates. It seems that the main motivation behind this version is to sell other services - it really is a hard sell.
Overall Evaluation: I have now uninstalled this version and have reloaded the previous version. Ad awares reputation has been harmed by this version.
-
Reviewed by: PeterCayce
Duration of ownership: 1 Months
Strengths: Addendum to previous review. See below.
Weaknesses: Addendum to previous review. See below.
Overall Evaluation: ADDENDUM TO MY PREVIOUS REVIEW BELOW: For comparison, I just tested this new Lavasoft Ad-Aware 2007 on my older Windows XP laptop with a single core Pentium 4 processor (with 500 MB RAM). Both the full scan and basic scan work in my free version (a previous reviewer said he could only do a full scan with the free version, but I am able to do both). The scans work more sluggishly with my older laptop, however the entire full scan only took 21 minutes and 40 seconds to complete. My computer did "freeze" a bit when trying to do other tasks. I actually had to wait for new screens to open slowly. In short, my older (single core Pentium 4 CPU with Windows XP) computer runs far more slowly than my new dual core processor with VISTA (although I don't believe VISTA has anything to do with the speed of the scan. I believe that 3GB of RAM along with the dual processor makes all the difference). The Windows Task Manager did show my CPU running a little high on my older Pentium 4 single core processor, but not exceptionally high. This basically confirms my theory. A dual core processor (along with 3GB RAM) make scanning my computer so fast and easy that I don't even know a scan is occurring -- unless I'm watching the Ad-Aware progress screen. With a dual core processor (and 3GB RAM), I can quickly and easily minimize the Ad-Aware window and work on other tasks with no delays, no freezes, and no problems whatsoever. Hopes this helps some of you who are trying to decide whether to download the new Lavasoft Ad-Aware spyware detection program. PeterCayce.com
-
Reviewed by: petercayce
Duration of ownership: 1 Months
Strengths: This program worked quickly and very smoothly. No problems whatsoever. But my professional guess is that you need a dual core (or dual channel) processor to efficiently run this Lavasoft program. I have to admit I was very hesitant on downloading this program due to the various negative reviews I read here. I don't usually write comments, but since I do read them for assistance, I thought I'd post this comment here for some of you who had the same concern I had about downloading the new Lavasoft. I too had no problems with the older version of Lavasoft AdAware SE. But -- again -- I do believe that you need a dual core processor to effectively run this program. PeterCayce.com Send me an email if you want additional feedback.
Weaknesses: The problems some people are having (i.e., 100% CPU usage, computer "freezing up," lengthy spyware scans, etc.) are probably being caused by not having a dual core processor. It seems that this new version of Lavasoft software runs into problems with a single core CPU (even with a Pentium 4 Processor). If you are having this problem, it's probably time to give in a get a dual core processor computer. And for some of you who don't really know what a dual core processor is, this basically means the computer has two "brains." A one core processor is notoriously slow when running a CPU intensive program such as a spyware or virus detection program. If you are still unsure what I mean, open up Windows Task Manager. You will then see how much CPU usage (percent of the computer's "brain)' is being monopolized by any spyware or virus detection program. Especially newer programs like this Lavasoft spyware detection software. PeterCayce.com
Overall Evaluation: A good program. B+ or better. I use this along with Spyware Blaster, Spybot Search & Destroy, Windows Defender, A-Squared Free, and AVG AntiRootkit Free. I also use IceSword, but don't try this one unless you know what you're doing. It confuses most people because there are no driections. The guy who designed is Chinese and speaks/reads no English. This free but excellent rootkit detection program won't help you much if you can't figure it out on your own. PeterCayce.com [cursory proofreading only; excuse any typos]
-
Reviewed by: captdanf
Duration of ownership: 4 Years
Strengths: Previous versions were solid performers. This one is a total hack.
Weaknesses: Doesn't like to complete scans, freezes computers (and I use both XP and VIsta machines), even BSOD a few times. Massive resource hog, even on high-end machines. They took a good program and flushed it down the john.
Overall Evaluation: Extremely poor performance. I was involved with the beta testing, and found it frought with problems, which I dutifully reported. Doesn't look like they fixed any of the problems, just rushed the beta program to market. I have tried 2007 version several times to see if they fixed the problems, as I had been quite pleased with the earlier version (even had paid for it! lol!). But alas, this is lost to crapland, Just got Spyware Doctor and it is working GREAT! Yeah, had to shell out a few bucks for it, but well worth it. At least for now, give Ad Aware a wide berth.
-
Reviewed by: kaseman20
Duration of ownership: 1 Days
Strengths: It used to be quick and it would clean up my system fast but I am unable to tell it's strengths since it freezes up when I use it.
Weaknesses: My computer freezes up when I use it
Overall Evaluation: I am stunned that so many people have no problem with this program. I have tried this on a Window XP computer, on Vista, when we no longer could get updates for the old version. I then read you recent review and tried it again. The same thing happend, my computer froze. I shut everything down when I installed it (firewall, anti-virus, etc...) and it did the same exact thing again! Sorry, the old was awesome, but I will NEVER use the new version!
-
Reviewed by: hikerbear
Duration of ownership: 2 Months
Strengths: It works on my XP Home SP2 without a glitch.
Weaknesses: Scanning takes a bit of time and with the free edition you have to scan your whole system.
Overall Evaluation: I don't understand why PC World gave it such a glorious review after reading all the poor reviews that arepresented. A comment or two about some of the reviews. 1. If you download and install without registering-skip this part of the install, then it is Free, limited, but free. 2. I find that it runs my Athlon XP 1800+ CPU at 100%, but the temp stays the same. Spyware Doctor does the same thing and both slow the system down if you try to do anything while scanning. I think this may be normal. I don't have much spyware so all it finds are cookies so far. I find that uninstalling it presents problems after the uninstall and you have to modify the registry to stop the boot message. Type the message into Google and the answers are there. Overall : So- So Nothing to get excited about. Roger
-
Reviewed by: hdavison
Duration of ownership: 4 Years
Strengths:
Weaknesses: Won't run on new Vista machine. Had used Ad-Aware with never a problem under Windows XP and probably Windows 98. ---Instantly get "Microsoft Windows" box stating that "Ad-Aware 2007 has stopped working" even though it never came up.
Overall Evaluation: If you can get it to run, past usage recommends it.
-
Reviewed by: bigmac1950
Duration of ownership: 3 Months
Strengths: N.A.
Weaknesses: Can't complete scan! I updated from SE to 2007. Am using Windows XP. When I run a scan, program goes fine until it gets to "Scanning folders (Conditional)" and stops. The runtime clock continues. I've uninstalled 2007 once and re-downloaded and installed it. Doesn't work as it is supposed to.
Overall Evaluation: SE was much better! Very poor response by the Ad-aware team with regards to resolving the bugs. I am surprised this issue isn't fixed yet, as i've come across this concern on multiple forums already (with no resolution!).
-
Reviewed by: Bubba99
Duration of ownership: 1 Days
Strengths: Good detector
Weaknesses: NOT FREE
Overall Evaluation: YOU CAN DOWNLOAD FOR "FREE". YOU CAN DETECT FOR "FREE", BUT YOU HAVE TO APY $20 TO REGISTER SO YOU CAN CLEAN UP YOU PC FOR "FREE".
-
Reviewed by: exnewyorker
Duration of ownership: 1 Days
Strengths: none
Weaknesses: causes 65% c,p,u, usage on my machine.
Overall Evaluation: tried it when first released, deleted it after trial. scan took much longer than SE. yesterday i found out there would be no further support for SE so i redownloaded 2007. it caused 65% cpu load and created slowdown on machine. deleted it from all registry enrtries & reinstaled old SE. will keep same till i find another spyware removal tool.
-
Reviewed by: Neo7
Duration of ownership: 3 Months
Strengths: Excellent removal of spyware/ad-aware. I had the Plus version and the real-time protection is good at blocking out the bad stuff.
Weaknesses: The program consumes an unreasonable amount of resources to run (70 MB of RAM?). The program attaches itself to Windows too much (making it a nusience if you want it off).
Overall Evaluation: The interface was definatly updated to look more friendly, but the coding behind it could have taken a bit more care with. The GUI interface takes up 20-30 MB of RAM which is a bit on the unreasonable side. The realtime protection goes all the way up to 80 MB of RAM which is not pleasent. While the protection is among the best I've seen, I just don't think that the resource requirements are worth it.
-
Reviewed by: intrepi
Duration of ownership: 2 Years
Strengths: This software does detect and allows you to delete or quarantine spyware that will slow down your system until it crawls. This software will eliminate most spyware and keep your system running as fast as it should be.
Weaknesses: The support is with no exaggeration the worst of the worst. DO NOT BUY any more than a 1 year subsciption
Overall Evaluation: I bought my first year as a single year subscription. Then I bought a 3 year subscription after that and they lost all records of this subscription and now I have nothing and I'd never download, buy or subscribe from Ad Aware again as they are based in Sweden and much like MS, Creative and others who are bad to ridiculous when it comes to support.
-
Reviewed by: metaluna
Duration of ownership: 1 Weeks
Strengths: None that I could tell.
Weaknesses: Can't stop it from start-up and also begins a scan. My PC wouldn't boot up for about five minutes, even though I have plenty of RAM. I felt relieved when I removed it.
Overall Evaluation: A resource hog that has unnecessary features and I'm going to download the SE version again.
-
Reviewed by: moorrbrt1
Duration of ownership: 2 Weeks
Strengths: I hate to talk bad about Lavasoft, but there are no strengths.
Weaknesses: Can't turn it off. It stays on as a service. If you do turn the service off it won't update. Why would Lavasoft mess up a fantastic product?
Overall Evaluation: Sluggish scans, poor over all preformance. Very disappointed. Re-downloaded SE. and forturnately there are other alternatives as well.
-
Reviewed by: pokey
Duration of ownership: 6 Weeks
Strengths: None that I could see.
Weaknesses: Very slow scan - about 4 to 5 minutes for a smart scan (older versions of Ad-Aware did a smart scan in 1-3 minutes). This version caused slow downs while using the Internet. The slow downs were even more pronounced when using the Real Time protection. On some occasions not all spyware was deleted. (This was verified using Ad-aware SE Professional.)
Overall Evaluation: Overall I would not recomend Ad-Aware 2007. It is sluggish, it interferes with your internet connection and most importantly not all spyware is deleted on occasion. Also I found Lavasoft not to be as customer friendly as in the past. As a last statement I have been a loyal Lavasoft user of the full Ad-aware programs since I started using the Internet.
-
Reviewed by: eaglestien69
Duration of ownership: 2 Months
Strengths: Seems to clean alot but doesn't seem that fast to me.
Weaknesses: Can't find anyway to stop it from starting up as soon as my computer is statrted no matter how many different other tools I have used to knock it out of the start up and can't find anyway to get it out of the system tray at all! Just spent over an hour at their site looking for answers. All I found was other people that had the same question and if you use the FREE version you get no support from them that I couyld find anywhere! Like someone there said, "deffinately not ready for public use yet and the SE version is much better!"Also slowed my computer start up>
Overall Evaluation: Waste of time unless maybe you buy it?Stick with the free SE version. That's what I went back to.Much better and less hassles are far as I am concerned.
-
Reviewed by: Kromaethius
Duration of ownership: 3 Months
Strengths: Better GUI Design
Weaknesses: Poor scanning and detecting, may be fast but when it misses so much.
Overall Evaluation: Even Microsoft Defender does a better job than this losey product. All my other spyware products does a far better job.
-
Reviewed by: galaxtel
Duration of ownership: 2 Days
Strengths: runs quickly, uses less computer resources comparatively to the older version
Weaknesses: Didn't find several critical object, found by trhe older version. Doesn't provide a good view of file info for the objects found
Overall Evaluation: not recommended
-
Reviewed by: honesty
Duration of ownership: 0 Months
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Overall Evaluation: it may at times interfere with my virus scanner....I liked the older version better
-
Reviewed by: Blazer999
Duration of ownership: 3 Months
Strengths: It complements my other spyware utilities real well.....I don't expect one to find everything.....but this is not the same AdAware as the previous package.
Weaknesses: Full of bugs.....update phase shaky at best.....object removal questionable.
Overall Evaluation: I removed it from my system.......can't rely on it!!
-
Reviewed by: roastbeefdinner
Duration of ownership: 2 Weeks
Strengths: nice fast scan.....
Weaknesses: it wanted to have full access to my firewall......inbound and outbound.....and no matter how many times I tried to change the setting it would automatically change it back to full access, causing me to remove the program.
Overall Evaluation:
-
Reviewed by: bezansonrs
Duration of ownership: 3 Days
Strengths: I am a long term Ad-Aware SE user and have always had great faith in this product.
Weaknesses: I downloaded the new Ad-Aware 2007 three days ago. When it was installed it automatically removed Ad-Aware SE. The new version recurringly gives the error message "server is not available" when I hit "update." It gives the message "scanner is busy" when I hit the "scan" button. This has been 3 days of frustration.
Overall Evaluation: It is impossible to evaluate a product that will not perform as advertised. The press release is informative. The home page is great. Now if it would only work!!
-
Reviewed by: yrrallezr2
Duration of ownership: 1 Years
Strengths: no problems
Weaknesses: too many options
Overall Evaluation: Follwed recommendation and upgraded to 'Plus" version and have had hassle-free usage.
-
Reviewed by: NancyNancy
Duration of ownership: 5 Years
Strengths: Absolutely NONE.
Weaknesses: Only catches the well-known spyware. Variants and unknowns are not detected. Other scanners are just as free and work MUCH better.
Overall Evaluation: When running a scan with AdAware (without fixing anything) and then immediately running a scan with Spybot, Spybot would catch 3 problems while AdAware found nothing. This non-detection was pretty consistent with AdAware as I usually would use both spyware scanners just to compare results. IMO, AdAware is totally useless and is not any better than no scanner at all.
-
Reviewed by: ismaelja
Duration of ownership: 0 Months
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Overall Evaluation:
-
Reviewed by: JACK
Duration of ownership: 5 Years
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Overall Evaluation:
-
Reviewed by: fletchrrr
Duration of ownership: 3 Years
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Overall Evaluation:
Ad Choices