Freeware

The bottom line: One of the first applications built to find and remove malware and spyware, Ad-Aware's reputation is well-justified. The latest version continues the publisher's tradition of adroitly addressing user concerns, yet some annoyances remain.

Review:

Ad-Aware 9 continues the development progress that publisher Lavasoft began in the previous version. No longer content with offering only malware protection, Ad-Aware now includes antivirus protections licensed from Sunbelt, the makers of Vipre, as well as interesting in-house improvements.

Lavasoft first started changing Ad-Aware's protection engine more than a year ago in version 8.1, when it introduced Genotype. … Read more

In its third update of the year, Ad-Aware receives a hefty change to how it protects you. Lavasoft's Ad-Aware 9 Free, available today exclusively on CNET Download.com, debuts two new detection engines as the company fights to keep its well-known freeware competitive.

Lavasoft first started changing Ad-Aware's protection engine more than a year ago in version 8.1, when it introduced Genotype. This heuristics-based technology identified identical snippets of code across multiple threat mutations. In version 9, Genotype receives support from what Lavasoft calls "Dedicated Detection". This tech looks inside files, analyzes the code, and … Read more

Microsoft has made it easier to browse for help when one of its products acts up. The revamped Fix It Solution Center boils troubleshooting down to three steps: pick a product (optional), choose a fix in one of eight categories (and handful of optional subcategories), and then view or run one of Microsoft's many proposed solutions.

Of course, the real test is whether these auto-repair tools actually do any good. I haven't done enough testing to form an opinion one way or the other. However, the online Fix It tools differ from the troubleshooting utilities built into Windows … Read more

uTorrent has long been known for providing a torrent managing client that's light on fancy features but light on your system resources, too. Today's release of uTorrent 2.2 brings out of beta an add-on gallery that the publisher BitTorrent has been working on since the spring. The "App Studio," as the company calls it, allows people to customize features on the fly, including adding security from BitDefender, games, social networking, and enhanced content discovery for legally free entertainment.

Privacy concerns were addressed in this release. Users' real IP addresses are no longer broadcasted when connected … Read more

Every wireless-network user should know the perils of signing into a Web service over an unencrypted connection. Elinor Mills explains the perils of using open Wi-Fi networks in her InSecurity Complex blog.

The safest approach is to enter user IDs and passwords only when the page's address begins with "https://" and it has a lock icon at the top or bottom of the browser window. Otherwise a network snoop could monitor your actions without your knowledge. Note that the lock icon may have an exclamation mark even though the page address begins with "https:". This … Read more

CCleaner doesn't get major updates often, but this one's definitely worth upgrading to. The popular freeware now offers a drive wiper and "intelligent" browser cookie control, along with a faster scan and improvement tweaks to pre-existing features. Watch what's new in CCleaner 3 in this First Look video.

Panda Security continues to build better features into the company's Cloud Antivirus lightweight security suite, as a Web filter for URL scanning joins the existing protection tools. Watch the First Look video to see how it all fits together in Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.3.

Mozilla is advising fans of Firefox to update the stable version of the browser after it released a patch for a security bug marked "critical" today.

Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, Firefox 3.6.12 patches a heap buffer overflow that could allow for remote code execution. Mozilla notes that the bug affects the current version 3.6 branch of Firefox, the legacy version 3.5 branch, and could potentially affect Thunderbird users who load Web pages in the RSS reader.

The bug has not been found in the upcoming version 4, currently in beta development and … Read more

Editor's note: Panda Security is offering free license keys for Cloud Antivirus Pro 1.3 to users who register using this download link. You'll be required to enter your name and e-mail address to receive the license key, which is good for one year. Also note that during the registration process, the checkout cart will state at some point, "Your card hasn't been charged yet." This is apparently a cart template and does not affect users who are taking part in the license key giveaway.

Panda Security continues to build better features into the company'… Read more