- Quick specs
- Price: Free; paid upgrade available
- Operating system: Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000
- Date added: January 15, 2008
- Total Downloads: 335,979,298
- Downloads last week: 309,557
- See full specifications
A newer version of Ad-Aware 2007 is available.
(Download doesn't provide access to previous versions of this program.)
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 11236 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: CNET Staff
One of the first applications built to find and remove adware and spyware, Ad-Aware's excellent reputation is well-justified. While the 2007 edition is still free, it does have some new features that may make you reconsider the height of the pedestal it sits on.
First off, the app's updater is now permanently on, running in your system's background. The irony of Ad-Aware running potential spyware is not lost on us. The interface has also been completely overhauled, and it's a bit more confusing. There are six tabs in the nav bar. Status and Scan initiate adware scans, and finish with a line-item list so you can select which components to remove and create a system restore point. The context menu offers some information about suspected adware, though it's light on details.
Other navbar buttons include Ad-Watch, offering real-time defenses but only in the paid version. Plug-ins are disabled in the free version, but the Tools and Plug-ins tab hosts TrackSweep, the new browsing tracks cleaner. Smoothly integrated into the app, it wipes the cache, cookies, and history, and other breadcrumbs left by major browsers. We couldn't help but notice, though, that the Web Update tab, which controls definition file and software updates, ran far more sluggishly than in previous editions, and sometimes even crashed the program.
The Settings tab provides access to auto-scans, browsers, scanning, the interface, and log files. The app does an excellent job of removing most malware components, although rescanning is necessary for a seriously infected machine. The freeware restrictions are mildly irritating, but they're nothing compared to some of the serious stability and background processes in the 2007 version. However, it is a fully functional adware remover, and it continues to do that well. With some hesitation, we recommend Ad-Aware 2007 as part of your arsenal.
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Publisher's description
From Lavasoft :With the ability to scan your RAM, Registry, hard drives, and external storage devices for known data-mining, advertising, and tracking components, Ad-Aware 2007 easily can clean your system, allowing you to maintain a higher degree of privacy while you surf the Web.
Ad-Aware 2007 includes a redesigned engine, improved code sequence identification, incremental definition updates, one-click Web-history cleanup, multiple browser support, and other new features. In version 7.0.2.6, the scanning engine improves the detection and removal of malware affecting LSP and NSP, the malware removal at Windows startup now removes folders, the licensing system has been redesigned and multilingual support has been added (currently limited to French language only).
What's new in this version:
In version 7.0.2.6, the scanning engine improves the detection and removal of malware affecting LSP and NSP, the malware removal at Windows startup now removes folders, the licensing system has been redesigned and multilingual support has been added (currently limited to French language only).
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User reviews of Ad-Aware 2007 7.0.2.6
- Average user rating: 3.8 stars out of 11236 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 545 user reviewsSee all 545 user reviews
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37 out of 43 people found this review helpful
Version: Ad-Aware 2007 7.0.2.6
Pros: WAS a good product when it was the SE Personal version, small, easy to use, fast and non-intrusive.
Cons: I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOO disappointed that Lavasoft has stopped updates on Ad-Aware SE Personal and forced everyone (just like Microsoft does) to update to the lastest bloated, crappy and slow 2007 version. This product went from like 5MB to 20MB+, very high on resources, has processes running behind your back and takes 5 times longer to scan. I am also not very pleased with the interface nor have I noticed this product catches anything but traffic cookies. I honestly have NO idea where all the space taken comes from in this product, and why it takes almost more than 20 minutes just to do a SMART scan when the SE personal only took about 2-3 minutes to get the job done.
I am through with this product, and I am trying to find a BETTER alternative on Download.com to replace this useless product.
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15 out of 19 people found this review helpful
Version: Ad-Aware 2007 7.0.2.6
"Slow scans, runs as service in background all time, bloated, SE is better"
Pros: Nothing, use Ad-Aware SE instead.
Cons: The scans are noticeably slower, it's more bloated than SE, and it runs as a service all the time in the background slowing things down. This is an example where newer is not always better. Ad-Aware SE is better than 2007. It's sad that manual def updates are the only way to go with SE lately. If Lavasoft takes away updates for SE, it'll be the end for Ad-Aware for me. Unless they unbloated 2007, make it quicker and not have it run as a service in the background consuming more memory than needed.
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18 out of 19 people found this review helpful
Version: Ad-Aware 2007 7.0.2.6
"Still not convinced this is a step forward?"
Pros: Initial install is straightforward & Cnet tips on set up were useful.
Cons: Unlike SE Personal , the free version UI for 2007 carries the full set of buttons, most of which cannot be used without upgrading to one of the paid versions which makes it somewhat cluttered.
Also seems to be a bigger drain on system resources than the former.
I first tried 2007 on release & have also trialed several of the updates, but always preferred to stick with SE Personal. There is comment on the Lavasoft support forum that support for SE was discontinued as it was no longer sophisticated enough to deal with current spyware. The same source is full of comments from other users, with far more technical knowledge than me, bemoaning the demise of SE.
Finally, if 2007 is supposed to be so much better, I don't understand why, after running a full system scan which comes up clean, then immediately running a similar scan with SE Personal, it detects MRU lists & tracking cookies which were obviously missed by 2007.
Neither SE or 2007 has ever detected any greater threat than those mentioned above.
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10 out of 14 people found this review helpful
Version: Ad-Aware 2007 7.0.2.6
"another useless free program"
Cons: very low detection rate, hasn't kept up. it only takes up space with all the other useless free security apps you people collect
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6 out of 9 people found this review helpful
Version: Ad-Aware 2007 7.0.2.6
"Even when not loaded, still runs heavy processes behind your back"
Pros: Compared to older versions, there's nothing better with this version. Used it for a week & slowed my computer down due to processes running in the background, eventually discovered the processes were AdAware.
Cons: Seems to have some processes running behind your back, even with the free version, which is supposed to be a scanner & remover only. So why would a product designed to protect you from sneaky things running behind you back have sneaky things running behind your back. Each time I would block AdAware 2007 from the start up menu, it would create a new start up folder next time I booted. Then I tried to shut the processes down but would restart themselves randomly, using a large amount of resources. During the initial scan, resources were pretty much dedicated to AdAware, something the older version did not do as much. The scans took three times longer & at the end, found nothing but a few cookies, most were the same ones Spybot found. I finally had to remove every trace, not just a simple uninstall, but every trace of AdAware 2007 from my computer to get rid of those start up folders & processes.
Although the processes checked out as "OK", I was never able to see as to why they were allowed to run even with AdAware shut off & "Killed" in ZA.
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