- Quick specs
- Price: Free; paid upgrade available
- Operating system: Windows 2000/XP/Vista
- Date added: December 11, 2009
- Total Downloads: 343,302,510
- Downloads last week: 471,077
- See full specifications
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 11390 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: Seth Rosenblatt on October 11, 2009
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, but isn't yet perfect.
Building on the improvements made in version 8, former Ad-Aware users should be glad to hear that the program installs faster than it used to. Without a doubt, though, this version of Ad-Aware improves greatly on what has come before. It loads faster during your boot cycle, and scans are faster. Empirical tests noted that while the Quick Scan finished in less than 10 minutes for version 8, the current version's Quick Scan finished in under three minutes. Previous files that had been falsely detected as threats weren't flagged this time around, probably due in part to Ad-Aware's behavioral detection engine. Called Genotype, it's based on heuristics and uses a one-pass scanning system, Genotype isn't directly exposed to users, although you can opt in to anonymously contribute data from the Settings menu. The new version also explicitly calls out in the scan windows what the scan looks for.
New users should note that Ad-Aware Free performs faster than integrated antivirus and antimalware programs in part because only the paid version of Ad-Aware comes with an antivirus engine. Other important features are disabled in the free version. While rootkit detection is present, behavior-based heuristics and real-time registry protection are not. Ad-Aware Free cannot scan networked drives, and even a basic feature like the scheduler remains off-limits to nonpaying customers. The proprietary real-time defender Ad-Watch Live has been reconfigured to run more smoothly in the background, however, and long-time fans will notice the change. Ad-Aware continues to make improvements and seems to be unwilling to rest on its malware-removing laurels, but the free version is undeniably hamstrung.
Watch the CNET video review of Ad-Aware Free Anti-Malware:
Publisher's description
From Lavasoft :With behavior-based threat detection and integrated real-time monitoring, Ad-Aware focuses on core consumer security needs. Instead of adding layers of bells and whistles--thereby slowing your computer and scans down--we have decided to focus on what really matters. Ad-Aware provides advanced threat protection, and is significantly lighter and faster than our previous versions.
What's new in this version:
Improvements:
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 3.8 stars out of 11390 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 72 user reviewsSee all 72 user reviews
This software version | All versions -
Version: Ad-Aware Free Anti-Malware 8.1.2
Pros: Does what it says, costs nothing, and catches all sorts of 'bad' things that crawl around the innards of your Computer, shows you what they are, and gets rid of them when you tell it to. - Thanks to Lavasoft/Adaware for all the help!
Cons: Being a non-techie, I can't tell what the 'updates' are all about, so I just go with 'em when prompted, but a simple explanation would be helpful.
Summary: If you're gonna do the 'Full Scan' option it will take a while, (45 mins. for mine), but it's not necessary every time, as it scans things that have been sitting there on your hard drive since the beginning of time, so no need to 'Re-Scan' every ti... read more >>
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Version: Ad-Aware Free Anti-Malware 8.1.2
Pros: I've never had a problem with it, as far as I can tell. Of course, it hasn't caught any spyware in months, so maybe it's not even working. Who's to know.
Cons: Nothing comes to mind.
Summary: I can tell no difference between this version and the previous two or thee versions.
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Version: Ad-Aware Free Anti-Malware 8.1.2
Pros: Normally, this is a great little program for removing spyware. I've had it on my laptop since I got it. It's been easy to use and maintain and has become so even more with subsequent updates.
Cons: It can take over an hour to do a full system scan. This latest version (8.1.2), which I installed over a week ago, crashes EVERY TIME I try to use it. The program allows me to send an error report to LavaSoft but I get no feedback as to the problem.
Summary: I am not happy with this latest version. It crashes every time I try to run it. The program asks me to send an error report to LavaSoft but I don't get any feedback about what the problem is and I have not had any notifications of any patches or f... read more >>
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Version: Ad-Aware Free Anti-Malware 8.1.2
Pros: I have not had a problem with what it is supposed to get rid of and prevent and it is FREE
Cons: Nothing really
Summary: It is free and it does what it says it will do and gives me updates.
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Version: Ad-Aware Free Anti-Malware 8.1.2
Pros: Is vry simple to use and looks like it is efficient
Cons: Nothing to say
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