- Quick specs
- Price: Free; paid upgrade available
- Operating system: Windows 2000 Professional/XP 32-bit/Vista 32-bit/64-bit/7 32-bit/64-bit
- Date added: February 14, 2010
- Total Downloads: 349,542,334
- Downloads last week: 836,243
- See full specifications
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 11641 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:
Version 8.2 adds genotype detection, behavior-based heuristics, e-mail scanner, rootkit removal system, the neutralizer, download guard for Internet Explorer, simple mode/advanced mode, custom skins, and community-driven translations.
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 3.8 stars out of 11641 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 139 user reviewsSee all 139 user reviews
This software version | All versions -
Version: Ad-Aware Free Anti-Malware 8.2
"Seems to be doing a good job"
Pros: Works just fine
Cons: No problems so far
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Version: Ad-Aware Free Anti-Malware 8.2
"easy to use, complete program"
Pros: I run this on a business computer once a week. I've had no problems with it and it works perfectly
Cons: I can't find anything
Summary: Good, free program to keep your computer mlaware free.
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Version: Ad-Aware Free Anti-Malware 8.2
"Excellent product, best price possible"
Pros: Most needed components of the paid product are available in the free version.
Competent and up-to-date sifting out of malware.Cons: Each update seems to download the full database. Best control that way, but big download for dial-up systems. (Still some out there)
Summary: As a major component in your free anti-malware toolkit, this product is one of the best.
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Version: Ad-Aware Free Anti-Malware 8.2
Pros: It is relatively fast unless you have many processes running.
Cons: Quarantined files already quarantined by other software, recognizing few only.
Paid version required to recover false positives.
Tried to install older C++ files.
Mistook malware template files and my own scripts, quarantined without recovery.Summary: I Immediately deleted this product as it caused greater problems than the worst trojan did five years ago for me. Messed up my other security software, if it only asked for confirmation before quarantining without recovery, I would have given it two... read more >>
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Version: Ad-Aware Free Anti-Malware 8.2
"An excellent product. Especially so as it is free"
Pros: It performs a very thorough scan, finding all the bad stuff.
Cons: Not the fastest kid on the block.
- See all 139 user reviews Write review
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