CNET Editors' review
Read a CNET review of the full version of Lavasoft Ad-Aware.
One of the first applications built to find and remove adware and spyware, Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition's excellent reputation is well justified. The sky-blue, skinnable interface features five buttons. The first two, Status and Scan, lead to the core function of the application. These buttons initiate a scan of your files for adware components. After scanning is complete, the program presents a summary of results, followed by a list from which you select exactly which components to remove. Right-clicking an individual entry gives some information about the piece of suspected adware, though we would like more details.
Ad-Aware SE can alert you to more malignant forms of malware by separating items into critical and negligible categories. The third button, Ad-Watch, is nonfunctional in the Standard version. The fourth button, Plug-ins, shows you which Ad-Aware plug-ins are installed. The fifth leads to the help files.Ad-Aware SE does an excellent job of quickly finding and removing most adware and spyware components, although you will have to restart and rescan for a seriously infected machine. We were pleased to see an auto-update feature included with the program, keeping Ad-Aware up-to-date with the latest adware components. Ad-Aware SE should be part of your arsenal for keeping your machine free of adware and spyware components.
Watch the CNET video review of Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition:
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 SE easily can clean your system, allowing you to maintain a higher degree of privacy while you surf the Web.
Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition boasts a number of improvements. Extended memory scanning now scans all modules loaded by a process. Scanning uses the all- new CSI (Code Sequence Identification) technology to identify new and unknown variants of known targets. Extended Registry scanning now scans Registry branches of multiple-user accounts and performs additional smart checks to detect dynamically created references. Scanning speed is noticeably faster, and this version offers an Extended Scanning mode for known and unknown/possible browser hijackers.
New in version 1.06: Disk-scan is approximately 30 percent faster. CSI scan is now more efficient. Added "Scan for low-risk threats" option, to scan for targets with low TAC index. Ad-Watch CSI engine performance highly improved; using less CPU and Memory as well as having a smaller footprint. GUI adapted to use the new TAC.
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All versions:
3.8 starsout of 12,744 votes
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Current version:
4.4 starsout of 1,923 votes
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My rating:
Write review
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"Crashes my system and disables my firewall"
Version: Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06
Pros
Works fine, blocks viruses, scans fast, looks good.
Cons
Crashes my system about 50% of the time on startup with "windows system cannot start" error which also disables my firewall and all Windows security features. If I go on the net after that message my computer is wide open to anyone. Only started after I installed Adaware. I removed the product, no more errors or firewall problems. I just can't tolerate that kind of stuff.
Summary
Won't install again, definitely would not spend money on it.
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"the anniversary editions not anywhere near as good"
Version: Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06
Pros
looks ok but thats all.
Cons
when it comes to using adaware free ive been using it for years & know it well, the newer anniversary one does not let you have control & wont show you much at all, take my advise & stick with the before one.
Summary
keep with the older version.
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"Great Protection!"
Version: Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06
Pros
This program will discover things that even Norton Doesn't fnd.
Cons
I haven't found any cons accept that maybe the pro price can be reduced a little
Summary
This is a very great spyware protection program...easy to use.
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"Cannot get the download to work"
Version: Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06
Pros
Cannot get the download to work
Cons
Cannot get the download to work
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"its free downloads what can be bad about it ?"
Version: Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06
Pros
its free!
Cons
not every song is free
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"I ONLY PREFFER AVG ANTI VIRUS"
Version: Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06
Pros
I CANNOT EXPRESS ABOUT THE PRODUCT, BUT IT IS EXCELENT
Cons
NO DRAWBACK
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"its slows and you cant close if you do its says needs admintrator tools to close"
Version: Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06
Pros
The Product could be used in a different setting but not on Games on lines just not good
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"It's very powerfull"
Version: Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06
Pros
It's very simple
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"Succeeds where others fail!"
Version: Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06
Pros
I run several different spyware programs, alternating different ones in order and Ad-Aware always finds more than the others, so I feel much safer with it!
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"This program has helped me to remove a lot of junk from my computer"
Version: Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06
Pros
can't tell
Cons
can't tell
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