- Quick specs
- Price: Free to try (Real time protection disabled);
- Operating system: Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 98
- Date added: February 12, 2007
- Total Downloads: 331,612,174
- Downloads last week: 375,803
- See full specifications
A newer version of Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition is available.
(Download doesn't provide access to previous versions of this program.)
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 11248 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: CNET Staff
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.
What's new in this version:
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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User reviews of Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06
- Average user rating: 3.8 stars out of 11248 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 662 user reviewsSee all 662 user reviews
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102 out of 129 people found this review helpful
Version: Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06
Pros: Works well and it's skinable with a zip app installed. Updates regularly. Effective scanner and will quaranteen items it's unable to delete for furthur investigation. Fast, reliable, and light footprint scans are the big plus to this app. Recomended.
Cons: Active protection would make this a five star app. Poor customer support is well known by users of "Lavasoft" software. All other app's by this publisher are ovrerpriced.
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42 out of 52 people found this review helpful
Version: Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06
Pros: the most essential tool in your computer security arsenal. with smart,full or custom scanning feature, ability to scan RAM, registry, hard drive, browser component/tracks plus external drive. the most notable thing about ad-aware is it's ultra-fast scanning speed, and deadly accuracy/power in detecting and the removal of spyware, it can easily detect and remove(or quarantine)hundreds or even thousands of threats in your system, while still has a decent record of scanning speed at only a couple of minutes on a normal computer. theres endless stories about how good and what a life-saver ad-aware is, you wouldn't want to miss it!
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37 out of 43 people found this review helpful
Version: Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06
"once i installed it it found 30 bad spywares"
Pros: this thing is the bomb it works great i have the pro version and it blocks spyware from getting in and it scanned my computer in 14 mins for a full scan and it found 30 bad spywares no wonder everyone is talking about this program its the greatests i give it 5 thumbs up and five stars
Cons: no ram log like spyware doctor and spy sweeper and other ones download it
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20 out of 36 people found this review helpful
Version: Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06
"It Catches Spyware And Adware"
Pros: Ad aware is a simple antispyware tool.Scans your entire computer to detects and removes spyware and adware infections.It does even better job at removing infections in safe mode.It's free and offers updates.
Cons: Unable to detect root kits and no real time protection.
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25 out of 31 people found this review helpful
Version: Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06
"An absolute MUST for PC security"
Pros: Lavasoft's malware protection holds the crown in my books. It is easy to use even for beginners, due to its automatic updating and simple automatic malware removal. I highly recommend paying for the "Professional" version - the Ad-Watch component is usually able to stop tracking cookies and the likes before they are situated on your computer. The amount of malware I detect when scanning after browsing behind the unobtrusive Ad-Watch component is about half as much as when browsing without it.
- See all 662 user reviews Write review
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