AdAwareSE Personal Edition
AdAware has come a long way since I used it years ago fighting spyware. I recently started using it again and found out that it has really matured and it is now a part of my arsenal again. AdAware , free version is for personal use only. It can be found here. When you get to the page, click on AdAware Personal on the left side of the page. Then on the next page on the right, click downloads. This will take you to the page where you can get your copy of the program.
After Installing the program, be sure to update the definitions. It will ask if you want to do this when you open the program.
When running the program it will give you several options:
- Perform Smart System Scan
- Full System Scan
- Use Custom Options
- Scan for ADS
After scanning your system, Click on the Summary Tab and make sure there is a check mark beside everything. Next, click on the Critical Objects Tab and make sure that everything has a check mark beside it. The next tab shows negligible objects - look through these carefully and put a check mark beside each that you want to remove. At the bottom of the screen, click next. It will ask for confirmation of removal, click yes/ok to remove the spyware.
Use AdAwareSE along with SpyBot S&D and you should be able to keep your system clean and fairly free of spywares. If you spend a lot of time in the Internet, I would recommend scanning your system at least once a week. And ALWAYS scan your system if it is behaving erratically or is slowing down.
Additional information added 12-20-4004 -
I have had trouble getting AdawareSE to retain definition files I downloaded. So I did a bit of exploring in the settings and found that there is a multitude of settings that I can change - I really feel dumb for not looking before now.
Anyway, if you are having the problem I had - you download the latest definitions and run your scan and close the program, then a few days later when you open the program, it tells you your definitions are still out of date, just ad if you never udated it - well here is how to change that setting:
In the main window, locate the icon at the top right of the page that looks like a gear (when you hover over it, it will say "Adaware Configuration Window" then click on it. Next, click the "Tweak" button on the left. Now in the box on the right, look for "Web Update Setting" and click on the + sign to expand the menu.. Now look for the "Create and Save WebUpdate Log File" sentence. If the is an X on the left side of the sentence, click on the sentence to change it to a check mark. Your files will now be saved.