Ad-Aware SE - 1.06r1

Ad-Aware is an essential tool to have to fall back on. While it won't keep spyware from returning (the best thing for that is a firewall) it will find and destroy anything that is already on your computer. If you have having some problems with spyware, run this and you will be amazed at how well this free program works to weed out the junk from your harddrive!

The freeware version of Lavasoft's Ad-Aware is a detection and removal tool, and a rather terrific one at that. It does not keep ad/spyware from coming back because it isn't meant to. It also does not function well as a removal tool on machines that have been infested with thousands of pieces of malware concurrently -- those poor users are much better off extracting whatever data they can from their hard drives, reformatting and starting clean instead of complaining about the heartache of nonexistant false promises.

You need different products for real-time protection, such as Lavasoft's Pro version, Spybot S & D, Microsoft's AntiSpyware (formerly Giant before MS bought them out) or one of about three of the other good guys. You also need to avoid the hundreds (thousands?) of rip-off so-called ad/spyware removers that advertise themselves all over the web, through Google sponsered search results and through spam. They detect false positives in order to goad you into purchasing their defective products, many of which actually cause more problems than they solve. I once watched a colleague test out the pre-purchase version of one of these rip-offs that claimed to have been endorsed by Yahoo and the stupid thing incorrectly detected the Yahoo Toolbar as spyware.

You might even take the drastic step of figuring out what you were doing to get the ad/spyware in the first place and, once it's removed, change your internet behavior accordingly.

Ad-Aware's free version is not perfect, but it's pretty darn close and should be just as an important part of a techie's malware removal kit as an anti-virus program. Anyone who gives it substantially less than all 5's either does not understand what it was supposed to do, has unrealistic expectations of a free product, or is actually a shill working for one of the companies promoting the rip-offs.

Hey all. i've been using it for almost3 months now and the spyware keeps coming back. Had to purchase another program to completely get rid of it all. Not too happy about that.

Don't get sucked into Payware WebRoot Spysweeper, it doens't do any more than Free Ad-Aware or Spybot Search and Destroy can do!

I do not understand the comment trashing this app. I have used it for years(started using it on Windows 95), with nothing but excellent results. I use both the free and pay versions, and have it running on over thirty systems. I've had no need for tech support, but the one time I emailed with a question about other platform support, they were responsive. Lavasoft was a pioneer in anti-spyware, and they have remained dedicated to the concept of eliminating the problem in ways that will make software such as ad-aware obsolete. How many of the other vendors can say that?