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Ad-aware doesn't require any expertise to run.
  technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Scumware, Part 3: How to hunt it down and get rid of it


Oct. 17, 2001


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, The Post Standard

   Software that sneaks onto your computer should be illegal. Until somebody in Congress wakes up, we'll have to settle for the next best thing - a program that hunts down unwelcome software guests and shows them the door.
   Many programs try to do this well, but only one succeeds. It's Ad-aware, a free Windows utility program from Lavasoft. Ad-aware hunts down adware or spyware programs that install themselves without your knowledge or permission. If you've read my two previous articles about such sneaky programs, you know that I've got a perfect name for them: Scumware.
   Scumware programs are almost unspeakably nasty. They usually slip into your Windows computer in some other guise - as "download helpers" and that sort of thing - and then do any number of unsavory things. They might show fake hyperlinks on Web pages. They might cover legitimate ads on Web pages with advertising of their own. They sometimes spy on you, reporting back to a centralized site on your activities.
   Ad-aware is easy to download and easy to install. Go to http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ and click the Ad-aware logo to get to the download section. Ad-aware now comes in two versions, one that remains free and one that costs $15. (The page to go to for the Plus version is www.lavasoftusa.com/aaw.html#a6.)
   The Plus version has "lifetime updates," Lavasoft says. Since Lavasoft doesn't charge anything for updates to the free version anyway, I'm guessing that the company doesn't quite believe users will pay for something they can get free.
   While you are on the Lavasoft page, download the company's free update program to keep Ad-aware up to date. It's at www.lavasoftusa.org/software.html#rfu.
   Ad-aware doesn't require any expertise to run. Everything it does is explained well, and all actions you might choose to take are also explained. You can have Ad-aware delete all the spyware, adware and scumware it finds, you can have it simply report to you without doing anything else, or you can take any combination of actions in between.
   I usually run Ad-aware once a week. I have a lot of installed programs and thousands of uninstalled files on my drives, so Ad-aware probably takes longer than usual to check my setup. But even then, the check takes only a few minutes. I run it under Windows 2000 on my main PC and under Windows 98 on the other PCs in our home. Readers have told me it also runs fine under Windows XP.