Ad-Aware 9.6.0

Developed by Lavasoft more than a decade ago, Ad-Aware continues to be one of the most popular choices when it comes to protecting your computer, in real-time, against all the nasties you can expect to encounter online (malware, viruses, Trojans, and so on). The user that is willing and capable of shelling out a few bucks on computer security, can get one of the paid versions of Ad-Aware, mainly Ad-Aware Plus, or Ad-Aware Pro. The later, the Pro version, comes with all 4 protection levels the security solution has to offer: Ad-Watch Live, Anti-Virus Protection, Advanced Toolbox, and Real-Time Network Protection. The user that cannot afford to spend his hard earned money on security software can use the free version, Ad-Aware Free. But be warned that this version comes with the least amount of functionality.

It all boils down to an inescapable truth: online threats like spyware, malware, viruses and so on, are not going anywhere. In fact, their online presence is continually growing (this coming from someone that watches the threatscape closely). It is thus imperative that you use a properly good security software solution to keep your computer safe.

The fact that Ad-Aware is the right tool for the job is proven by two things: 1. the fact that it has been on the market for more than 10 years now; 2. during the time it has been on the market it has been downloaded millions of times and has earned a good reputation and a huge user base. After a decade on the market, Ad-Aware now comes with a fresh UI (user interface), with large Web 2.0 style buttons that make it easier for the user to understand how Ad-Aware works and what it does.

Speaking of what it does, Ad-Aware will protect your computer from malware (real-time protection), will scan external hard drives, comes fully integrated with Windows Explorer and Windows Security Center, and has the ability to automatically update itself. This way you can rest assured that you will always be using the latest and safest Ad-Aware version. It should also be mentioned that all this protection by no means comes at the expense of your computer’s resources. Ad-Aware is hard on malware and online threats, but is soft on computer resources. Thanks to its resource management technology, Ad-Aware is light on the system and light on memory usage.

If you want your online browsing to be safe, Ad-Aware complies. If you want it to be private, Ad-Aware complies as well. Thanks to a feature called TrackSweep, which is compatible with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera, when your browsing session is finished, all traces of it will be deleted. This includes cookies, history, typed URLs and cache memory.

Ad-Aware is available in the following languages: Spanish, German, French, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil).

Pros
Offers properly good protection against online threats
Easy to use
Nice UI (user interface)
Does not hog computer resources
Scans external drives
Erases all traces of your browsing session
There’s a free Ad-Aware version

Cons
TrackSweep does not work with Google Chrome
Only the top of the line, paid version comes with all the features

Ad-Aware has been reviewed by George Norman on 05 Oct 2009. Based on the user interface, features and complexity, Findmysoft has rated Ad-Aware 5 out of 5 stars, naming it Essential