Lavasoft Ad-Aware Standard Edition 6.0

This freeware is still considered as one of the top utilities to clean your PC from infected code, however, it has some visible drawbacks: - The software doesn't offer as many useful features as some other competitors. For example, it lacks the ability to schedule scans and the real-time monitoring isn't quite as effective. - The quality of the technical support reported to be not very high. - Running this program may slow down your PC. It constantly uses up to 10-15% CPU in background. - The application occasionally misses spyware and adware which can be found by other utilities (however, that can be claimed for each of the competitive applications as well).

One of the best free spyware realtime protectors.Never leaves my tray bar.Its true that its getting a bit old,but still its doing its work!

i actually perferred this to the se version but this is past its prime just like the newer se. can someone plz tell larvasoft that a 2005 product is old and se needs a new upgrade for 2007 and beyond.

Ad-Aware seems to be the standard spyware removal program, and (as other comments have noted) it is free for basic home use. Nevertheless (though perhaps it was just my computer), the program would sometimes hang and would not finish the cleanup. Moreover, when I was attempting my first scan, I had to first use a competing product (name now forgotten) to get Ad-Aware to work. Other than that, I had no complaints with this utility; however, I've now switched to Norton as part of an overall software package (i.e. Norton Internet Security).

Not bad. . .does a decent job and you can download the free software and find it easy to use. Great for getting those nasty porn trojans off the desktop!

My scrubber of choice. Even better solution to the spyware issue is to not use IE.

Using Adware and Search $ Destroy takes care of all my problems where Microsoft's does nothing.

I downloaded the free program yesterday, and have so far done 5 system scans. This program does a pretty good job of detecting any spyware on your computer, however, either the adware on my computer is immune to destruction or you have to purchase the fully upgraded program to get it to work properly. Ad-aware picked up on 650 critical programs on my computer, but like I said, not all of them can be eliminated. Some spyware can burrow itself deep into your system and go undetected. The authors of the spyware are probably well aware of all the programs to clean your computer of this menace, and have come up with dirty little tricks to evade detection. Yesterday, I was scanning and there were still pop ups all over the damn screen..... even as the thing was running. Some of the spyware was deleted but was back again the next day for a repeat performance. I honestly think that to totally rid yourself of adware, is to buy a very expensive program or get a whole other computer and be... Read more

Works well, but misses some things that others (like SpyBot) will pick up. They work well in conjunction with one another.

This is a great program - really gets rid of spyware and adware. Highly recommended.

Ad-Aware and Spybot seem to be the most stabil spyware removers in my opinion.

Great program! It find everything i need it to find and the best part is its free! What can be better then that? I ran a test with another program that was suposed to be good and then cleaned out what it found and then rescaned with Ad-adware and found out it missed alot! Would highly suggest this program!

It works great and it is free!

I hadn't heard of this until I saw it reviewed on RIA and I sure am glad I got it. I wasn't aware of how much crap gets loaded onto your computer just by surfing the net. I downloaded Ad-aware (free, from Download.com) and ran it for the first time on Saturday. The first scan identified and removed 855(!) programs that, unbeknownst to me, had been running on my computer every time I turned it on. Needless to say, the computer I thought was slow just because it was old, is now running ridiculously fast. I can't believe Ad-aware is free.

I hate scumware. There's a company called Gator / Claria that makes this crap, and apparently they did $90M in sales last year, and have now filed for an IPO... revolting. This particular scumware hijacks your browser, and launches new browsers full of contextual ads based on the Web pages that you are looking at. So if you are trying to book a flight to Hawaii on Orbitz, all of a sudden your system will freeze, and a new browser will lurch into view, and you'll see competing offers for plane tickets to Hawaii. It's really irritating. Even worse, this software is added without your knowledge, and there is no 'Remove' feature. Anyway, Ad-aware is a lifesaver. I found it via Google after a couple of months of being harassed by this Claria software. To my surprise, Ad-aware is free, easy to use, and got rid of all traces of the Claria scumware. Definitely try this one before springing for some of the $29.95 software listed here.