Ad-Aware

Ad-Aware is an anti-spyware and anti-virus program developed by Lavasoft that detects and removes malware, spyware and adware on a user's computer. According to Lavasoft, Ad-Aware detects spyware, computer viruses, dialers, Trojans, bots, rootkits, data miners, aggressive advertising, parasites, browser hijackers, and tracking components.^[3]

History

Ad-Aware was originally developed in 1999 to highlight web beacons inside of Internet Explorer. On many websites, users would see a tiny pixelated square next to each web beacon, warning the user that the computer's IP address and other non-essential information was being tracked by this website. Over time, Ad-Aware added the ability to block those beacons, or ads. Ad-Aware no longer makes the user aware of the ads on the screen; instead the program fights spyware, adware, viruses and other malware.^[4]

In the 2008 Edition, Lavasoft bundled Ad-Aware Pro and Plus for the first time with an antivirus scanner,^[5] which used the Avira engine^[6] and this arrangement continued for a few years.^[7] Starting with Ad-Aware version 10, the Bitdefender antivirus engine was used instead.^[8][9][10]

A new wrinkle is adware (using stolen certificates) that disables anti-malware and virus protection such as Ad-Aware; technical remedies are available.^[11]

Overview

As of 2014, Lavasoft makes Ad-Aware version 11 available in four core versions:^[12]

1. Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+
2. Ad-Aware Personal Security
3. Ad-Aware Pro Security
4. Ad-Aware Total Security^[13]

The latest Ad-Aware products have been completely revamped to the point where it has almost nothing in common with its predecessors except the core functionalities.

Lavasoft also offers volume licenses of Ad-Aware for businesses,^[14] which is designed for use over networks. It has a central server console interface with licences for installing Ad-Aware Pro Security on the networked machines.^[15]

Each version includes anti-spyware, antivirus, and anti-rootkit protection, as well as integrated protection against real-time threats. According to Lavasoft, Ad-Aware allows computer users to combat malicious spyware, viruses, and malware; it protects users from malware that takes control of a computer and can result in aggressive advertising pop-ups, sluggish computer activity and the theft of private information. The vendor says that Ad-Aware detects hazardous content on a user's computer, identifies the threat level, and then gives the user the ability to block or remove unwanted content. Ad-Aware Total Security offers extra features that the three core versions do not, primarily: firewall, system tuning, online backup, data recovery, anti-spam and parental controls.^[16]

According to PC World Magazine, an older version of Ad-Aware, the Anniversary Edition, could locate only 83.6% of malware in a comparative test carried out by the security firm AV-TEST.^[17] However, as the article states, no such tests have been run on the newest version. Neil J. Rubenking at PCMag performed a lab test on version 8.3, where Ad-Aware scored 9.2 points, beating the previous top score of 9.1.^[18]

Ad-Aware installs Google Chrome, which will be done automatically unless the user de-selects the tick-box in the Ad-Aware installation program.

Market share

Ad-Aware Free is listed as having been downloaded over 387 million times on download.com (and a total of 450 million times on the Lavasoft site, including downloads that do not originate at download.com) as of December 2014;^[19] however, since its primary competition is not downloadable from the same location, a comparison of relative market-share is not possible with these figures.

The paid versions of the product are under threat from more functional and lower cost, even free, competition such as Microsoft Security Essentials.^[17]

References

External links

• Official website