Ad-Aware is a well know antispyware produced by Lavasoft Software. This program has been used by a lot of people because the free version of Ad-Aware (called Personal Edition too) can be downloaded directly from producer site without pay anything.
Anyway, Lavasoft decides to launch a professional version of Ad-Aware Personal and to cover other problems in security against spyware threats. Ad-Aware can be found in two professional editions: Plus and Pro 2009 Aniversary Edition. These improvements of free version offer more security and more stability.
We tested for this review and to find the best antispyware software, the Pro version of Ad-Aware. This antispyware it has a lot of good features which allows you to personal use when you navigate on web.
After downloading process we installed Ad-Aware 2009 on our computers to perform antispyware tests. Installation process is fast and light weight resources consuming. With just few clicks Ad-Aware Professional is installed and you are theoretical protected from spyware infiltrations.
The menu of Lavasoft Ad-Aware is a little bit weird comparing with other antispyware programs but is easy to use and if you are an average computer user, this software doesn’t put problems in using it. After the installation a restart is required to finish the process. You can access the updater, scanning performing and ad-watch live protection (in real time) directly, without other shortcuts. Another useful thing is possibility to perform scheduled scans when you perform other tasks or when you are not present to computer keyboard.
This version of Lavasoft Ad-Aware Professional 2009 it has a lot of features and differs a little bit from the free version of Ad-Aware Personal. Some of these features are:
- Good detection and removal capabilities – is capable to detect spyware, malware, Trojans and some Keyloggers;
- Heuristic Detection included in the pack – the spyware can be detected without presence of signature in the database. The new launched spyware will be detected;
- Improved updates which make the security safer;
- Great spyware database included from the first updates – Ad-Aware pro includes about 2 millions of threats signature in the database.
- You can customize type of scanning if you are not pleasant by the default scanning settings.
- Some improvements added to minimize the impact to system resources.
- Possibility to scan specified folders and locations with just one click;
We tested Ad-Aware Professional version and we found it stable and fast. Anyway, a lot of small bugs make from this antispyware a not very good solution against threats.
Detection effectiveness is medium and this antispyware cannot detect all samples of spyware included in our database. The scanning speed is medium but we are not very pleasant because not all the spyware infiltrations are detected and this can be a major risk for a computer user.
Removal effectiveness is good but just the spyware is detected. If the scanning doesn’t detect the problem, the spyware will cannot be removed and the risk will still be present. Removal effectiveness included deletion of all traces which still remain after a normal disinfection and this is a good thing.
Ad-Aware Professional 2009 is a good solution against malware and spyware infiltrations but is still a lot of work from Lavasoft to make this antispyware solution more safe and secure. We recommend this version to all medium users with not very big traffic over the Internet.
Ad-Aware can be downloaded from our site or from producer website for free.
