Ad-Aware Free Anti-Malware Utility from Lavasoft

Ad-Aware Free has long been one of the most popular spyware killers on the Web. It's simple to use, does an excellent job of detecting and killing spyware, and stays out of your way as much as possible. The fact that it's free for personal home use makes it affordable and attractive even more.

The newest version of Ad-Aware Free improves on an already solid product, notably by expanding its protection. At first glance, the program looks substantially the same as previous versions. Tell it to scan your system, and it finds spyware and other malware, and then deletes it or quarantines it for you. But even though it looks and works largely the same, under the hood there are a substantial number of changes, primarily aimed at beefing up system protection. Ad-Aware Free now protects against rootkits, which are stealth attacks designed to escape detection and burrow their way into the operating system. Ad-Aware also includes several types of heuristic detection, which protects you by examining complex system behavior, rather than just looking for known malware signatures. If the program's heuristics work as well as do the heuristics in other anti-malware software, it should provide better protection against emerging and unknown threats, as well as threats that are already known.

In addition, Ad-Aware Free promises to protect you against malware that tries to restore itself after a system reboot. And it now integrates with Internet Explorer to scan files as you download, alerting you to any malicious files you may send to your system.

Also new to this version of Ad-Aware is a "Simple mode" that lets you set your configuration once, and never have to do it again. If you prefer, you can toggle to Advanced Mode, where you can select advanced features for customization.

Note that Ad-Aware Free doesn't protect against viruses or provide full real-time protection. To get those features, you'll need an antivirus product. Lavasoft's for-pay products, the $27 Ad-Aware Plus and the $40 Ad-Aware Pro, include antivirus protection--though it's not yet clear whether those products are superior to their antivirus competition.

Main Features:

- Core Malware Protection
A power-packed combination of our pioneer anti-spyware technology together with rootkit protection and advanced Genotype detection to provide proactive malware protection, including protection against spyware, blended malware, trojans, rootkits, hijackers, keyloggers, and much more.

- Ad-Watch Live! Basic
Integrated real-time process protection blocks malicious processes and infected programs that try to start or run on your system, to prevent them from further integration in your system.

- Genotype Detection Technology
Based on heuristics, genotype allows Ad-Aware to stay one step ahead of today's ever-evolving threats, as well as threats that have not yet been created.

- Behavior-Based Heuristics Detection
Extra Sensory Protection allows you to go a step beyond detecting known threats — the heuristics detection finds and blocks unknown and emerging threats and stops deceptive malware and cyber thieves before they attack your personal information.

- Rootkit Removal System
Cutting edge anti-rootkit technology protects you from hidden threats and stealth attacks that are designed to gain access to your system by avoiding detection.

- The Neutralizer
Advanced removal tool combats malware that attempts to restore itself even after rebooting your system

- Download Guard for Internet Explorer
Most people are aware of the dangers and the risk when downloading files from the web. IE Download Guard provides an additional layer of protection that lets you download files on Internet Explorer confidently. If the file is malicious, you will simply be notified during the download process so that you can take action before any malware can infiltrate your system.

- Detect, Remove and Repair
Ad-Aware intelligently cleans your system by removing all traces of the infection.

- Minimal Strain on System Resources
Improvements to computer resource usage mean you have protection that doesn't slow your computer down.

- Easy to install & Use
We know not all users have the same needs, so we give you the power to decide how you want to interact with Ad-Aware.

- Simple Mode allows you to set and forget - by using our expert recommended settings, no interaction is needed from your part, making using the program as easy as possible.

- Advanced Mode lets you customize all the settings as you choose, to tailor everything to your specific needs.

- Lavasoft SmartSet
Let the experts at Lavasoft guide you. Lavasoft SmartSet makes scanning and cleaning as easy as possible — by providing settings for scans and recommended actions for found infections. All you have to do is set and forget.

- External Drive Scanning
Scan your external storage device, iPod, USB's, or any other drives that you connect to your PC for an additional layer of security.

- Pin-Point Scanning
Quickly identify whether a suspicious file is safe or malicious - Right click any file or folder to perform an immediate scan, or send it to ThreatWork Alliance for analysis.

- Automatic Updates
Continuous pulse updates to guard your privacy against cyber attacks.

Tech Specs

Processor: P600 MHz or better
RAM: Operating system + 100 MB
Hard Disk: 100 MB free space recommended
Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7 (32 and 64-bit), Windows Vista (32 and 64-bit), Windows XP (32-bit), and Windows 2000 Pro.

Supported Languages: English, French, German, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, And Swedish.

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).

More information and downloading link from the developers Website: http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php