ANTI-MALWARE TOOL
Minimum requirements Windows
XP/7/8
File size: 1.6MB (installer only)
Ad-Aware has been protecting computers from spyware and other
threats since 1999. The company added basic anti-virus protection to its
free version three years ago, and turned on real-time protection in its 2012
release. For this year’s update, the company has switched to the Bitdefender
anti-virus engine, and made various other tweaks and improvements.
When you install the program. Ad-Aware will look for any
existing anti-virus tools on your system. If it detects what it describes as
‘incompatible software”, it will switch to Compatible mode, so you can
run Ad-Aware as a second line of defence. You’ll then be offered the
chance to activate web protection by installing a toolbar. You can choose
which features to include, or bypass the toolbar installation completely by
clicking the Skip button. This is greyed out to suggest it’s not available, but
don’t be fooled - it is. The installation takes a while because the
program has to download around
175MB of definition files before it can perform the first
scan (you can skip this last stage). Once its up and running, you’ll
notice the new release has a lighter. more attractive interface. The Home
screen provides a protection summary and lets you toggle features such as
realtime protection, email protection, web protection, network protection and
gaming
(silent) mode on or oft. A sidebar on the left provides access to
various modules and lets you enable or disable available features. Select
Scan Computer and you can choose to run Quick, Full or Custom scans and set a
schedule.
Overall. Ad-Aware 11 is a big improvement, and the inclusion of
Bitdefender’s anti-virus engine means it should protect your PC from most
threats.
