Spyware Hero

With its award-winning technology, Ad-Aware Plus Edition puts you in complete control. It offers you the highest level of protection from both known and unknown threats such as data-mining, aggressive advertising, parasites, scumware, selected traditional Trolans, dialers, malware, browser hijackers and tracking components. Ad-Aware Plus Edition offers you all the power of the Personal Edition, but has been enhanced with additional powerful features to protect your privacy. Ad-Watch’s real-time monitor goes beyond what other security suites offer by adding another layer of protection to your system. Ad-Aware Plus with Ad-Watch allows you not only to detect privacy threats to your computer; you can also block them from integrating into your system in the first place!

User Reviews about Lavasoft Ad-Aware Plus Edition

I have used Ad-Aware for years, and bought a 5-pack license of the Plus edition last December. The product has worked flawlessly for me on 5 different computers, and I received a free upgrade to their Anniversary Edition a few months ago. Ad-Aware Plus and a periodic cleaning of the registry with CCleaner and disk defragmentation keeps the computers running like new.

My only difficulty happened yesterday. I started receiving renewal pop-ups on my computers, so I followed the link to find out more. They offered a "1-year renewal" for about $20. This seemed like a good deal, since a new 5-license pack is $45. I made the purchase, and was surprised to find that 1) the renewal was good for only one of the 5 licenses, and 2) the "1-year" renewal started from the date of purchase (Oct 7) instead of after my current license expires (Dec 31). So renewing all 5 licenses when suggested would cost $101 and last only 9 months past my current licenses. Buying a new 5-pack license costs only $45 and lasts an entire year.

None of these details were mentioned on the web site when I made the renewal purchase. I contacted support, and they offered to refund my money so I gladly accepted. While I appreciate the remedy, the whole "1-year renewal" process is flawed to the extent that I question their ethics. This is sad, because Ad-Aware Plus has been a great product for me. -- Great product, but license renewal problems

The Ad0Watch function provides real-time protection and is really good. The program, on the whole, provides full-proof protection against spyware and is a good-value-for money. Also recommend installing free Spybot software along with it for extra protection. -- Worth the upgrade

I'm a PC mechanic. I have been using Ad-Aware with Ad-Watch (now called Ad-Aware Plus) for the last 5 years. It's pretty good at what it does, but there is newer technology that is going to replace it soon.
I've never had any problems with these program - it does NOT add any malware - it REMOVES it.
However, using Ad-Aware and Ad-Watch to their fullest does take some computer savvy - as it seems does any anti-malware on the market these days.
ALL of the other runtime problems the other reviewers here have reported are "fixable" by using the controls and tweaks in the software, so that you are not overprotecting your system - one example, the pop-up blocker in Ad-Watch is adjustable as to its intensity. However, this requires changing TWO settings - one in Ad-Watch itself and one in Ad-Aware.

And, yes, at times, I have had to turn Ad-Watch off to download a file or see a popup I wanted. Soooo? Software these days is not as "automatic" as the companies would have you believe.

If you're not willing to take the time to learn (which also means going to the company's online user forums and asking questions), just stick with what Windows offers, don't use Outlook or Outlook Express (major source of malware on PCs) and only look at websites you know are safe. (Kinda like the safest form of sex is abstinence - the safest form of surfing is NONE!!!) -- Good program, but not for the inexperienced