FAQs
First of all, ensure you are using Ad-Aware version 8.1 or higher.
You can check this by clicking the "About button" at the bottom right of the Ad-Aware mainscreen.
Ensure you have an active internet connection
Configure your firewall or any other security programs to allow Ad-Aware (aawservice.exe) network access. If necessary, you can temporarily turn off your firewall, but be sure to turn it on again after you have updated the Definitions File.
1. Open Ad-Aware main menu.
2. Click the 'Web Update' button to connect to the update server and download the latest software and definitions updates.
(if you're experiencing 'connection error' when clicking web-update, click here.)
3. When the update is complete, click 'Ok'.
If you are operating behind a proxy server, you will need to have your proxy server settings correctly configured in order to perform updates.
Go to Settings -> Updates and click proxy settings.
Tick the box beside "Enable Proxy", enter your proxy server address (in the format, proxyname:portnumber ) your username and password and click 'Ok'.
You can also manually download and update the definitions file.
1. Download from http://download.lavasoft.com/public/core.zip
2. Extract the file (core.aawdef) directly to the Ad-Aware folder, either:
XP:
* C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Lavasoft\Ad-Aware\Defs
Vista:
* C:\Program Data\Lavasoft\Ad-Aware\Defs
(note: You can also go to, update->settings and click 'import' browse to where you have saved (core.aawdef), select this file then click 'open' and 'ok'.)
3. Close and restart Ad-Aware from the System Tray icon.
REGISTRATION PROCEDURE
1. Open the registration window by clicking the Register button at the bottom of the main status screen
2. Enter your Serial Number
3. Click 'Register'
Ad-Aware will connect to the Internet to validate your registration
"Thank you for registering Ad-Aware" will appear once successful, Click OK
5. Restart Ad-Aware to activate the Plus or Pro versions of Ad-Aware. To find your license information click on the Manage License button on the main status screen.
Note: Make sure that you have configured your firewall or any other security programs to allow Ad-Aware network access. If necessary, you can temporarily turn off your firewall, but be sure to turn it on again after you have completed the registration procedure.
Upgrading your software to the latest version
If Ad-Aware has been activated previously, you won't have to register your serial number again when installing a newer version of Ad-Aware.
When installing Ad-Aware, any previous version will be uninstalled and the license will be transfered to the new software version.
With Ad-Watch Live! turned on you will be notified when a change is being made to a protected area of your computer.
You can choose to allow or block the event as required.
If you received a warning while installing a valid update or printer driver for example (or other software) and mistakenly chose to block it, you will need to change Ad-Watch’s rules to allow the event.
To change or remove an Ad-Watch rule complete the following:
1. Click on the Ad-Watch icon in the Ad-Aware main screen
2. Under the Ad-Watch Module for Processes, Registry or Network, click Edit Rules
3. Find/ select the rule you want to change from the list and click on the drop down menu arrow on the right, change the action as required (i.e. Allow)
4. Click save, Ad-Watch will remember the setting.
Lavasoft ThreatWork is a feature of Ad-Aware that allows you to submit suspicious files for analysis via ThreatWork, an alliance of global anti-spyware security volunteers actively fighting online threats. After a scan, you can use ThreatWork to submit detected suspicious files directly to Lavasoft research analysts for an in-depth evaluation of a possible threat. After scanning using behavioral "Heuristics", the ThreatWork dialogue window will appear if an object selected for removal is not in Lavasoft?s Detection Database.
To submit a file via ThreatWork, in the ThreatWork dialogue window, select a suspicious file and select ?Submit.? You can also submit files via ThreatWork using drag and drop functionality. To submit a file, open ThreatWork through:
Ad-Aware (8.1, Anniversary Edition and later):
Ad-Aware's System Tray icon or from the Start menu / All programs / Ad-Aware / Toolbox / ThreatWork.
Ad-Aware 2008:
Start menu / All programs / Ad-Aware / ThreatWork.
From the ThreatWork window, you can submit files by either dragging and dropping files for submission; or by selecting items using the ?Add? button.
THE AD-AWARE ARCHITECTURE Ad-Aware consists of two main parts, the Service and the Graphical User Interface (GUI).
The GUI is the part of the program a user sees and needs in order to interact with the program itself; it contains menus, buttons and other controls that are necessary for a user to run the program. User action is passed from the GUI down to the Service, which contains the core functionality of the program.
The Service executes the action, and then reports the results back to the GUI, where it is presented to the user. What Is a Service? Services are Windows applications that are launched at system startup and then run in the background, not visible to the user.
What is the Benefit of a Service-Based Approach to Malware Removal? Malware that emerges today is increasingly complex, displaying wildly varying behavior and operating on many levels in the system. In order to stay a step ahead of these ever-changing security threats, an anti-spyware tool needs to be more powerful, multi-faceted and flexible than ever before.
The implementation of Ad-Aware as a Service facilitates this needed power and flexibility since a service runs with elevated rights on the system. This means that the user can work in user-mode while the Service maintains the elevated rights it needs in order to properly detect and remove malware infections.
How Does This Affect Resource Use? During a scan, the CPU use of the Service will vary parts of the scan are labor-intensive and require a lot of processing power, which can make the computer's performance sluggish. Other parts require less computing power and have little impact on the overall performance of the system. When the service is idle, virtually no CPU power is required, making the impact on system performance negligible.
As for memory use, the service does require a bit of memory, most of which is needed for storing the threats in the Detection Database. It is important to note, however, that when the Service is not in use, the lion's share of this memory is paged to the Swap file. In non-technical terms, this means that the hard drive is used to store data that is not currently in use, and then retrieves the data when needed, which makes the actual working memory (RAM) available for other applications.
If you are online behind a proxy server, you will need to have your proxy server settings correctly configured to update Ad-Aware.
Go to Settings -> Updates and click proxy settings.
Tick the box beside "Enable Proxy"
Enter your proxy server address (in the format, proxyaddress:portnumber ), your username and password and click 'Ok'
When the Ad-Aware Tray icon has an exclamation mark over it, this means that an Ad-Watch update has being downloaded but the computer has not being restarted for Ad-Watch to be fully updated.
Restart your computer to complete the update
Ad-Aware 8.1 supports Vista (32 & 64-bit)
Ad-Aware Game Edition supports Vista (32 & 64-bit)
Ad-Aware Anniversary Edition supports Vista (32 & 64-bit)
Ad-Aware 2008 supports Vista (32-bit and 64-bit)
Ad-Aware 2007 supports Vista (32-bit) from version 7.0.2.1 onwards
The scan log file is a detailed information log about the scan.There are two ways to create a scan log file.
From the Main Status screen click 'Statistics' and select the scan which you require the log file for from the scan statistics drop down menu.
Click on the "Export Scan Log" and save the scan log file as a text file to your computer.
Or-
After a scan is completed on the 'Scan Summary Screen',
Click on the "Export Scan Log" and save the scan log file as a text file to your computer.
Changing the skin in Ad-Aware will not affect the functionlity of the software.
Switching to a different skin will just change the graphical features like buttons and colours and the general appearance.
The skin setting can be accessed in "Advanced mode", via the "Settings" button and clicking on the "Customize" tab. Select your skin from the drop down menu list.
Ad-Aware 8.1 and Game Edition have two modes, Simple and Advanced Mode.
Ad-Aware 8.1-
On first installation, Simple Mode starts by default. Please read the welcome screen and click ‘ok’ to continue using the Latest version of Ad-Aware.
To access the settings first change from Simple to Advanced mode, by clicking the icon at the bottom left of the screen.
In Advanced mode click the 'settings' button to customize all the settings.
In Game Edition, Advanced Mode is turned on as default
Ad-Aware Game Edition is a seperate program and is not available via Ad-Aware 8.1
Most features are similar in Game edition and 8.1
The User Interface is tweaked in Game Edition.
Ad-Aware Game Edition starts in Advanced mode, whereas Ad-Aware 8.1 starts in Simple mode as default.
Game Edition includes "Game Mode" (the same as "Do Not Disturb Mode" found in Ad-Aware Pro) to free up system resources for other tasks such as games.
There are two unique skins in the Game edition:
"Game" skin-
& "Fantasy" skin-
Ad-Aware 8.1 has a different set of skins.
The "Toolbox" features found in versions of Ad-Aware 8.1 are not included in Game edition.
