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Install Ad-Aware and scan Windows

 

Ad-Aware is the most popular software that is able to remove malware. It has hundreds of millions of downloads and it has millions of users and fans worldwide. At the time that this article was written, Lavasoft, the developers of Ad-Aware has announced the released of Ad-Aware 8.0.0.0 also known as Ad-Aware Anniversary Edition. Coming with a new design and a faster search engine the new version aims to be faster, with better detection rates. We are going to show you how to install Ad-Aware on a Windows XP or Vista and also how to scan with Ad-Aware.

 

We have used Windows XP SP3 on this installation but Vista users should be able to install it and scan their system by using the same steps. Let's get started, first of all you will need the latest version of Ad-Aware and you can download Ad-Aware from here ( at the time that this article was written, the latest version was 8.0.0.0 ). After having your copy of Ad-Aware it's now time to open the file like in this picture :

 

Open File - Security Warning message in Windows XP when opening Ad-Aware

 

As you already know, click on "Run" button to continue the installation process of Ad-Aware, and a new small window will appear, like in the following picture :

 

Select Setup Language for Ad-Aware, the default language is English but there are more languages supported

 

The default installation language is "English" but you can choose from many others, if "English" language is the language that you want, click on "OK" button and a new window will appear :

 

Welcome window for Ad-Aware Installation

 

This is a "Welcome" Installation window, click on "Next" button to continue with the installation process and you will see a new window like in the following picture :

 

Ad-Aware Licence Agreement - Select "I accept the terms of agreement" in order to continue the installation.

 

Read carefully the terms of agreement and if you agree with them, make sure to check the "I accept the terms of the license agreement" small box and then click on the "Next" button to continue with the installation :

 

Confirm the Installation of Ad-Aware

 

If you are ready to continue with the installation, click on the "Install" button and the installation will start :

 

Installing Ad-Aware wizard

 

If the installation process was successful you should see a new window that will tell you that the installation process has finished and it will require you to restart your computer. It will also ask your e-mail address which is optional. I am suggesting you to click on the "Finish" button ( make sure to save any work before doing so ) and your computer will restart.

 

Ad-Aware has finished the installation and requires an restart of your computer

 

If you clicked on the "Finish" button you may notice a small window that looks with the following picture, don't worry Ad-Aware program is updating before restarting your computer :

 

Update Manager is updating Ad-Aware before restarting computer

Now, supposing that your computer has been restarted, look on your desktop and locate an icon called Ad-Aware and click on it ( additionally you can open it from your taskbar or from Start - Programs - Lavasoft - Ad-Aware - Ad-Aware ). If you have opened Ad-Aware for the first time, you should see a new window like in the following picture :

 

Ad-Aware window opened for the first time

 

As you may noticed, when opening Ad-Aware for the first time you can see that there is a semi-transparent window that says something about a license. You don't need a license if you're using Ad-Aware as a home user, all you need to do is to click on the "Close" button and this window will close and it will not appear next time when you will open Ad-Aware. Now you should see the main program window that has several options :

 

Ad-Aware Free Window opened

 

Now, we are going to scan our computer running Windows with Ad-Aware Free Edition, to do so you will need to click on the big green button ( the one that has a picture that looks like a radar ) located in the center of the window called "Scan". If you clicked on it, the window will change and you should see something like in this picture :

 

Choose a scan mode between - Smart Scan, Full Scan or a Profile Scan

 

We are going to leave it as it is - on the "Smart Scan". It will start to scan Windows for browser hijackers, tracking cookies, rootkits, executable files and the critical areas, Windows registry files, LSPs as well as the running applications. If you are ready to scan your computer click on the green button called "Scan Now" and the scanning process will start and when it will finish, it will show you something similar like in the following picture :

 

Ad-Aware has finished the scanning process - revealing detected files

 

As you can see, since my computer has a decent level of protection, Ad-Aware detected only some cookies, possible tracking cookies. I will click on "Perform Actions Now" and those cookies will be removed. Next you should see that the same window shows me that cookies were succesfully removed from my computer.

 

Ad-Aware removing detected cookies

 

In this article we have learned how to install Ad-Aware on Windows and we have learned how to scan our computer. As an additional note I would like to mention here that I used a "Smart Scan" although I am always using a "Full Scan" of my computer. I used the "Smart Scan" because a "Full Scan" would take more time if the computer has a lot of files, programs and folders. You can always perform a full scan for the best results.