Lavasoft Ad-Aware

These instructions have been moved to the ITS Knowledge Base [http://helpdesk.pomona.edu].
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Ad-Aware is an anti- spyware program, similar to Spybot: S&D and Windows Defender. Unlike anti-virus software, it's okay (perhaps even desirable) to have more than one anti-spyware program installed.

HAVING TROUBLE UPDATING?: In order to register, you must upgrade to AdAware 2007 (released Summer 2007) as Lavasoft no longer publishes definition updates for older versions.

Installing Ad-Aware?

You can get the latest version of Ad-Aware at the Pomona College Anti-Spyware Page. Alternatively, you can visit the Lavasoft web page at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/. (Note: The latter won't work if your computer is not registered yet.)

Once you have started the installer, read through the welcome screen and click Next to begin the installation.

Read the license agreement and check the box next to I accept the license agreement. Click Next to continue.

You can choose who has permission to use the program. We recommend that you allow all users permission.

You can change the location Ad-Aware will install files to if you wish by clicking the Browse button and selecting a new location, or you can accept the default by clicking Next.

Click Next to start the installation. Once the program has been installed it should automatically try to update itself; if it doesn't, click on the update button to begin updates. Once the updates have finished you are good to start running a scan.

How do I use Ad-Aware?

Update

UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE! The first thing you should do is update the program so that it can find the latest threats. From the main screen, click the  Update Button in the center of the window. 

The updater should pop up with a message asking you to download newer updates or telling you that there aren't any. Install any available updates, and then click Finish to exit the updater.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If your copy of Ad-Aware is very old, it might prompt you to download the latest version. If you're trying to register your computer, you won't be able to reach the Ad-Aware site. Head over to http://spyware.pomona.edu instead.

Run a scan

Once your software has been updated to the latest version and definitions, you should run a full scan. From the main screen, click the Scan button on the right. On the next screen, you should see several options for scanning.   

The most popular options are the smart system scan, which scans the areas of your computer most likely to be infected with spyware, and the full scan, which scans your entire hard drive. A full scan will take longer, but is more likely to catch any infections and all their files. Select an option and click Next to continue. Scans may take a few minutes to complete, especially if you have spyware on your computer. When the scan has completed, you will see the results of the scan. Click Next to continue. 

You can now choose what to do with each item found. 

If you would like to remove all the items the scan found, you can right click in the window and choose Select All Objects. Click  Remove to remove these items. A pop up window will ask you to confirm your selections. Occasionally, Ad-Aware is not able to remove certain spyware components immediately. If this is the case, the program will ask if it should run at your next system startup to try to remove these items.

In this case, Ad-Aware will run a scan before Windows finishes loading the next time you restart your computer. This allows it to catch many files before they are in use and cannot be removed. If Ad-Aware is still unable to remove some items, try running the program in safe mode.

What are MRUs?

MRU stands for Most Recently Used. Many programs (for instance Microsoft Word) keep a list of files that you have accessed recently. Ad-Aware will offer to clean these lists out.