Ad-aware

[wongojack]

Is this good? Who should use this?

[Foreverboard]

Originally posted by wongojack
Is this good? Who should use this?

anyone and everyone.

[phalkon30]

i would highly recommend using this program, especially if you use file sharing with unclean clients

if you dont know what the program does, it removes things called spyware or adware (the ones you hear about all the time are gator and cydoor, but there are MANY others), this program removes these intrusive programs, you usually get popups from adware, and spyware can look at your systems hard drive or surfing habits and send this info back to the maker

get adaware at www.lavasoft.de

another similar program i use is called spybot-search-and-destroy, it can be found at http://beam.to/spybotsd , this program gets rid of most almsot everything ad aware can, plus it can erase usage tracks, harmful cookies...and do way too many other things to list here, i suggest checking this program out

[The Hunter]

:wings Ad aware is good, they clean up the basic stuff, but they have not had any updates for awhile. Spybot is better, but if you dont know what you are doing you can screw up your comp. In otherwords if you use spybot and dont know what to delete just ask. Good luck. PS spybot is a damm good program.

[Caitlyn Marble]

spywares are evil, they invade your privacy selling your surfing habits to companies for money, plus they suck up a lot of recorces. If you have a powerful system you may not notice, but for those with barely any memory, it can really bog down your system. Some spwares display ads as well as spying on you, others are just ads and no spying.

[wongojack]

Thanks for the info. I downloaded spybot and ad-aware. I guess I'll check em out. I realize that I sound kind of stupid on these posts but I just want to be sure that I don't skip over something important. S'good to get all the info.

[The Hunter]

:mellow There are no stupid questions, just stupid answers. Just take care, and share.

[Sockfulloflove]

its a good program. i recommend it everyone. truly gets rid of the spyware. but again, you have to make sure you're deleting spyware, and nothing else that could mess up your computer.

[phalkon30]

Sockfulloflove.....you just reminded me of something i forgot to mention

when you delete spyware, you may disable the program it was bundled with

take divx pro for example, i didnt like the gator ewallet, so i got rid of it, when i did that i breached the liscense agreement and it disabled me from using the encoding part of dvix

kazaa (in the 1.7.xx days anyway), if you did ad aware with kazaa, it would get rid of a lot of crap, great, BUT, it would not allow you to run kazaa, it will tell you you have uninstalled a part of kazaa needed to run it

so just be careful what you delete, search and destroy has a very nice backup feature that cant be matched by adaware, so if you delete a dll you shouldnt have, you can easily place it back exactly where it came from with very few mouse clicks

[The Hunter]

:wings Right on thats why I said that. there is no shame in dropping back in and asking questions. If you dont know what to delete someone will help you.

[iq214]

Originally posted by The Hunter
:mellow There are no stupid questions, just stupid answers. Just take care, and share.

aint that the damn truth! Hunter I always enjoy the cool outlook in your posts.

ADAWARE used to be an okay tool, but with the developments in spyware, and maybe increased personal needs for a cleaner comp hehe, Adaware nolonger does the job. SPYBOT is on the other hand EXCELLENT even tho its a tad nerdier, as it lists all kindsa components if all scans are enabled. Still, it is a must have IMSO. If you are worried about usage tracks aswell, or need the few hundred megs you can squeeze out of deleting them and various temp files, I strongly recommend a proggy called EVIDENCE ELIMINATOR..damn fine proggy, available at a p2p client near you (be carefull, unless you watch what yer deleting this will even clean out the kazaa db info lol)