Haven't seen a need to install Ad-aware for awhile, but I might try this.

i use 4 anti-spyware and 1 anti-virus and all i can say is Ad-aware isn't the best (slow and not very efficient), but hey, it's free! :D

Thought I'd add this from the lavasoft website:
"Note: Ad-Aware 2007 is not Vista ready. All valid licenses will be upgraded to the Vista compatible version for free upon release."

Doesn't affect me on xp x64, but it may affect some of you.

That explains why it hang my vista :)

spybot to me is one of the best, but Ad-Aware isnt too bad. Ive seen a couple better ones out there. Webroots Web Washer or whatever, that is an awesome one.

Ill give this a go when I get home from work.

Spyware Doctor is very slow, but amazingly efficient

a111087Spyware Doctor is very slow, but amazingly efficient

That makes no sense. Typically, if something is efficient, it isn't considered slow.

GJSNeptuneThat makes no sense. Typically, if something is efficient, it isn't considered slow.

It makes perfect sense:
-hard drive speed plays a pivotal role in how fast a scanner like that works
-what actually is being scanned

Some of you are simply not thinking this through properly. If a ad-ware or anti virus scans very fast it's probably doing so at the cost of searching in specific areas only. Now when the program is set to scan most (if not all) of your HD it's going to take a while. You also have to consider the speed in which the HD operates. Some of you complaining that a particular scanner is "slow" for you is only telling on yourself how slow your HD is in some cases.

I think you're mistaking efficient for effective.

a111087i use 4 anti-spyware and 1 anti-virus and all i can say is Ad-aware isn't the best (slow and not very efficient), but hey, it's free! :D

Maybe the new one is faster? I haven't had a chance to try it yet, just about to install.

Cool, I've still got Ad-Aware6 that I've been giving to people that want it, for a while there PE just cause memory problems. I just started playing with the free avast, so I guess I'll look into this one too.

Jimmy 2004Maybe the new one is faster? I haven't had a chance to try it yet, just about to install.

Slower and a lot slower =) But might be better too. Can't tell, only finds tracking cookies, like the previous one usually (and that's not a bad thing :P).

My Quick Analysis of Ad-aware 2007

Full Scan ran for 28 minutes on my computer, with all settings for enhanced scanning/detection enabled. For the first time it seems to be able to delve into archives although this takes a long time. My HD has 150GB of data on it.

Found 143 item altogether (checked for integrity in these results and it's not lieing - although some were really quite negligible)
To compare this to the older variant, I scanned first with that. Nothing was found with the older version. Ther older version took around 19 minutes, again with all scanning options set to max and some other plugins/tweakers.

My Conclusion:
A bit bloated and there are more disabled "tools" that encourage you to get the commericial version. Howver more effective scanning engine and I believe more efficient too. Although it took longer, it scanned in far more places and in archives (Nearly 40% more files) so therefore more efficient in my mind.

Good job - Worth the download

(see sys specs for details on the computer it ran on)

WarEagleAUspybot to me is one of the best, but Ad-Aware isnt too bad.

Ill give this a go when I get home from work.

Same here :)

CCleaner is also good for clearing out crap. Crap Cleaner...self explanatory :laugh: