Ad-Aware Pro Anniversary Edition security software

Ad-Aware has been many people's choice of spyware protection for some time now, having gathered a loyal collection of followers through the free version of its scanning and prevention software.

It is now ten years old and its maker Lavasoft is celebrating the occasion with the release of Ad-Aware Anniversary Edition 2009. It offers a range of improvements and additions, and the Pro software we're testing is the most comprehensive in the series, including a virus killer and network protection.

The new version improves the efficiency of its spyware detection tools and is now far more streamlined, using fewer of the computer's resources during scans. It also adds a number of tools including a process examiner and a tool to make sure Windows only loads what you need.

The software was quick and easy to install, performing an automatic update to gather the latest definitions before running an initial scan on your system. From here you’re taken to the main interface that provides at-a-glance status updates for each component to let you know what is running and of any recommended actions.

Manual scans can be performed using the smart scan mode which only targets the most at-risk areas of the PC, or a profile scan in which you can create your own profiles to decide what areas you want to target. Each of these can also be set up as custom schedules to make the software run automatically at specific times.

After a scan is complete the program shows the user a list of any potential threats with common items gathered into categories. This makes it easy to choose a specific action (remove, quarantine, ignore) for groups of threats or alternatively you can opt for Ad-Aware’s recommended answer, which in most cases will be the best choice.

The Ad-watch component protects processes, the registry and network, with each individually configurable to allow you to change permissions to allow or deny access to detected threats as you see fit. It is now integrated into the main interface for easy access.

In addition to all this, Ad-Aware adds itself to the Windows right-click menu so that you can scan specific files or folders without going through the software, and it also supports scanning of network drives and external hard disks.

We were pleased by how well all of the tools available were combined into a single interface, and can confirm Lavasoft’s efficiency claims as we noted very little impact or slow-down during scanning.

The scanning, detection and removal tools were very efficient and with regular updates ensuring that you have the latest definitions at all times, the software offers plenty of reassurance that you’re protected against the latest threats.