Lavasoft Ad-Aware Total Security

Perhaps best known for its Ad-Aware Free software for spyware detection and removal, Lavasoft also makes some all-round home security software.

Ad-Aware Free continues, though, and the latest version also includes protection from viruses.

Total Security is more complete, with extra security features such as a firewall and protection from phishing attacks. The anti-virus component is more advanced compared with the free version – it includes removal of rootkits and behaviour-based scanning. The latter, also known as heuristic scanning, helps protect users from new viruses by constantly monitoring the computer for suspicious behaviour.

The main screen provides a breakdown of the different parts, with alerts for anything that needs attention. It’s not quite as welcoming as other security programs we have seen and you will need to spend time exploring the advanced options.

The backup utility was fiddly to use, especially when it came to accessing the 1GB of online storage space that is included with the software. There is also a Tuner section that attempts to speed up the computer and protect your web browsing.

It also defragments the computer’s hard disks and looks for items such as invalid shortcuts. Setting it up was not particularly user-friendly (you are simply presented with a long list of options and checkboxes), but it did let us undo any actions we made.

Ad-aware Total Security requires 1.5GB of free hard disk space, which is pretty big for a security suite. Kaspersky Pure needs 375MB, and Norton 360 just 300MB. Despite its size, there wasn’t a noticeable impact on performance after installing the software on our test computer.

Two graphs at the bottom-left of the main screen let you keep an eye on exactly how much demand Ad-Aware Total Security is placing on your computer. One shows total system activity and the other indicates how much of this is down to Ad-Aware.

Other features include parental control settings, data recovery and a tool to securely delete sensitive files. Ad-aware Total Security certainly covers all bases, but although the main security settings were easy to setup, some of the other features weren’t.