I am currently using Lavasoft's Ad-aware, but have been experiencing annoying "freezing" on-command problems and apparently there is no fix in sight. Can any one here recommend a similar but effective anti-trackware program?

Hi Fellow,

Can recommend Spybot Search And Destroy, excellent program. It does what Ad-Aware does but offers more control. I don't know what is causing your problem with Ad-Aware but i'd recommend you keep it and try to get the freezing problem resolved.

Ad-Aware FAQ's and support link here: http://www.lavasoft.de/support/faq/ If you can supply more information, we can probably help you here.

Ad-Aware and Spybot S & D overlap and therefore, ccompliment each other. No known conflicts either.
Get a copy from here:
Download
Spybot - Search
& Destroy v1.2
*Note: Version 1.3 is a Beta
And read this before using
After installing, you MUST first press Online, and search for,
put a check mark at, and install<br> all updates, except the beta
definitions.
*Note: BETA DEFINITIONS, are not free of false positives.

Next, close all Internet Explorer windows, hit 'Check for
Problems', and have SpyBot remove/fix all it finds.

Thanks for responding, Mariner.

The problem (Same or Similar problem experienced by others and reported on the Lavasoft Forum):

If/when bugs are found after running Ad-aware, first I click "Quarantine" then "Proceed", but nothing happens - if I click on proceed again it tells me, at top of Ad-aware window "(Not Responding)". To get out of there I'll either have to Alt+Ctrl+Delete... or, keep clicking on "Proceed" or any place on that window and after a few moments it clears, but doesn't tell me what action was taken... very frustrating. I was told by one of the Moderators at Lavasoft that I should expect that problem . What do you think? BTW, I just ran Ad-aware and found no bugs. Pete

The Oldfella

Hi Oldfella,

Don't know what to say re Ad-Aware problem. If Lavasoft themselves can't help, then i'm not sure who can. Think i'll go there myself and take a look.

Guess you have defragged your HDD and run scandisk/checkdsk depending on OS and tidied up in general. Might help, might not, just me clutching at straws. Maybe delete Ad-Aware, tidy up then download a fresh copy. Worth a try. Remember what's in quarantine and do what you need with it first before proceeding.

Did you get a copy of Spybot S & D? Works well. Some prefer Ad-Aware over Spybot and vice versa but, most will admit to running both for the reasons l gave in previous post.

BTW, you time showing as being ahead of board time. You can set time to synch in Profile.***Edit*** Site time out, not yours, my mistake, apologies.

Oldfella.

Have a look at this: http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=23258

May well answer your query, hope it does.

I've tried every thing, Mariner - just now, when I checked "Automatically quarantine..." as suggested be the lavasoft people, and clicked "proceed" to save settings, it froze... proble is, lavasoft makes no mention of a fix.

Did you follow this to the letter?

"Since scanning in Save Mode has not brought success, we highly suggest doing a Disk Defragmentation and follow it with a thorough Check or Scan Disk depending upon your version of Windows.

Next try scanning unchecking "Scan within Archives". If that doesn't work, please try scanning again, but do the following:

Check to see if you have the Auto Quarantine option on.
If you have that option on, turn it off.
Open Ad-aware > General Options, there is an option "Automatically Quarantine objects prior to removal", and uncheck it.
When the scan is complete, try making the quarantine manually.

If no joy....
You already have the Scan within Archives unchecked so please try unchecking:
Activate in-depth canning.
You will find that option in the window that opens after clicking on "Scan Now".
And this
Five minute nay not be long enough for Ad-aware 6 to scan a certain aspect. I would say leave Ad-aware running at least 20-30 minutes before thinking it is freezing.

Watch for disk activity light. Open Task Manager and check applications and processes to establish whether or not Ad-Aware is not responding or, is actually still running.

If you are following the thread at Lavasoft, you will see a recommendation to post a log file. I would suggest joining Lavasoft's forums as a member for personal assistance due to the highly specialised nature of the product.

http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=23258

All of the above has been done/tried, by me and others.. I'm not so much concerned with the Ad-ware running time/delay, I let it run and go take a nap... it's done when I come back to it an hour later (my routine). The worse, as I see it, the problem is not being addressed - see this thread:
http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=23126

I've been up there again and it does seem to be an 'In House' issue. I sympathise with you but don't see what can be done about it here. I wish l could offer a fix but cannot.

Lets hope Lavasoft can remedy this as soon as possible.

Thanks Mariner for looking at it - I'm going to "let go" for a while, maybe some one else with the same or similar problems and more "eloquence" can convince Lavasot to take a closer look at what seems to be an on-going, pestering problem. Regards

The Oldfella

Hope this does not mean we're going to lose you here, Oldfella.

From what little i've seen, you put your case to Lavasoft very well, you certainly do not require anyone with more eloquence to put the case. Far be it from me to criticise, but paying customers do deserve better.

I didn't realise you'd been a member there for so long. l hadn't been there for months until your problem arose.

No. no - I'm here to stay, Mariner... I've found a home; nice people, lots of gifts, lots of help - what else can an oldfella want/need. What I meant was, I'm going to give the Lavasoft/Ad-aware problem some room to get some fixing... I'm not really the type to bang on some ones desk demanding I get what I paid for. I'll keep looking there from time-to- time to see if some else will get the point across better than me and others. Regards,

The Oldfella

Mariner, my friend - I think you should know that I've just installed Spy-bot, and it found a whole bunch of red thingies; I told it to fix it and it did. Is going to take a while for me to learn what I'm doing; I did read the help section, but at my age learning is hard to come by. Regards,

The Oldfella

Oldfella,

In case you missed it or haven't had time to get there yet, here's a link to Spybot S & D Tutorial. Other useful info here too.

http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=tutorial

Thanks for the Tutorial reference, Mariner - I did miss it. I've printed it and saved it. Now at least one goofy thing happened since I downloaded a ran Spybot: When I click "Send" (Email), I get a small window telling me it's ready to start installing Microsoft Picture-it, a program already in my system, I cancel that right away and continue the email-sending... what's up with that?