New Reffile (June 15) available for AdAware

Since all mirror sites do not yet have it yet, Lavasoft recommends downloading from
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/aaw/binary/reffile.zip

 

Holy jumpin' catfish, after getting the latest download, the program scans ten times faster than before! It does my entire C: drive in about 30 seconds whereas it took about five minutes before. I hope they didn't leave something out.

 

Great, no hangup on Norton Cleansweep. problem solved?
Ken

 

Mixed reviews here. Does it's usual great job but certainly does not seem any faster on XP-pro.

Usual long pause when it hits the Norton CleanSweep section but does complete (but then, the older on did as well).

 

Just installed my copy of Ad-aware 5.83 (new version just came out) Plus onto my new PC I just built. Took approx 45 seconds to scan my 20 GB C: drive...running WinXP Pro.

 

Forgot to mention that I am running NAV SystemWorks 2002 and am running CleanSweep and noticed no slowdown.

 

Just to keep you all confused, there aparently have been three versions of that June 15 reffile. See
http://www.lavasoft.nu/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=2;t=581
I think the latest is dated June 16 1AM.
And the AdAware v5.83 to which dobhar reports is AdAware Plus. The 5.83 version of the free AdAware is due any time now.

 

Ad-aware How To

Hi Everybody:

Being a beginner it gets frustrating when a problem comes up that you have all probably heard a bunch of times. I have installed Ad-aware 5.83 and it seems to do what it is suppose to. The problem is I don't know what to delete off. It doesn't have a help file. Any suggestions as to how to determine what is safe to remove.

Thanks
Mr. Wedgee

 

Hi Mr. Wedgee,

If you haven't discovered it by now... AdAware has a nice Help file, and can be accessed at the bottom of the AdAware window. The two tabs at the bottom right of the window are:
Help
Scan Now

Ramona

 

I just tried running the Ref Update program. It told me that I need to upgrade to 5.3. I have version 5.0.8.1. I just downloaded this version a couple weeks ago. How can it be out of date already!

Edit: OK I downloaded the stupid new version. Should I uninstall the old one first or is it OK to just go over it?

Edit: Installed the new version. It found 36 new ad programs on my machine! Last time I checked with the old version, it said I was clean. Guess maybe the new one isn't so stupid afterall. I don't get where this adware comes from, I certainly didn't install any of it! I dumped all of it except my dummy Cydoor DLL and Grokster still works fine, so it couldn't have been Grokster's ads.

 

Shadowhawk

The former - otherwise you tend to end up with multiple entries in your Add/Remove list.

You may find this helpful.

If you'd like to look at a (IMO) more powerful alternative to Ad-Aware, go here.

 

Thanks Ramona:

I guess I should use my bi-focals more often.

Mr.Wedgee

 

shadowhawk --Guess you know there are several later versions of the reffile by now. The latest is
# 032-26.06.2002 Easiest way to get and install is Refupdate.exe.

 

I have RefUpdate. I guess the 5.8 thing aint actually a new version; it's a newer release. The version is 5.x and then every release takes the .x up 1 level. I actually believe if I had uninstalled the one I have now, the new one wouldn't have installed.

 

shadowhawk--What Lavasoft calls Ad-Aware 5.83 on their download sites is really version 5.0.8.5 on the Properties|Version tab. It has been out for just over a month now.

 

Thanks, brett

I had already downloaded the .zip file for SpybotSD weeks ago and your endorsement helped me decide to install it. I agonize over installing new software, worried about rocking the boat, I guess.

For anyone interested:

A full review of SpybotSD and screenshots are here:
http://www.net-integration.net/reviews/spybot1.html

I got the latest version 1.0 today. Using WinZip, I extracted the spybotsd.zip file's contents to C:\Program Files (I'm guessing the reviewer said "My Documents" by mistake) which automatically created a new folder named Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.0. Inside that, I found and ran the spybotsd.exe to start the "install" which opened the program.

Other than an AvenueA cookie it found one file, C:\windows\system\Addon2vb.dll (identified as Conducent Time Sink), which I removed (I did a registry search for TimeSink and Conducent and found nothing)

 

Alice--Had you run Ad-Aware on your PC before running Spybot? Did Ad-Aware not find AvenueA and C:\windows\system\Addon2vb.dll (identified as Conducent Time Sink)?
P.S. I ran Ad-Aware recently and it found some .js files (like hbe[1].js) in Temporary Internet Files. Apparently put there by some site (unfortunately unknown). Some reading of the code determined they would try to send messages back to HitBox. I was surprised that they would be installed in TIF. Perhaps they had not yet been activated which would then have installed the program more permanently.

 

Hi Jim.

Sorry, I should have said that I have never run Ad-Aware or any other spychecker program before. I'm just very careful when it comes to installing programs.

As for Temporary Internet Files:

Other than cookie pointers, my TIF is always empty since I have Internet Explorer set to empty the TIF when IE closes.

PS I did a groups.google search on hitbox.com/js and that .js file probably came from an html SPAM e-mail that you opened or previewed in Outlook Express, since IE comes into play with html e-mail.

I have the Outlook Express preview pane UNchecked in View Layout so that my husband (who uses OE for E-mail) never even opens spam e-mail. Once he recognizes it as SPAM he just deletes it from the list of messages.

 

Alice - the program works well but be a little bit careful as to what you allow it to delete; it's somewhat more "enthusiastic" than Ad-Aware

You should also be able to limit the ability of HTML spam to "phone home" by using you firewall to restrict your mail client's outgoing permissions. I prefer this workaround as I rather like the preview pane and find it a bit of a PITA to be without it.

 

Yes, I noticed it wanted to delete two registry entries, one for Internet Explorer and another for Media Player. I UNchecked those two, then put them in the "Exclude" list.

As far as a firewall, I don't have one, although I've had Tiny PF in my "Pending" folder for awhile now.