Adaware

Some websites and programs collect personal information from your computer for marketing information. They can also “open up” parts of your computer to allow virus’s or hackers onto your pc.

These items are known as Spyware or Malware (Malicious programs).

AdAware is similar to a virus checker in that it has a list of known Spyware / malware programs. You will need to keep this list up to date by running the AdAware “Check for updates” (once a week should be often enough).

When you run Adaware it scans your computer for known spyware and show you a list of what it has found. Put a tick in the boxes against each item it has found to delete it from your computer.

It is best to run this after you have been on the Internet, (a lot of cookies are used as Spyware) and also after you have installed new programs.

Some programs try to uninstall Adaware, in which case I would advise not installing that program!

You should regularly check that you have the latest version of the program by visiting www.lavasoft.de

One indication that you have an old version is that you will notice there have been no updates available for several weeks.

Below are the instructions for running (and updating) AdAware.

1) Click on “Check for updates now”

2) Click on “Connect”

3) If there are updates available this window will appear, so click on “OK”

4) If not then just click “OK” on this window, then proceed to Step 7

5) This window will appear while update is downloading….

6) When it has completed click on “Finish”

7) You will now be back to the main program screen.

If this is the first time you have run AdAware click on “Customize”, otherwise go to Step 9

8) Make sure items shown below are ticked, then click on “Proceed”

9) To scan for nasties click on “Start”

10) This screen will appear to shop you the scan progress….

11) When it has finished click on “Next”

12) The following screen will list all the items found – put a tick in the box to select the items to be deleted. Generally it is safe to delete all items found. If there are lots of items you can right click on any of the boxes and then left click on “Select All Objects”, then click on “Next”

13) Click on “OK” to start removal

14) When it has finished it will return you to the main screen which can now close

The only exception to this is where some items can not be removed because they are in use. In this case AdAware will inform you of this and ask if it can do a scan next time you start your computer. My advice is to say yes, then immediately restart your pc. It will then automatically do a scan and allow you to delete the nasties.