Good Morning all. Before I do something dumb, please advise:

[yy4me]

Every few days I run Ad-Aware and for ages, it has found lots of goodies to remove, I'd say 25-30. The last few times I have run it, it seems to find 1 to 5. Now I know that cannot be right. I checked the version # that comes up on the blue rectangle as it starts. Says version: 7.1.012. 2008
Just to double check, I went to the control panel. If I click on the support info for the program, it says version 7.1.0.7

These seem to be two different versions of the product. Is this the reason I'm not having any quantity of junk removed from my system? Should I remove the program in "Add or Remove programs" and go to MajorGeeks or somewhere and download a new version. There is something going on and I don't want to fool with it. This computer is having a bad case of the slows.

Any help for this old Granny is appreciated, as usual.

[paparush]

1. Not necessarily two different versions-

On your system, starting in C:\ do a search for adaware.exe and for ad-aware.exe (can't remember the actual exe name).

If you find one and only one, then its a matter of the software developers not keeping a consistent version number throughout all the different files used in the application(which is not unheard of), and its not really a problem.

If you find more than one, then yes, you have multiple copies installed and you should probably uninstall both copies.


You can download the Free version of AdAware v8.0 here:
http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-Anniversary-Edition/3000-8022_4-10045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5&cdlPid=10998841

[PennDem]

2. Agree with paparush...

You may also want to try either of these apps instead of or along with Ad-Aware. They both do a great job removing spyware/malware.

SuperAntiSpyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/

Malwarebytes
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

[yy4me]

3. Thanks for your help. I went to the folder on the C drive and

even though I could not tell what half of the stuff was, there were updates to other versions, and what looked like just one version of the program. There was so much I decided to bite the bullet and remove the program and install the new version. Ran it right away and it was back to the consistent
mid 20's # of objects. I double checked the folder in the C drive to make sure the folder was empty before downloading the new version from your link. I feel better now, there was something going on there.

I have AVG, SpywareBlaster, Spybot S&D plus the new version of Ad-Aware now. Too much? What do you think about the suggestions of the next poster?

(I'm all for free programs)

Thanks for your help and to the next poster too.

[RC]

4. Why do you have so much junk?

I run mine once a month or so and sometimes it finds nothing and I am all over the place.

Ver 7.1.0.12

[yy4me]

5. I have no idea. I visit DU frequently, e-bay now and then, a

few other places like Raw Story and I do a small amount of misc searching for info such as travel sites. I do, however get tons of well wishing friends who insist on forwarding me e-mail that has been sent around the world first. I think my e-mail address gets picked up by lots of places. I have sent that trusty "how to clean up your e-mail before forwarding" notice that I have to everyone in my address book and no one follows the directive. I keep getting cute little ditties e-mailed to me that have in total as many as 200 addresses, they have been forwarded so many times. There I am on that list.

Other than to place blame on the e-mails, I don't know why I get so much junk. I really try to not be careless because I would never know how to fix things if it was not for this group.

They tell me Cable is far more susceptible to junk. That may be hogwash but I don't know. Meanwhile, I've learned to ask for help because I once made a real mess of this computer and had to have a professional fix it.

This unemployed Granny should not get near a computer without supervision.

[paparush]

6. Many of the "hits" may just be tracking cookies. Annoying, yes, but not necessarily dangerous.

Just a guess.

[RC]

7. This may help.

Every now and again, they send a host file with a list of hundreds of iffy and bad sites in it. When in place your computer will ignore every IP on that list. Result, among other things is no ads. Your computer is not even exposed to the site. The best thing since sliced bread and shirt pockets.


Sign up for HOSTS file update notices
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/updates.htm

Visit the Hosts News blog
http://msmvps.com/blogs/hostsnews/default.aspx

Mike Burgess
Microsoft MVP - 1999-2009
"There's no place like 127.0.0.1"

[canetoad]

8. My very word it is

-best thing since sliced bread I mean.

You dont even need to sign up for the updates or anything. Go to the mvps site, download the current hosts file and follow the instructions in the read-me file. All you have to do is double click on a file in the download to install the file in the correct place. You can check back every so often for an update if you are not happy about getting emails. This really is a great service and I wish more people would use this file.