Lavasoft AdAware Pro versus Other AntiMalwares?

[nweissma]

I have been using Lavasoft's AdAware Pro for 1 year, and it is time for renewal. As far as I know, AdAware's the real-time protection (called "AdWatch") has served me well, even though I was not sophisticated enough to understand the User's Guide and I therefore was not able to utilize many of AdAware Pro's features; rather, I accepted their default settings and accepted the efficacy on faith.)

I am soliciting thoughts about AdAware Pro: reasons supporting the renewal or reasons supporting trying another brand antimalware.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

There are many free antiviruses out there that do just as well as paid software.

What exactly are you looking for?

[evilfantasy]

At one time Ad-Aware was one of the best but sadly this is no longer true.

If you are looking for real time spyware/malware protection I suggest MalwareBytes' Antimalware. I use the paid version and am extremely pleased with it. http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

You can download it and give it a good looking over without buying it. The free version doesn't offer real-time protection but the scanner has full functions.

[killerb255]

Spybot - Search & Destroy.

The only two of the original dynamic duo (Ad-Aware/Spybot) that is still decent.

Keep in mind that it can be a CPU hog on older machines...

[evilfantasy]

There is still a lot that Spybot can't do. It's pretty ineffective at removing Zlob and some Vundo. It is worth using for the Immunize feature though.

[nweissma]

what i think is an important, and differing, factor is real-time protection. is there a reason why i would choose an antimalware that does not feature real-time?

[evilfantasy]

Yes because it is always good to use more than one on-demand scanner to check for malware. Different products will have different definitions in their database.