Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ 11

Ad-Aware Free Antivirus has had a complete facelift since the previous edition. It's now more open and less busy. Where everything used to appear on a single big window, it now has seven tabs for different types of security components.

As part of the install process, Ad-Aware downloads the latest antivirus definitions and runs a quick scan. If the quick scan turns up any malware, you'll definitely want to follow up with a full scan of the entire computer.

This program's user interface includes all of the same controls found in the top-of-the-line Ad-Aware suite. Clicking an unavailable control gets you a message explaining which paid Ad-Aware products offer the corresponding security component.

As with most antivirus products, Ad-Aware lets you run a full scan of the entire computer, a quick scan of active processes, or a custom scan based on your own settings. This page also gives you access to scan logs and quarantined files.

When the real-time protection component detects a threat, it immediately quarantines it and pops up a transient notification to tell you what it did.

Unless you actively opt out, the installer will add the Lavasoft toolbar to your browsers and switch your home page and search provider to Lavasoft Secure Search, powered by Yahoo.

Lavasoft replaces the browser's semi-useless "not found" error page with a page of suggestions based on a search for what you might have intended.

By default, Ad-Aware will block other programs that attempt to change your homepage. Of course you can still change it yourself, if you wish.

Lavasoft's Toolbar Cleaner will clean out other toolbars from all your browsers. Be careful; there's no "undo" feature so if you want to restore a delete toolbar you'll have to install it from scratch.

The Startup Cleaner is a one-way proposition; you can get rid of startup items, but the process isn't reversible. You'd be better off using the built in MSCONFIG tool, which also displays a more complete list of startup items.