Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ 11

Some antivirus vendors keep the same look and feel for their products year after year (and wind up looking a bit dated). Not Lavasoft! Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ 11 doesn't look at all like its predecessor. The company also switched antivirus licensing partners—with results that aren't 100 percent positive.

Where Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ 10.5 put virtually every significant control on the main window, version 11 spreads them out over separate feature-specific tabs. Version 11 also uses a consistent color palette throughout. The result is much more serene, much less busy.

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As with the previous edition, every control for every feature found in the biggest Ad-Aware suite is present in the free antivirus. Click on the control for a feature that's not available and you'll get an explanation, including exactly which of the Ad-Aware products implements the feature in question.

Limited Help from the Labs
I've recentely expanded my coverage of independent lab tests. I've added Dennis Technology Labs to the mix, for starters. Based in London, Dennis Labs performs extremely realistic tests by capturing entire malware-hosting sites and running them within an Internet simulator, thereby challenging every antivirus with the exact same real-world attack.

I can't learn much about Ad-Aware from the labs, unfortunately. The company submits Ad-Aware to Virus Bulletin for testing, but not frequently, and they don't participate with any of the other labs I track. All I have to go on is the fact that Ad-Aware participated in Virus Bulletin's testing three times in the last twelve months and received VB100 certification twice. That doesn't compare too well with, for example, BullGuard Antivirus (2014)£6.75 at Amazon UK, which took VB100 in all ten of the tests entered.

Click the link below for a chart of recent lab tests. For a full explanation of my new interpretation system, see How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.

Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ 11 lab tests chart

About Our Expert

Neil J. Rubenking

Principal Writer, Security

My Experience

When the IBM PC was new, I served as the president of the San Francisco PC User Group for three years. That’s how I met PCMag’s editorial team, who brought me on board in 1986. In the years since that fateful meeting, I’ve become PCMag’s expert on security, privacy, and identity protection, putting antivirus tools, security suites, and all kinds of security software through their paces.

Before my current security gig, I supplied PCMag readers with tips and solutions on using popular applications, operating systems, and programming languages in my "User to User" and "Ask Neil" columns, which began in 1990 and ran for almost 20 years. Along the way, I wrote more than 40 utility articles, as well as Delphi Programming for Dummies and six other books covering DOS, Windows, and programming. I also reviewed thousands of products of all kinds, ranging from early Sierra Online adventure games to AOL’s precursor Q-Link.

In the early 2000s, I turned my focus to security and the growing antivirus industry. After years of working with antivirus, I’m known throughout the security industry as an expert on evaluating antivirus tools. I serve as an advisory board member for the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO), an international nonprofit group dedicated to coordinating and improving testing of anti-malware solutions.

The Technology I Use

Much of the testing I do, particularly testing with real-world ransomware, is just plain dangerous. To perform such tests safely, I sequester them inside virtual machines managed by VMWare Workstation. For cross-platform testing, I use a MacBook Air, a Google Pixel 4, and a 6th-generation iPad.

I rely on my Delphi coding skills to create and maintain small applications. These include programs to check whether an antivirus correctly handled the malware it detected, launch dangerous URLs and record the security program’s reaction, and analyze the malware that I collect for use in testing. I also wrote a tiny browser and text editor for use in testing security apps that have predefined reactions for known products.

I do my writing and research on a Dell OptiPlex desktop, relying on Microsoft Word (my fingers know all the shortcuts). Many of my articles include charts and analysis; Excel is my go-to for those. When work hours end, though, I escape the bounds of Microsoft and Windows. There’s an iPhone in my pocket, I relax with my oversized iPad, and my Kindle Oasis is always loaded with the best science fiction and fantasy.

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