6 replies to this topic

[pldu]

I have an ASUS EeePC with a small (<4GB) solid state C:\ drive running WindowsXP. The C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Lavasoft folder is over 300MB which is a significant part of the drive's capacity. I would like to move this folder to the larger D:\ drive. Is there a way to do this? Maybe some registry settings? I already have Ad-Aware installed in the D:\Program Files\ folder.

[visitor]

What you may want to do is move some of the old definition files to the D: drive for storage. When you update Ad-Aware, it doesn't delete them, but since definitions are cumulative, you should be OK with just the recent ones. After some time, if Ad-Aware works fine and you don't need them, you can delete them from D: As long as the current definition number shows in the GUI, it's loading properly.

[pldu]

In the older versions of Ad-Aware I seem to remember lots of .def files. But in this version the Defs folder has everything packed into a few large files. I would have no idea how to pull out the "old" stuff.

[visitor]

Look for the older definitions, e.g. CSC39-EN-xxxx-yyyy-I.sbr.sgn
found in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Lavasoft\Ad-Aware\Update\

Here's more info on the anti-virus engine "extended definitions":

http://www.lavasofts...showtopic=28936

Edited by visitor, 17 April 2010 - 09:56 AM.

[pldu]

I looked through the ...\Application Data\Lavasoft\Ad-Aware\Update folder and it appeared that all of the files were used to make other files that are actually used. So I deleted the Update folder and ran a Smart Scan. Ad-Aware ran fine. So this deletion eliminated 130MB of my problem. Why does Lavasoft not delete these files automatically? There does not seem to be any reason to place all these files in the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\... area when it could just as easily be in the \Program Files\ area which can easily be moved from one drive to another.

[visitor]

I believe you're correct - the CSC39-EN-xxxx-yyyy-I.sbr.sgn files are like archives from which Ad-Aware unpacks the definitions and anti-virus engine updates, so it should be OK to delete them although I always keep the last working definition file "just in case." I'm not sure why old definitions are not deleted, but you're not the first to complain about it, LOL.

I don't know enough about Windows to explain the All Users/App Data folders, but I'm guessing it has to do with shared files so Ad-Aware can be run regardless of who's logged in - which also means anybody can change the settings, so we've mentioned that to Lavasoft.

[pldu]

When several users share a computer the Documents and Settings folder provides a way to separate each individual's personal files. Having an All Users subfolder allows applications to put Start Menu shortcuts and Desktop icons in one location available to all users. But having an All Users\Application Data subfolder doesn't make much sense. Since all users can access this folder just as they can the Program Files folder it makes more sense to me for an application to put all its files in its Program Files folder. I have quite a few programs which store files in the Application Data folder but the amount of space used is usually just a MB or less. On my computer Lavasoft is the only company that uses this area to store hundreds of MB of data.