A while back I uninstalled Ad-Aware 2007. However not everything has been removed and the "Ad-Aware 2007 Service" is starting up automatically. I observed that is starting by looking in "Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services"

I am using Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2 and in "Start/All Programs" there is a Lavasoft folder. Included in this folder is "Uninstall Ad-Aware 2007" When I try running this I get the following message: "This action is only valid for products that are currently installed."

I also notice that there are other Lavasoft folders in C:\Documents and Settings and in C:\Program Files.

How can I remove/uninstall these and stop the "Ad-Aware 2007 Service " from starting?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Herb

Hi,

Download and run Revo. Remove any traces of ad-aware 2007, so use the option to remove all files and registry entries.

If it cannot find any, try installing 2007 again and then uninstalling with Revo.

Let me know how you get on,

Casey

Thanks for the response, Casey. I downloaded REVO but have not installed it yet. Will do that tomorrow. Can you suggest where I can download Ad-Aware 2007 if I need it? Reinstalling and then uninstalling with REVO souds like a very good idea.

Herb

ok, let me know how you get on.

download 2007 here.

Casey

Thanks for the download link for 2007.

Revo was not able to uninstall anything until I actually reinstalled 2007. Revo is a very nice and fast program. It uses the existing uninstall routine for the target program but can give more info on items that are not removed. I used the Hunter for the uninstall at the Moderate level which I guess is recommended since it was automatically selected.

This removed alot of extra items. The "Ad-Aware 2007 Service" still shows up in Services (control panel, adinistrative tools, services) but the status is no longer "started". "Ad-Aware 2007 Service" also shows up in the Services tab of the System Configuration Utility (Run: msconfig) and the status is Stopped.

The bottom line is that Revo removed enough so that the "2007 Service" was not able to be started. But why is it still showing up in the Services listings? There are still a number of files not removed that apparently are from Ad-Aware. One of them is "C:\Windows\Prefetch\AAWSERVICE.EXE-109157C4.pf". There are a bunch of other prefetch files relatted to Ad-Aware which I won't list.

Something is automatically trying to start up the 2007 Service but it is not happening because aawservice.exe has been removed. Do you have any suggestions on how to remove the remaining remnants and attempt at auto starting? Should I try Revo at the next higher level above Moderate in Hunter? It would sure be nice if Lavasoft uninstall routine would remove all commands that it installed.

I really appreciate your input. Even if we can't find an answer it was certainly worth my effort to discover the Revo program. Thank you again for telling me about it.

Herb

yeh normally if you choose the highest setting, then revo will find everything associated with the program you're trying to uninstall. you don't actually need to use the hunter mode, just select ad-aware from the programs list and click uninstall.

i agree though, it is a nice program (and it's free!). the reason uninstallers (for many programs) don't quite remove everything is because they don't want you to get around 'trial offers' etc by just reinstalling.

also, just to note, whilst it may appear in the list - it doesn't mean it's actually ever running.

but give revo another go at it's highest setting, see what happens and let me know,

Casey

I finally got around to trying REVO in the highest setting. It worked very well!

After the uninstall at the highest seting I did a search for Lavasoft. Four Lavasoft folders were found. Three of them were empty and the fourth had a small dat file and a small license file in it. I manually deleted all four folders. The shortcut for Ad-Watch on the desktop was still there but the target that it pointed to was gone so I just deleted that manually also.

Thank you again for your help. It is very much appreciated. From now on I will always use REVO when uninstalling.

Herb