After shutting down the Tamperfunction in NIS 2010, I ran a full scan.

SUCCESS. It work fine. Took 2hr15 min. to finish and found 93 tracking cookies, where NIS found nothing.

Hoorah for AAW.

Richard

Doing as Casey suggests will turn off Ad-Aware in your current session, but if you turn off the module(s) under Ad-Watch settings, then it will be an on-demand scanner.

Casey,

First of all, thank you, I appreciated your prompt and thorough reply.

About the detection issue:

I wanted to make a test. And like said, there were two different computers. One runs on Vista, the other one on XP. They both have the last version of Ad-Aware (8.1.0) and they both were recently updated to the 2010 version of NIS.

On the XP one, I first ran my weekly NIS full scan and was alarmed for encountering a whooping (for my standards, at least, it’s whooping!) number of SEVEN tracking cookies. Since I run AAW every other day or so, and very rarely encounter any tracking cookie, at all, I thought I should be surprised…

So, before I took any action on these objects detected by Norton, I decided to run a AAW full scan right away. “No malicious objects were detected”. Obviously, my surprise kept rising…

That’s when I thought of the test: Let me perform the same exact tasks on the Vista computer, but on a reverse order -- first I ran a full AAW scan and was notified that “no malicious objects were encountered”.
Then, after Norton finishes its full scan, lo and behold… “THREE tracking cookies”…

Now, as you suggest, did they reach this second computer (the Vista one) AFTER the AAW scan? Well, it is possible, but how likely is it? Zippo…

In any case, what about the XP? Norton reports SEVEN tracking cookies and, before doing anything else, I immediately run AAW and… Zippo???

Well, it’s a while since I quit believing in the guy who used to fly from the North Pole…

But, all said and done, yes… I feel sad. Both Norton and Lavasoft, for me, it’s been quite a good number of years of great service. It does feel like losing a friend…

That’s why I’m leaning towards disabling Ad-Aware, instead of getting rid of it completely. Maybe one of these months it comes back to reclaim its place of honor…

Just one last question, if I may:

Your suggestion about right clicking the tray icon and then click Exit doesn’t seem to be practical because, as I understand it, that would be only a temporary “disability” for the day… Meaning, this would be something I would have to remember to do every single time I reboot my computers!...
With so many other things to worry about, I think this would be a shameful waste of time and energy…
Would you not?

If I cannot find a clean way of keeping it asleep until I go there I wake it up again, then I might have to go through the pain (really, trust me) of “Revoing it”… If you assure me that I will not likely have the same nightmares I previously had, when trying to uninstall Ad-Aware!

Once again, my sincere thanks for all your kind help and cooperation.

Best regards.

Yu

Visitor,

Sorry, I only saw your post after having posted mine… Actually, that's what I suspected.

I just checked and I think that, since I have the free version installed, the only module I really need to disable (which I just did) is the Ad-Watch Live. I understand that keeping the Web Update and the Scan System under “Status: OK” will keep the application current and will perform a scan ONLY upon user demand, and nothing else.

Am I right?

Thank you also, for your help.
Yu

Your terminology is wrong, but you get the idea. Web Update, Scan System, and Ad-Watch Live! are the 3 status indicators on the main GUI. Ad-Watch Live! is real-time protection with 3 modules - processes, registry, and network. The free version only has processes protection - Plus version adds registry and Pro has all 3. Once you turn off Ad-Watch Live! in settings and exit Ad-Aware by tray icon, it will be an on-demand scanner only (Ad-Aware.exe, AAWService.exe, and AAWTray.exe will not be running in task manager processes/applications until you open Ad-Aware).

Update is a bit more complicated. I turn off auto-update since I prefer to find out about new versions before updating blindly. That's why I still use AE version 8.0.3 - it works and I've avoided possible problems with 8.0.4 onward. I manually update definitons only (link to instructions).

Using "Web Update" in the GUI and update by tray icon or start menu will update both the software and definitions. Auto-update will update software and definitions, but only when Ad-Aware is running. In AE, the update time is set for when Ad-Aware was installed - I'm not sure if they made this user-definable in the 2010 version. So, if Ad-Aware or your computer are turned off at that time, auto-update will not work.

I recommend turning off auto-update in the settings and manually updating the definitions only. Then you can check this forum to see how updates progress with fixing problems.

I understand most of what you say, but I’m now a bit confused:

If I turn off Ad-Watch Live in settings, why should I still need to “exit Ad-Aware by tray icon”? I mean, what would happen if I don’t, that would not if I did?

Besides, wouldn’t that be precisely what you had questioned about the “temporary” nature of the solution suggested by Casey?

Why, exactly, wouldn’t it be sufficient to turn off Ad-Watch Live, since everything else seems to be dependent on the user’s initiative, to render Ad-Aware just an on-demand scanner?

Please clarify and thank you again for your continued support.

When you turn off Ad-Watch Live in the settings, AAWService.exe and AAWTray.exe will not start at the next reboot but, if you check task manager, they're still active in the current session. Right-click/exit via the tray icon will shutdown Ad-Aware immediately without the need to reboot.

HiYa,

That will work only until you update again and then Ad-Ware will default to starting on boot up again. I'm so use to this now, that after I update Ad-Aware ( Manually ) I go into administrative tools and services, ( In XP Home ) highlight Lavasoft and put Ad-Aware back to manual. BTW I'm using the previous version as I had problems with the new one. I'm still reading the pinned topics as Norton seems to be causing the problem. However why would it cause a problem with the newest version and not the previous one I'm running now????.

Sorry...didn't mean to get off the topic in this post.

Cheers! Robert1

When you update manually, are you talking about using the GUI, start menu, or tray icon update which update both the software and definitions? I update only the definitions manually (see my link in your other post), and all my settings stay put.


Not sure why. The Norton problem seemed to affect Ad-Aware AE on Vista machines and carried over to version 8.1. I guess you're lucky!

Hello Visitor,

I always update Via the GUI, and it seems 99% of the time that as I said I have to go into services and switch it back to manual myself. As for the Norton thing it never effected AW AE. I have always kept my Norton on when installing things, as I have it set to alert me about apps and if I want to allow or block. My luck ran out however with the newest version. I am running NIS 2009 version 16.7.2.11. ( XP Home, Pent 4, 2.5 GB Ram, SP3, and fully updated in everything else to the best of my knowledge ) I do regular weekly scans with NIS which is automated, but as for my other apps they are just stand alone scans which I perform when I want.

Maybe I'lltry to turn off some Norton features and try the new AW again, but if I have to shut NIS off to use AW that isn't worth the head-ache so I'll probably keep using the previous AW AE as everything seems GREAT thus far.

Cheers! Robert1

I have just recently had problems with AdAware AE freezing and crashing or just freezing during scan. I have Windows XP Pro but do not have Norton. I use the Avast Antivirus so it may not just be a problem with Norton.

There may be a conflict with Avast too. I reported it to Lavasoft along with the Norton thing. I've now added this thread to the list of others with Avast:

http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?s...st&p=110449

http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=27102

http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?s...st&p=110685

http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=27231

Edit: sparkyd has posted in HJT forum:

http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=27754

I'll close this thread now. If it needs to be reopened, PM a moderator.