I've been using Ad-Aware free version for years now, ever since my PC repair guy installed it for me, with satisfactory results. I also use Norton Internet Security as my main antivirus program, and SpyBot for additional malware removal. I've been in the habit of scanning my Windows XP PC once a day for spyware and viruses using quick scans on Norton, Ad-Aware and SpyBot. It used to be that Ad-Aware would detect an average of 20 to 40 tracking cookies each time I scanned (even if I scanned with Ad-Aware right after SpyBot, it would still find a lot of cookies that SpyBot overlooked). I installed the latest AE version this year and continued to have good results - UNTIL several weeks ago. Every time I launch AE to do a scan I check for updates and install the available ones. Well, I did this as usual one day, and after that I noticed that AE would always give me the message after scanning that "no problems were detected" (or something to that effect). It has given me that same message, every time I scan, since I'm not sure when, but I'm guessing it's been a month or two since AE found a single tracking cookie on my PC. Meanwhile, I continue to scan every day with Norton and SpyBot, and Norton typically detects about 3 tracking cookies, while SpyBot finds between 1 and 20 each time I scan.

Why is AE no longer finding any tracking cookies on my PC? I know the cookies must be there, since I continue to visit the same websites each day where those cookies are picked up. I've noticed also that when I launch my browser which is the latest Firefox, it takes minutes to load, leading me to suspect there is a lot of spyware and junk attached.

If anyone has any info as to why AE is not working as well as it used to, or suggestions on how to improve the performance of it, please chime in. I have not changed my settings in Norton so I don't see why I should not be able to use it along with my Norton. AE used to catch and remove 30 to 40 spyware cookies a day, every time I scanned, and now it detects nothing.

Back in July, AE definitions were updated from 148.xx to 149.xx. The changes are probably what lead to the different scan results. Cookies are not all inherently bad and various security software will detect different things. Norton and Spybot may find cookies which Lavasoft has deemed negligible. Since you regularly visit the same sites which you know set cookies, the easiest thing you can do is configure Firefox's cookie settings, i.e. "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."


Not necessarily. If you have all 3 security programs' real-time protection on, that can slow down your system. It's best to have only 1 running to avoid problems, so choose your favorite and turn the others off. Once I did this, my system was much more responsive.

Also, it may speed things up if you clear your cache regularly. I clear mine at the end of every session since most files will be obsolete next time I visit a website. Caches can get quite large with all the gifs, flash, and video loaded on web pages nowadays.

Thank you, Visitor, for the helpful explanation and suggestions.

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