Ad-aware free used to work just fine until trying to update to anniv. edition. Keep getting failed to connect to service. Have uninstalled 2x and reloaded 8.1.0 version standard ad-aware free and still not connecting. Lavasoft Ad-Aware Service does not come up in services running. Even tried to manually create the service in the black cmd window. Maybe using the wrong command? Forums are new to me and know that cannot get tech support live

Here's a topic to read:

http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=27351

It's best to do a clean uninstall of Ad-Aware using revouninstaller.com, then installing fresh. Also, there have been cases where a malware infection prevents installation of Ad-Aware. If none of the suggestions above work, read the instructions in my signature about the HijackThis forum and malware removal.