Ad-Aware is hanging indefinitely while scanning the Shared DLL folders. Number of files scanned is usually around the same number, although not precisely the same each time, when it hangs.

I've tried:
- Deep vs smart scans
- Re-installing Ad-Aware
- Pressing "Cancel" once during the hanging period (number of files scanned changes once and then hangs again within the same folder)
- Disk cleanup, Chkdsk, and de-fragmenting the hard disk
- Did a Panda online scan and it identified 30 or so spyware files, but nothing more severe than that; I'm assuming they're the usual tracking cookies that I find with Ad-Aware.

The stall is NOT temporary -- I left Ad-Aware in the stalled state for the entire past weekend, and it never budged and my hard drive was showing no activity...

It appears that Ad-Aware is hitting something that is causing it to simply stop -- although the hourglass symbol continues when I move my cursor over the hourglass screen; so I interpret that to mean that Ad-Aware hit an impassable obstacle in its execution.

Can anyone help?

Hi Matt Zucker,

Have you tried a Custom Scan, leaving out the location where Ad-aware apparently freezes?

Click "Scan Now" and proceed to the Scan configuration screen:

Click to view attachment

Select "Use custom scanning options" and click "Customize":

Click to view attachment

In the Scan Settings window, click on "Select drives and folders to scan".

Click to view attachment

Navigate to the problem-causing folder and de-select it ( ie: remove the green tick in front of it).

Now try and see whether a scan will complete and whether it picks up any malware.

Regards,

Spike