| Introduction |
 | Welcome |
| Whats new in 5.0? |
| Getting started... |
| Preferences |
| Command line parameters |
| Adding language modules |
| Introduction to Ad-watch |
| Ad-watch overview |
| Purchasing Ad-aware plus |
| FAQ |
| Download version 6 |
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Get Rid of Spyware now!
| Welcome to Ad-aware 5.0 !
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| Ad-aware is a free multi spyware removal utility designed for all Win9x / ME / NT40 / W2000 platforms.
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| It scans your system for components of known spyware parasites and lets you remove them safely.
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| If you are new to Ad-aware, we suggest you read the following general introduction to the subject,
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| and check the getting started page in this document.
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| Users of Ad-aware 4x should read the "Whats new" page in this helpfile.
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| Feel free to send us an email if you have further questions not covered in this manual : support@lavasoftUSA.com
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Thanks to everybody who sent us feedback and suggestions, everybody who supported us by purchasing Ad-aware plus
or providing a mirror, and of course to our betatesters and forum staff !
What is Ad-aware?
| Adware vs. Spyware
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| While advertising\sponsoring is a common way to publish and promote a product for free,
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| some software advertising systems do more then just showing static banners, they make use of your internet connection to retrieve new
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| banner ads from a third parties server and send various information about you.This information is collected and sold to third parties.
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| (In short words:The more they know about you, the higher is your value for them.)
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| Because of the unobviously, secretly behaviour of these systems, they are also called advertising trojans.
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| Most of these systems are installed with a (often popular) host application, which may or may not work without the snoopware components installed.
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| Some attach themself to your browser, some are completely invisible.Popular applications including parasites are, for example Go!Zilla, AudioGalaxy or BearShare.
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| Am I already "infected" ?
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| Is your browsing speed slower then ever since you installed this free "ultimate connection optimizer" ?
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| Some strange file always wants to connect to a remote server, but your virusscanner tells you it is no trojan?
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| Is your mailbox fed up with tons of targeted spam, and do some of these friendly advertisers even call you by name?
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| Then there is a good chance that you catched some advertising parasites lately..
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| Read on to see how Ad-aware can help you to track them down and how to get rid of them
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| Say NO to spyware!
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| Ad-aware scans your system for known spyware components and lets you safely remove them.
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| It uses a referencefile which is regulary updated, to always detect the latest spyware parasites.
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| This file can be downloaded from www.lavasoftUSA.com,
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| To keep Ad-aware updated, make sure to always have the most recent version installed.
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| (the version number+date is shown on the statusbar in the Ad-aware window)
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| Ad-aware plus users will be automatically notified as soon as a new referencefile or AAW version is available for download.
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| If you want to support the developement of Ad-aware, please consider purchasing Ad-aware plus.
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| Get rid of spyware now!
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| Nowadays there are alternatives for nearly every ad-supported "freeware".
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| Even if many of the spyware host applications will continue to work without the spyware installed, we recommend to generally
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| avoid using spyware supported software.
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| Alternatives to popular spyware hosts is a common subject in our forums, please click HERE to get there.
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| Since spyware has become an public issue, many shareware sites begin to list ad-ware seperated from freeware.
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| We think it is time to draw the line and boycott vendors consequently who violate our online privacy, the sooner the better.
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| Software vendors will change their mind only when it costs them customers and reputation.
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Whats new in version 5.0?
| Backup and restore functionality
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| Now you can build backups easily before removing spyware components or fixing your registry.
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| The included backup-manager lets you reinstall a backup with a single mouseclick.
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| Multi language support
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| Ad-aware contains swedish, dutch, english and german language support by default,
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| but you can add your own custom language modules easily.Read here to learn how.
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| The language can be changed while Ad-aware is running from within the preferences menu.
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| Shell extension to scan a particular drive\folder from the explorer
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| Right-click on an drive or folder to let Ad-aware scan it on the fly.
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| Exclude list to let Ad-aware ignore certain components
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| Now it is possible to let Ad-aware ignore specified components, and keep them remaining on your system.
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| You can add components found during a scan directly from the resultlist to an exclude list, which is also supported by Ad-watch.
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| New user interface
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| Ad-aware 5 features a more flexible user interface then the previous versions.
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| You can now minimize it during scanning, for example.
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| Scanning of removable drives
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| It is now possible to scan removable drives and, unlike in previous versions,
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| select particular drives to scan.
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| Ad-watch upgraded to v2.0
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| Ad-watch has been improved as well, and uses now even less resources.
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| The support of excluded components has been added (edit the exclude list from within Ad-aware) as well as
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| several enhancements and improvements.
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Getting started...
| This is a small example on how to set up Ad-aware, creating a backup, excluding items and finally
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| removing detected spyware components.As you'll see, Ad-aware is pretty easy to use.
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| During the installation, an icon group has been created in your start menu.
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| Please run Ad-aware by clicking the appropriate icon.
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| The Ad-aware titlescreen shows three buttons which lead to different sections:
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 ..For a quick start using your default scanning settings, click this button.
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 ..Use this option to organize, restore or delete your backups.
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 ..Click this button to open the preferences menu.
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| · | Setting the scanning options
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| When you start Ad-aware 5.0 the first time, no sections to scan are specified.
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| Select which sections you want Ad-aware to scan in the list at the left side(see the image below).
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| For the beginning, you should select the memory-scan, both registry scans and the drive where your windows installation resists.
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| It is not necessary to always scan all drives, but recommended from time to time.
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| Your scanning settings will be stored and used the next time when Ad-aware is started
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| If you have Ad-aware autostarting with windows, the same settings will be used.
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| Note: The only exception is, if you run Ad-aware from the explorer by right-clicking a drive or folder.
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| In this case only the particular drive\folder will be scanned, but your scanning settings will not be overwritten and used again when Ad-aware is started regulary the next time.
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| A grayed icon means that some, but not all subsections are selected.
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| For example, check the "My computer" icon to quickly set Ad-aware for a complete system scan.
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| To start scanning, press the appropriate Button in the titlescreen..
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| · | While scanning..
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| Depending on your selection, the scan may take from a second up to a few minutes.
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| The progressbar indicates the remaining time for the current operation.
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| Watch the "summary" section while scanning, it gives you an overview about detected spyware components.
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| In this example, a known spyware component was found active in memory, you'll see the type
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| and name later in the resultlist when the scan is finished.
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| Ignored items will be listed under "Componentes ignored" and mentoined in the logfile, but not further processed.
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| Most important is the counter reading "New components", it shows only unexpected components which are not in the ignorelist.
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| Once the scan is complete, you should take a look in the logfile Ad-aware has generated.
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| If spyware has been detected, it is recommended to save it to disk for later analysis.
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| Click the "continue" button to obtain a list of all detected components (if any).
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| Note:To abort scanning, click the "Abort" button to return to the titlescreen immediately.
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| · | If new spyware components have been detected on your system..
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| If no (or only ignored) components are found during the scan, a message box will appear after clicking the
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| "continue" button, indicating that no new components have been detected.
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| But if (as in the above example) spyware components have been recognized during the scan, a new window will
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| appear after pressing continue, featuring a list showing all detected components.
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| Each item in the list features 3 fields:
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| Type : the type of resource, where M = module, K = registry-key, V = registry value and F = folder.
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| System : the advertising system to which this component belongs.
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| Details : details about the particular item, can be a path-name, registry value etc.
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| Move and hold your mouse over an item to get more details, like the rootkey and position in the list.
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| To select\deselct an item, use its checkbox at the left.
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| Note:To sort the list according to a categorie, click the appropriate column tab.
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| Right click in the result list to open the following popup-menu :
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| The options have the following functions:
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| · | Check\Uncheck all - selects all or none items in the list.
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| · | Jump to key - if RegHance 2.0 or later is installed, you can jump directly to the selected registry key using this item.
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| · | Show properties - shows the file-properties tab if an file is selected.
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| · | Move sel.items to ignorelist - chose this option if you want to IGNORE an advertising system in the future
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| · | Backup selected items - create a backup and include all selected components.
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| · | Continue - continue cleaning your system, all selected components will be removed.
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| Note: the Backup,Exclude and Continue options have appropriate buttons at the screen bottom.
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| To open a selected registry key with RegHance, make sure you have specified the RegHance installation folder on the
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| configuration\paths page.
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| When you decide to make a backup, you will be asked for a filename first, then the backup will be created.
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| The progressbar indicates the remaining time for creating the backup.
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| This may take a few seconds, as all items will be compressed. Read more about backups below.
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| If you want to ignore certain components, select all items you want to ignore and click the "exclude" Button.
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| Ignored items will be removed from the resultlist.
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| Finally choose the items you want to remove, and click the "continue" button.
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| Ad-aware will now remove the selected components- and you are done.
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| Note:Sometimes it is not possible to remove an component without rebooting first.
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| · | Reinstalling components from a backup
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| If you wish to re-install components you previously removed using Ad-aware, open the backup-manager from the
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| Titlescreen (use the button shown below), and choose the desired backup in the following list.
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| After selecting the backup, click the "Restore" button to start the installation.
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| (As the backups are compressed, decompressing + installing might take a few seconds)
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| The "Backups" button in the titlescreen opens the backup manager.
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| Note: When started, Ad-aware scans the specified backup-folder for valid backups to build this list.
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| If you change the backup-path using the configurtation menu, you should move your backups to the new path in order
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| to access them with Ad-aware.
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| The following example shows two backups.
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| Notice that the size of the "timesink" backup is significant smaller then the webhancer backup as it only contains registry keys.
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| To delete a backup, click the "delete" button at the bottom of the window, or use the appropriate menu item.
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| Right-click on an item to open a popup-menu, featuring options to restore and delete backups.
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| To return to the titlescreen, click the "ok" button.
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| · | Editing the "Ignorelist"
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| Sometimes you want to keep an particular snoopware system remaining on your system, and don't want Ad-aware to detect
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| its components over and over again.For this purpose an ignorelist has been implemented in Ad-aware 5.0.
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| You find the ignorelist under configuration\ignorelist.
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| ..Click this button to open the preferences menu.
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| When you first start Ad-aware, this list will be completely empty.
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| To add items to the ignorelist, follow these steps:
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| First scan your system, continue until the scan result-list.
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| Check all items you want to be ignored by Ad-aware in the future, and click the "exclude" button. (or use the appropriate menu item).
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| Any item in this list will be treaten seperately by Ad-aware, it will still be recognized, but not show up in the scan-result list or
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| getting removed when you run Ad-aware in the automatic mode.
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| Ignored items will be listed in the logfile with a remark, and counted during the scan as beeing ignored.
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| To remove items from the ignorelist, open the ignorelist-tab in the configuration window,
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| check the items in question and click the "remove checked items" button.
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| Note:Ad-aware shares the ignorelist (and the referencefile) with Ad-watch.
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| The ignorelist will be saved in the Ad-aware folder under the name "ignorelst"
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Setting up Ad-aware...
| After installing, you should customize Ad-aware to best fit your needs.
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| On the title screen, click the "Configuration" button to get into the configuration menu.
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| Read here about the General and Additional options pages.
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| For an explanation of the Ignorelist, please conisder the "getting started" page in this document.
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| On this page you can set some basic options and specify the used language module.
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| Please notice that pressing "cancel" will not save your changes, to use the new settings you must close the configuration menu with the "proceed" button.
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| The ignorelist is the only exception, any changes will be saved to disk immediately.
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| Explanation of the different options :
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| Mark all references found by default
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| If set, all items in the result list will be marked for deletion after a scan.
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| You can of course check or uncheck them manually too.
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| (On the pop up menu in the list screen, there is also an menu item for checking or unchecking all items)
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| Scan on Windows startup
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| If set, Ad-aware will auto start when you start a new Windows session.
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| The sections specified in the scan-selection list will be used.
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| Safe mode (always ask confirmation)
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| Check this option if you want to be explicitly asked before any actions will be performed by Ad-aware.
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| This affects removing of spyware components, manipulations of list items, backups etc.
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| If you are new to Ad-aware, we highly recommend you leave this option checked.
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| Automatically remove all references found
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| This is an critical option, you should not use it unless you are absolutely sure
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| to remove any reference of advertising system recognized by Ad-aware.
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| If set, Ad-aware will remove any reference automatically.
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| All actions performed will be written to the log file.
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| If you use this feature, we highly recommend setting the 'Auto save log file' feature as well.
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| Important:
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| If Ad-aware detects that Web3000 has been installed, and replaced Wsock32.dll, no Web3000 references will be removed automatically.
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| For more information about this issue, please read the FAQ page in this manual.
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| Auto save log file
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| Check this option, if you want Ad-aware to save a log file every time automatically, regardless of the scanning result.
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| If Ad-aware does not detect any references, the log file will be saved after the scan.
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| Otherwise it will be saved after the cleaning process.
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| Enter a path name of your choice in the text box below, or use the button to browse.
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| If the entered path does not exist, it will be created.
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| You can also select a shared folder with write access in a network.
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| Language:
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| When started, Ad-aware searches the Ad-aware\Lang folder for language modules.
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| They will be displayed in this list.After changing the language, click proceed to activate the new settings.
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| Read here how to make your own language modules.
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| On this page you find more specific options, mainly used by Ad-aware plus.
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| Add "Scan with Ad-aware" to explorer context menu
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| If this feature is selected, you find an entry "Scan with Ad-aware" when right-clicking on a folder or drive.
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| Automatically remove files in use after rebooting
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| This allows the autmatic removal of some files that are in use while scanning, without the need of a complete rescan
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| after reboot.
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| Hide splashcreen at startup
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| As the name says, this option allows you to turn off the Ad-aware titlescreen shown during Ad-aware is loaded.
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| Play alarm sound if spyware was found
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| If this feature is enabled, a wave file (specified in the "Alarm-wave" ) will be playedallows the removal of some files that are in use while scanning, without the need of a reboot.
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| Use this feature with care.
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| Include additional process information
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| Shows details about the running processed, for example at what time it has been created or its priority class.
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| Include additional file information
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| Lists file details about recognized modules in the logfile, like version resources or the last time this file has been accessed.
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| Total spyware components removed
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| Shows you how many spyware components Ad-aware has removed from your system so far.
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| Click the eraser icon at the right to reset this value.
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Command line parameters
| You can run Ad-aware using command line parameters, this is usefull when you for example run Ad-Aware from a sheduler.
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| the syntax is executable /parameter
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| where executable is the filename of Ad-aware, ad-aware.exe by default.
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| The following commands are supported:
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| /auto = Run adaware in automatic mode
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| No user input is required, ad-aware will automatically scan and remove any recognized spyware reference.
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| We recommend passing the /log parameter along with the /auto parameter.
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| /hide = Minimize while running
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| Ad-aware does not show up while scanning.
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| This parameter makes sense only if automatic mode is also used.
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| /log (destination) = Creates and saves log file to the destination path
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| i.e. /log C:\Temp will store a log file in the C:\Temp folder, containing the date and time of scanning in the filename.
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| Please notice that this path will not be created by ad-aware, if the specified path is invalid, the logs will
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| be placed in the ad-aware folder.
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| If no destination path is given, logs will also be saved to the ad-aware folder.
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| /full = Performs a complete scan
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| If this parameter is used, Ad-aware will scan the memory, registry and all fixed drives, ignoring the user configuration
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| specified in the configuration menu.
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| example:
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| ad-aware.exe /auto /hide /log
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| This will run Ad-aware minimized, in automatic mode, and automatically store a log file.
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| There is a sample batch file included in your Ad-aware installation, you can open and modify it with Notepad.
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| Important:
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| If Ad-aware detects that Web3000 has been installed, and replaced Wsock32.dll,
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| no Web3000 references will be removed automatically.
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| For more information about this issue, please read the FAQ page in this manual
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Adding language modules
