Windows 7: New Ad aware problems

I called it a redirect issue due to not really knowing what to call it. I was not upset by your post, I was only trying to better explain what happened. I do normally run system restore but had only turned it off as to try and clean the system. I do remember there were times with xp that system restore had to be turned off to clean certain virus' from your system.

No worries, nobody's upset. With your personal data on a separate drive, it might be a good time for a clean install. If you don't want to go to that extreme, you could always do a Repair Install

Yeah tried a repair install and that didn't work computer was still locked so I did a clean install. Things are back up and running. Thanks for the suggestions that I can remember the next time it happens. Fully hoping it doesn't happen again. I don't think I will have a problem opening 32 bit programs as I have thrown ad aware off my list of programs to help clean a computer.

I had used Ad-Aware for years, but recently I had to uninstall the paid Pro version from my laptops (Win 7 Pro 64-bit and XP).

The main reason was that Ad-Aware gave incompatibility problems with Norton 360. After Lavasoft made some major changes to Ad-Aware, it became impossible to use: Slow start-ups, laptops hanging, Ad-Aware crashing and clashing with other anti-malware like SUPERantispyware.

Lavasoft's technical support instructed me to remove Norton 360, but I wouldn't dream of trying to replace Norton 360 with Ad-Aware Pro only. No matter, if they refer to some good results achieved in the occasional VirusBulletin tests. Very bad advice, indeed.

Another bad customer experience was that I did get no refund for the purchase of Ad-Aware Pro.

You better be careful if you plan to install Ad-Aware Pro on any machine, that has another real-time protection installed. I was stupid enough to ignore the complaints made by my machines, and finally had to reinstall the operating system on the Win 7 Pro laptop.

Ad-Aware and its latest database update is a huge installation package to download (almost 200 MB). It leaves you with a feeling, that the old code has been patched too many times.

I returned to my basic setup with Norton 360 v4 as the main protection and Malwarebytes and Iobit 360 as additional scanners (free versions). And Secunia PSI (free) to keep my software up-to-date. These work fine together, at least so far (December, 2011).

The reason why I use more than one protection, is of course the fact, that no single software is capable of protecting from all threats, and these provide at least a usable solution with three of them finding occasionally different types of malware.

Malwarebytes is solid package, with which I have never had any significant problems. Iobit security 360 is in my opinion a bit underrated, even though I would use it only as an additional scanner. There was a lot of talk about Iobit offending the intellectual property rights of Malwarebytes. It is clear, however, that it detects some threats better than Malwarebytes or Norton 360. And it is fast, which you appreciate every now and then.

Any additional malware detection by using Ad-Aware? There must be, but I only found one IP address, that Ad-Aware blocked access to while downloading torrents. I have had that IP under surveillance now, but no malware has come from there so far. I believe Lavasoft are still using Vipre virus definitions.

I think that the companies that sell Internet security software should pay extra attention to compatibility - at least as long as they are going more or less solo in keeping their detection databases up-to-date.