From BDA7DD
According to this article http://www.spywareinfo.com/newsletter/a ... 252002.php on http://www.spywareinfo.com/, Ad-aware has really turned to shit lately. Ad-aware hasn't had a reference file update since September 24th, 2002, and it turns out that it's actually DANGEROUS to use Ad-aware nowadays due to the way it incorrectly cleans some forms of spyware that require great amounts of precision to clean without breaking your system and requiring you to reformat.
Here's the article for those of you who can't be arsed to click that link:
I was going to post this in SH/SC, but I figured that not many people would see this thread if it were just in there, and this is a very important issue which all of you should know about.I truly hate that it has come to this. Lavasoft's Ad-aware used to be a fine product. Not only was it the only free solution for finding and destroying advertising spyware, it was also a good program. However, Lavasoft has abandoned Ad-aware 5.83. Support is still offered at their support forums and via email, but the program is no longer being updated to handle new spyware targets. In fact, I feel that it is necessary to recommend to everyone that they simply remove Ad-aware version 5 entirely. Using it in its current, unupdated form can be, and has been proven to be dangerous.
Ad-aware has not had a reference file update since September 24. I've personally submitted over a dozen new spyware/hijacker targets and lord knows how many updates to old spyware/hijackers. Other developers on my private mailing list update when new targets are submitted to them. Lavasoft has not.
Take Common Name for example. I sent out a special alert about this and even asked all of my readers to post the warning on various message boards about how Common Name can damage your internet connection when removed improperly (thank you for doing that). It is a very dangerous piece of software if you remove it wrong, and thankfully most people took the warnings seriously.
Lavasoft did nothing to update its removal routines for the Common Name toolbar to protect its users. This means that using Ad-aware in its current state to remove CommonName Toolbar will leave you without an internet connection. This is not theory, it is fact. I've seen it happen to people.
Lavasoft has stated numerous times that the current version will not be further updated so that the next version 6 can be developed. Version 6 is now three and half weeks overdue, with no explanation of why it is not out yet, or any estimate of when it will be released.
Consider this for a moment. What if your anti-virus product suddenly stopped updating its detection files for months on end? What if dozens of new virii were released in the wild, and older virii mutated? You are stuck unprotected by a product that now cannot work properly. Would you demand your money back?
Are you one of the many who shelled out $15 USD for Ad-aware Plus so that you could have real-time protection against spyware installation? I don't know what Lavasoft's refund policy is, but personally I'd be looking it up if I had purchased this abandoned product.
Don't bother going to their support forums to complain about it. They have now made it a policy to delete postings which they do not like. They deleted posts by the founder of Comet Cursor in a running thread asking how to get Comet Cursor removed as a target. A representative of Spyware Nuker (see below) not only had his posts deleted, they actually banned his IP address from the boards. They've even had the gall to delete some of my posts, and I used to be an administrator there. It makes you wonder what Lavasoft has to hide that they have to delete posts and ban the posters like that. Several moderators and administrators have resigned in disgust over this practice, myself included.
For these reasons, SpywareInfo will no longer host, mirror, or provide links to any Lavasoft software. I cannot endorse a product which could wreak havoc on the users system simply because the company refuses to update it.
If you want my personal recommendation of an alternative spyware cleaner, I strongly recommend Spybot S&D. http://security.kolla.de/ It's free, it's updated VERY frequently, and it even has a built-in update utility to update both the reference files AND the program itself (!) which can be set to auto-update every time you run the program (much better than Lavasoft's retarded approach where you have to download a seperate program to update the reference files.)
Oh, and for those of you worried about that shitfuckery at Macrovision with their new "copy protection" called "SafeCast" -- a program which is really just thinly-veiled spyware that installs itself as a kernel-level driver and is nearly impossible to get rid of without a reformat, -- Spybot S&D can remove that safely and easily WITHOUT needing to reformat. However, you'll need to run Spybot S&D after every time after you finish using a program that uses SafeCast, as SafeCast will reinstall itself every time you run the program it came with.
Well, I hope this information is useful to you guys. I'm pretty sure this isn't a redux since I did quite a few forum searches to make sure this wasn't mentioned before, but if I missed another thread about this somehow, be nice and just post a link, there's no need for any "welcome to last ____" image macros or what have you.
