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If you have a question that is not answered here, please click HERE to visit the official Lavasoft forum.
Frequently asked questions..
Q: What is spyware?
A: The term "Spyware" covers advertising systems which secretly uses your internet connection to
download banner-ads or send various user data to a third parties server - with or without knowledge of the user.
These companies build user profiles for statistical data, or they sell it to third parties to do target advertising.
Often an attractive "Free" host application is used to transport the parasite.
Nearly all spyware systems hide their intentions (Gathering user specific information) behind a nice privacy policy,
shown during or before the installation of their (customers) software.Anyway, it is like the "fine print on the back of the ceiling".
In our experience most of the time people where not aware of the fact that they install an advertising parasite when they
installed the so called "freeware" application.When you decide to uninstall the host application (the freeware),
the spyware will remain active on your system.
This so called "freeware" is not free at all, it may cost your privacy or at least bandwidth and cpu resources.
Since no trojan \ virusscanner scans for them, it is not trivial to remove them entirely or even detect them.
Q: How does it get installed on my system?
A: In most cases by downloading and installing a "freeware" program, but today even retail software can contain advertising systems.
Q: How do i know before installing, if a program contains spyware?
A: If you have Ad-watch installed, make sure it is running before you start the installation of the application in question.
If it tries to install an spyware system, you'll get realtime information and the installation will be blocked.
Furthermore you may use the free Ad-search utility from Jason Loefer, that contains a regularly updated list of known spyware,
This program and the latest database is available on our page at www.lavasoftUSA.com
Or have a look at the "Spychecker" online database at www.spychecker.com (great!)
Q: Where can i get more Information about spyware?
A: Follow the discussions on the official Lavasoft forums at
Please check www.voiceofthepublic.com for the latest news, hints and how to's.
On our privacy related links page you'll find a selection of recommended websites.
Q: What does Ad-aware do?
A: Basically, Ad-aware will scan your system for known advertising parasites and lets you remove them.
It does this by scanning your memory, registry and file system for known components and shows you the result in an detailled list.
From there you can decide which items to remove, backup or keep remaining.
If a spyware module was found in memory, it means the spyware was active until Ad-aware detected and
unloaded the particular module.
For example if TSADBOT.EXE was found in your memory, it means that Timesink is not only installed, but was a
lso active until it has been detected.
Under Windows, nearly all of your internet and general system settings are stored in the registry.
Ad-aware will scan parts of your registry for modifications or values and references to known spyware.
Finally, your hard drive(s) will be scanned for known spyware files.
After the scanning process, you can view a list of all spyware references residing on your system,
and select for removal.
In short: Ad-aware helps you to track down and get rid of advertising parasites.
Make sure you always use the latest referencefile, which is updated regulary and can be downloaded from one of our mirrors.
Q: Will my program still work?
A: It depends on the program you are using, some will continue to work, after you
removed the adware, and some don't.
We do not have time to test every program individually, if you would like more information
regarding a specific program, please go to our forum.
Some programs (I.e. GoZilla) will definitely not work without the advertising system installed,
but there are alternatives to any of these programs.
Generally if an application is available without ads (only the shareware version is ad-sponsored), you have a good chance it keeps working.
Q: Is it true that program XXX contain the YYYY-parasite?
A: Please see the Answer to "How do i know before installing, if a program contains spyware?" above.
Q: Why did my program stopped working?
A: In most cases, the program could still work without the advertising system, as its code is usually separated
from the code of the host application. But If the hostfile tries to call a function from a missing library , it may shut down.
Sometimes the programmer included a check for the presence of a particular file, and closes the application if it can't be located.
Q: How come my program is still working?
A: ;-)
Q: What is the difference between the regular and the plus version?
A: Ad-aware plus includes additional features and the Ad-watch spyware-monitor is included.
Q: Can Ad-aware only remove the ads and keep the Application running?
A: No, this is not our intention (and would not be legal btw.)
You have the possibility to block the internet access of particular files, but remember that
the parasite still resides on your system, even if it is not transmitting data.
In some cases removing the spyware system does not harm the host application.
Q: How do i use the "reflist.sig" file, and what is it for?
A: The reflist file is used by Ad-aware like a signature file by a virus scanner.
It contains information such as, to what advertising system a particular component belongs, and how to treat it.
After you've downloaded and unzipped this file, please move it to the Ad-aware\Ad-watch folder and replace
any former version.
We will update this file frequently, please make sure you have the latest version installed.
The version number is shown at the status bar in the Ad-aware window,
Ad-watch will output this number in the first line when loaded.
We will supply a small tool soon that allows to automate this process.
Q: What's up with "Web3000" you've mentioned before?
A: Some Web3000 installations replace (without telling you of course) an important system library, WSock32.dll.
If Ad-aware detects that this file has been replaced by Web3000 on your system, you'll get a warning message.
If you get this message, we highly recommend you use the Web3000 uninstaller prior to removing any Web3000 references with Ad-aware.
If you run Ad-aware with the parameter /full or /auto, no Web3000 references will automatically get deleted if
WSock32.dll has been replaced.
Q: How do i get rid of this darn DoubleClick cookie?
A: Doubleclick offers an optout feature on their web site, once you've installed their optout cookie, Ad-aware
will no longer mark it as spyware (it will be noticed in the log file).
Q:I run Ad-watch minimized.Sometimes the Ad-watch icon in my tray aera flashes red,
but stops after a second or so.Why is this?
A:This indicates that either an application tried to load a recognized spyware module\registry key,
or an attempt to store a known tracking cookie was blocked.
Doubleclick on the Ad-watch tray-icon (or use the pop-up menu) to open the log-window, you'll find the details
Q:When opening Ad-watch I get a warning string in the logwindow saying "warning!reference file not found!",
while Ad-aware loads the ref.file correctly.
A:Most likely you have moved Ad-watch to a different folder then Ad-aware.
In this case you must also copy the referencefile into the same folder.By default Ad-aware, Ad-watch & the referencefile are installed in one folder.
As the Ignorelist is also shared between AAW+AD-Watch, it is recommended to leave all files in the same folder.
Q:When Ad-watch calls Ad-aware, i get a message saying "Waiting for Ad-aware to finish.".why is this?
A:This is required to avoid conflicts while opening\removing files during the scanning with Ad-aware.
Q: What is a cookie ?
A: A Client Side Persistent Cookie is a small text file, only a few bytes in size.
It is used to store information on your hard drive. A cookie has a limited lifetime.
The size of the cookie can never exceed 4 kb.
Q: Are cookies dangerous?
A: The answer is no.(NOTE:We are referring to "real" cookies here, this excludes exectuable files with a temporary *.txt file extension)
A cookie is a pure text file, and can never contain any exe files or viruses.
Normally only the web server that has created the cookie can get it in return.
However some web browsers have a programming error (bug) that will allow a specially crafted web page
to read cookies not sent from it's own server. In most cases it is not possible for anybody else,
that does not have physical access to your computer, to snoop around among your cookies and
see which sites you have visited.
However, some cookies do assign you a unique identifier, that means you will be identified when you return to the
web site. Some personally (i.e. Doubleclick) - some not.
Q: How long will a cookie remain on your system?
A:cookie does not stay on your system forever. Normally the cookie will be stored in your Random Access Memory (RAM)
and will be deleted as soon as you close your browser.
Anyhow there are cookies that will not be deleted, unless you do it manually.
Q: What is a secure cookie?
A: These kind of cookies can only be written to your system if your connection is encrypted.