erpguy6

if all fails, try the standalone Lavasoft ad-aware installer here. unfortunately, I recently downloaded this super huge standalone installer and it contained the outdated Ad-aware software version 11.1.5354.0 and not the updated one which is 11.2.5952.0. looks like the folks at Lavasoft did not revise/update the big standalone install package to have Ad-aware 11.2.

just simply go to the lavasoft registration page and get a new license to continue using Ad-aware Free edition. I did this in the past one time and it was painless. I know Avast AV has a similar registration process to renew license for avast free edition.

have u tried reinstalling Ad-aware 11 and doing a custom install, epictetus? meaning uninstalling it, reboot and when u run installation, select the option that says "Install as a second line of defense only". this will only install Ad-aware 11 as an on-demand scanner and not have realtime protection features and not slow down your system. btw, how fast is your computer? use either Microsoft System Information tool (msinfo32.exe) or DirectX Diagnostic tool (dxdiag.exe) to gather type and speed of your CPU chip and RAM. I'm currently using Ad-aware Free Antivirus 11 on an old Dell laptop with an Intel Core Duo T2700 2.33GHz CPU, 2Gb of RAM and running 32bit Windows Vista SP2 Home Premium edition.

I'm not sure if cnet.com has version 11.1.5354.0 of the Ad-aware web installer but I get the installer from either softpedia.com or filehippo.com

a full offline installer download is not available for Ad-aware 11, unless Lavasoft decided to release a retail version on CDs

for those using Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, install the KB942288 update, which updates Windows Installer [MSI] to version 4.5. install MSI 4.5 before installing Ad-aware 11.

fatbaldretired, if you want to revert back to ad-aware version 10.5 you will have to download it here instead of from Lavasoft because they always offer the latest version on their web site. uninstall version 11 first, reboot your computer and then install version 10.5. as for me, I will wait for at least a "point one" release of Ad-aware 11 like version 11.1 to fix most of the recent problems with Ad-aware 11.0. i'm happy with using the 10.5 version.

Now that Windows 8.1 was released yesterday October 17 (or October 18 on those living in other parts of the globe), the folks at Lavasoft should answer this very important question. Is Ad-aware 11 compatible with Windows 8.1? The Ad-aware 11 Product Manual and the System Requirement pages mention Windows 8 BUT they do NOT mention Windows 8.1. These need to be updated to mention 8.1. Doing a recent search on Windows 8.1 compatibility at the Microsoft site about Ad-aware Free says no compatibility info for those products and the versions listed there. Heck Ad-aware version 11 is not even listed there, only versions 10 and earlier. The folks at Lavasoft should contact Microsoft and have them publish some compatibility info on the newly released versions of Ad-aware.

well CeciliaB, Paco could install Ad-aware 10.5 on minimum of WinXP SP2 as noted on the System Requirements section of the Ad-aware 10 Manual on the Lavasoft web site but he will need to install either Windows Installer 3.1 or Windows Installer 4.5 because XP SP2 contains an old & outdated version of Windows Installer. Windows XP SP3 already contains Windows Installer 3.1. If the errors continue after installing Windows Installer (MSI) 3.1 or 4.5 on WinXP SP2, then he should upgrade XP SP2 to XP SP3 level (if using a 32bit version of XP; there is no SP3 for 64bit versions of XP) and then install Windows Installer 4.5 and then try to install Ad-aware 10.5. And he should also try downloading and installing the full (offline) Ad-aware 10.5 installer from this Filehippo.com page.

also, run the Microsoft System Information Tool (msinfo32.exe) to determine whether you are using a 32bit (x86) or 64bit (x64) edition of Windows Vista and what kind of laptop (name brand and model number) you are using.

why does it take "too long" on your computer, ebloch? do you have a slow computer or are you doing a full scan instead of a quick scan? I'm using Ad-aware on a computer with an Intel i5 2nd generation processor and it does not take long - only a few minutes since I usually run either a quick scan or a custom scan.

I nearly beg to differ on downloading updates manually. whatever updates are downloaded (program and definition updates), they seem to be recorded in the SBAMSvcLog.csv file located in the \ProgramData\Lavasoft\AntiMalware\Logs\ or \Documents and Settings\All Users\Lavasoft\AntiMalware\Logs folder. I view the contents of that csv file in Notepad and copy the link to any failed download update and just download from a third party download manager (like either Download Accelerator Plus or Getright) whenever my computers have a slow and unreliable internet connection. CeciliaB, can you post some release notes about Ad-aware 10.5? thanks.

or switch from using avast antivirus to using AVG antivirus while keeping ad-aware 9, Gio7707. I've used AVG in the past and it's very good and gets along well with Windows 8 and is less problematic than avast.

I'm having the exact same problem as elijathomas777, CeciliaB. I guess the Lavasoft server(s) recently are either not working well or overcrowded, thus ad-aware definition update downloads are very slow and suddenly time out after little or no activity. or ad-aware has problems connecting to the lavasoft server for updates but other web sites work okay. this is where I miss downloading ad-aware definition updates manually.

what version of Microsoft Security Essentials do you have installed, DKielby? did you upgrade MSE to the latest version, which is 4.1? I have Ad-aware 10.4 and MSE 4.1.522.0 and they seem to co-exist peacefully on my Win7 computer - no conflicts between them.