Free 1 year license of Lavasoft Ad-Aware Plus! (24 hours only this Friday!)
March 24, 2010 34
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Ad-Aware is a security software offered by Lavasoft. It comes in four different flavors and the features offered by the software vary on the version you have:
Ad-Aware Plus is the version users can get a 1 year license for free! The promotion is being sponsored by v3.co.uk and will only be open for 24 hours starting March 26, 2010. The promotion will start “from midday GMT, Friday 26th of March 2010 through to midday GMT, Saturday 27th of March 2010″. Take special note that the starting times are in GMT timezone; be sure to calculate what time 12 PM GMT is in your timezone (it is 8 AM EST for reference). Since the promotion has not started yet, I don’t have very much detail on how the promotion will work; the only thing I know is that the link for the free 1 year license will be available via v3.co.uk’s download section starting Friday.
Thanks Luffy!
I was a beta tester for Ad-Aware Pro. For years, I’d used Ad-Aware before it went commercial. It worked, I liked it, and tended to install it along with Spybot and SpywareBlaster routinely on machines. During the beta testing, I couldn’t help but notice how the size ballooned and the overall usefulness of the program diminished. Ad-Aware was a fine program until bloat took it over, imo. I haven’t used it in years. (For that matter, I no longer use Spybot and SB, but for much different reasons.)
Still, it may fit some of your readers’ needs, if not mine. Ymmv. Thanks for the alert.
@OldElmerFudd: I am not a fan of Ad-Aware either, for much of the same reason as you just stated.
Ad-Aware Free failed to install properly, but seemed to work fine, but became kinda glitchy. I uninstalled it after and installed Malwarebyte instead. I did that on my Win XP Laptop… I might get that if the product key doesn’t expire in less than 30 days or so. :)
Please also mention when the key would expire if I don’t activate it too Ashraf!
~Joji~
@OldElmerFudd:
I was happy – before the monstrous installation bloat.
Suddenly I had the latest download which produced a similar sized monstrosity some where in C:, which had to be run to unpack an MSI installer that finally detected and removed cookies – and no longer had the ability to be removed unless the MSI installer was retained.
Horror of horrors, I found that it was no longer content to scan on my demand, it insisted upon launching its *.exe junk processes, interfering with my real-time requirements, and when I used Windows Task manager to end the offending process I was only successful for 2 or 3 minutes, and then it launched itself again, and again, and again.
I went back to the previous version and was happy until they no longer supplied compatible signature/whatever updates, and then I decided I would rather lose a little “cookie privacy” than to use their real-time killer.
At no time did it actually detect/remove any cookie with significant risk – perhaps because CCleaner was (and is) keeping the situation under control.
Alan
Oldelmer:
Wow, talk about resonance: your experience exactly mirrored mine. The app’s debut version was light, slim, fast (I think it even pre-dated Spybot by a short time.)
Then as Spybot racked up supporters, Lavasoft for some unfathomable reason not only took the bellows to their freeware and puffed it up mightily, they also messed it up mightily, too: an updated version I ran repeatedly crashed and generally caused more harm than good.
Finally, finally. . . another version sorted out the problems of its predecessor, though at the expense of yet more bloat.
That’s when I walked away. (And have done subsequently with Spybot.)
Computing’s like life: everything changes; nothing stays the same. Apps that once were indispensable to me are now apps I’ll take pains to avoid — including, Lavasoft’s Ad Aware.
is it ok to run ad-aware plus with other antivirus? as we all know that ad-aware plus has full an-virus feature……..
Hi!
My own experience from useing Lavasoft Ad-Aware reminds me from what is mentioned already.
Actualy the free version was the first cleaning tool I used for get rid of spyware and cookies.
After a while I’ve heard of the project Norman had with Lavasoft and changed over to their AntiSpyware product instead. Was useing it during a short time but had to leave it when I understood how much power it took and how little difference it made.
Like other saying, useing CCleaner together with a good Antimalware are much much better.
I do not recommend Norman Antispyware product to anyone in this moment as it’s extremly hungry in resources and buggy.
went to the site you gave and even after searching for it in downloads…nothing! why?
@Peccadilloes:
Peccadilloes – it’s not yet start of the business day in the UK. Should be up in 2-3 hours.
Same as #8. Searched all over the site, got a great coloring book for my kids, but nothing mentioned in this article.
@DrLongBear: As Annie said, that is because it hasn’t started yet.
it has started:
http://store.v3.co.uk/?act=details&id=4636
its only for members.
membership is free.
activation is only valid for today.
(I will bypass…)
ready now. must register first to login.I installed over free w/o uninstalling. shows lic in place. does want a restart of comp .
says av but no conflict so far with my av installed. think it just uses during scan ,hopefully. do not see a way to turn off lavas av so built in?
The promotion is out already, here’s the link: http://www.v3.co.uk/vnunet/downloads/2213414/ad-aware-plus
Enjoy your free AV product!
~Joji~
Watch during installation because it wants to install chrome browser so if you don’t want chrome do NOT just click through the install people!And my install did not automatically license itself so at present I have the free version
Hi, I Would just echo what others have said…I used to use it several years ago quite happily. As other AV’s and spyware detectors got faster, smaller and more effective, lavasoft became increasingly bloated and strangely ineffective (comparatively) Once a leader, now something I personally would not use for free!
this is garbage and does not work even after becoming a member of their site. garbage in garbage out. too much effort for garbage software anyway. good bye garbage truck, too many hoops for this non-conformist.
@raven:
To all still interested:
I’m one who d/l early on but it is the free version.
Why?
from their forums:
1″Note that the download servers are being hammered as everyone wants the download (which is 104MB) immediately. Be patient. Please don’t abuse us (like some of the comments) as the FREE download isn’t instantly available.
If need be, we’ll allow the promotion to run beyond 24 hours, so everyone can download.”
Al
Also, they have other freebies: the link:
http://store.v3.co.uk/?act=search&cat=13
“More Category/Brand Titles
Backup4all Lite 4.3 RRP: $19.95 Save: $19.95 (100%) Our Price: $0.00
Protect yourself from data disasters with this straightforward backup tool. Free full current version commercial software worth $19.95. Follow the instructions on the ‘More Info’ page to get your serial code.
Ashampoo WinOptimizer 2010 Advanced RRP: $49.99 Save: $49.99 (100%) Our Price: $0.00
Clean, tune and tweak your PC with this one-stop utility suite
Ashampoo Burning Studio 2010 Our Price: $0.00
This powerful easy-to-use free commercial burning suite will enable you to get the most from your discs
Ashampoo Magical Snap 2.50 RRP: $9.99 Save: $9.99 (100%) Our Price: $0.00
Take multiple screen grabs, then edit or annotate them with this powerful PrtSc replacement
Ashampoo Photo Commander 6.6 RRP: $39.99 Save: $39.99 (100%) Our Price: $0.00
Manage your photos more effectively using this free full software
Ashampoo Slideshow Studio 2010 Our Price: $0.00
Easily convert your favourite digital photos into professional video slideshows, with subtitles, soundtracks and image transitions.”
Al
Can’t make the account for some odd reason… any help?
I didn’t get an activation email after 20 mins!
~Joji~
Ashraf, I went there with 17 hours left (within the past hour)and after joining and receiving the confirmation email – plus the obligatory click to confirm – and it still will not accept my user name or password – so, no download…from the comments here though, I am pretty sure I most probably lucked out not getting to download it…sorry, preposition was all I could think of to end the sentence. :-)
I registered with the site and have tried over and over to log in and always get told that I am an invalid. I always knew it would come to this. Good bye, cruel world…
D-Link for download Ad-Aware Plus: http://hotfile.com/dl/34827953/19e1c3a/Ad-Aware_565-afublog.com.exe.html
I registered and got confirmation after 2 hours. Same experience others – It says my user name and password are invalid. So, no software for me, either.
@ 18, yourpalal:
Amazing to learn the Ad Aware download is 104Mb.
My Malwarebytes installation is 4Mb, winPatrol less than 2Mb, and the entire fully-loaded Online Armor firewall + anti-virus, 143Mb.
Quite what it is that this version of Ad Aware is intended to replace on a user’s machine — and at that size, it really must be replacing a lot of apps — I’ve no idea.
104MB though. Ye Gods.