I downloaded Adaware 6 last night. It automatically did a scan right away. I got rid of several hundred adware and malware files. I assume this is a good thing.

My questions are.......how often should this scan be done i.e. every day, every week, at startup, etc.?

And, is there a way to do it automatically, or is manually beter, or does it not matter? Thank you for any help.

Adaware may have an option to automatically scan, but I've never used it-- there may be documentation on Lavasoft's website for that.

But, usually I recommend running it every couple of weeks, or sooner, if things "don't feel right". The last piece there is very subjective; you, being the user of your system, would be the best person to tell when things aren't working like they should.

ad aware works fine if you scan like every two weeks you might want to use spybot or spyhunter also. the plugins for ad aware are helpful. make sure to check for updates often also so that it updates what files are bad for your computer

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the thing about spybot is that is mistakes useful software as spyware. i prefer adaware.

yes sometimes but it only safe deletes it does not delete any files that are necessary to your computer also just using adaware is not good enough adaware only finds programs that are linked to ad software not programs that are linked to useless spyware programs. adaware is better and finds more faults in your system, but spybot alwats finds somethings that adaware does not search for

I've read different opinions about Spybot. Some say it's great, while others say it changes the way their computer runs, and even changes the font sometimes. Some have said Adaware is enough, others not. In any event, thanks to everyone for the help.

i run spywareblaster and adaware and spybot, i run both adaware then spy bot. then i run spyware and check for updates and reimunize if neccesary. that way i dont have to scan very often.

another alternative to people worried about spyware/adware due to surfing 'riskay' sites or just surfing in general, would be linux. the number of spyware/adware on that OS pale in comparison to Windows, and its free, but the learning curve is much steeper.