Southern Illinois University at Carbondale Information Technology

LAVASOFT's Ad-aware 6.181 Standard Edition SpyWare Removal Utility

This document explains how to download and install LAVASOFT's Ad-aware program, Version 6, Build 181, which was current as of 5 November 2003. The version and build numbers will change over time, but the instructions presented herein will remain applicable. Ad-aware 6 is compatible with Windows 98 through Windows XP.

If you prefer to skip directly to the installation procedure, go to the "Installing Ad-aware" heading below. If you would like to read an in-depth document about spyware, point your browser to the CSC's spyware document.

As you surf web sites, your movements are steadily being tracked. Webmasters and other information specialists do this by programming their servers to store "spyware" on your hard drive. "Spyware" is that rarity in computer terminology, a self-defining term. Spying tactics include "cookies," which are text files web servers store on your hard drive; they keep track of the web sites you visit. When you return to a web site you have visited before, this cookie is retrieved, and your surfing and possibly your shopping habits can be analyzed. Advertisers can thereby more efficiently direct advertisements (via e-mail, snail mail, and telemarketing) at you. Data brokers can assemble and sell your personal and surfing profiles to any marketers they please. Most of these cookies are harmless, except for the annoying e-mail spam. But if your hard drive collects a large number of cookies, your web browsing will be slowed down because of the back-and-forth cookie traffic, which is multiplied for all of us by the millions of web browsers on the Internet. Of course, you can set your browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape, etc.) to refuse cookies, but you will quickly discover you are blocked from many web sites unless you let them set a cookie on your hard drive. If you try the middle ground, telling your browser to intercept cookies and ask your permission to set them on your hard drive, again you will quickly find yourself driven to distraction. Most people opt to live with cookies.

Another spyware tactic is potentially disruptive and could force you to reinstall your operating system. Most of us are used to seeing pop-up ads when we use certain software, such as a media (audio/video) player. The usual arrangement is to give away a software program, like a media player, but the "price" you pay is having to watch these pop-up ads. Often, you can opt to buy an ad-free version of the software. But a new trend has emerged on the Internet: surfers are given what looks like an ad-free program, but it actually has spyware hidden within that, among other things, reroutes your navigation through internet domains to a non-SIU computer. Web addresses (what follows the "http://") are thereafter looked up on this non-SIUC domain server. This lets the owner of that computer watch you even more closely than the cookie tactic. This can continue indefinitely without your knowledge; you may or may not notice your web browser slowing down. But if the non-SIUC computer you have been rerouted to goes off-line, your browser is then unable to look up web addresses, and you are stranded. Resetting the domain name server (DNS) to SIUC is sometimes impossible; CSC staff have frequently had to resort to a complete reinstall of the operating system.

You are not made aware all this is going on, and this brings us to the subject of the Ad-Aware software. This program can detect cookies and other spyware on your hard drive. It is able to comprehensively scan your memory, registry, hard, removable and optical drives for known datamining, aggressive advertising, and tracking components. It compiles a list of the spyware--cookies and other files--and lets you automate their deletion. There is NO GUARANTEE Ad-aware will find all spyware on your computer, but CSC staff does consider it a useful tool for removing potentially harmful junk software.

Please be aware that there is no substitute for a good antivirus program, which can block intrusions into your computer. Information Technology has made the McAfee antivirus suite available to all SIU students, faculty, and staff at no charge. Contact the Computer Support Center, 453-5155, if you have questions about installing this antivirus software.

Installing Ad-aware:

If you have not already done so, create a directory on your hard drive so you can download the Ad-Aware program into it. This software is a single program, "aawsepersonal.exe" at this writing, that has a built-in extractor and installer. It will ask you a few simple questions and then install itself after you answer the questions. For simplicity's sake, download this program into its own directory. You can erase aaw6.exe after the installation completes.

The LAVASOFT corporation creates and distributes Ad-aware; point your web browser to its home page at http://www.lavasoftUSA.com/. The page is an excellent source of information about Ad-aware.

On this home page you will see a download link, http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/.

After you navigate to that page, choose a download site from a list on that page. You should be able to download the software from any one of the sites.

Download the program, which is a single file, into the folder you created.

Double-click the aaw6.exe, which launches the installation process. When it finishes, you will see your new Ad-aware 6 icon on your Windows desktop. .

Double-clicking the icon will run the Ad-aware program.

Click the "Scan now" button to launch Ad-aware's search of your computer's memory and hard drive(s).

Let it search your entire computer the first time you use just to get familiar with what it does and how long it takes. It will list all the cookies and other spyware on your computer and you can opt to delete any or all of them.