# 1034 New Objects Found - What's your personal record for AdAware? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 28, 2004, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1034-new-objects-found-whats-your-personal-record-for-adaware/281902 "2004-12-28T06:19:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1034-new-objects-found-whats-your-personal-record-for-adaware/281902/1 "2004-12-28T06:19:16Z")
After a long overdue installation of anti-spyware software, I found an uninspired 1,034 possible spywares. This was both expected, owing to years and years of IE use before installing Mozilla, and disapointing, seeing how I would of hoped for more. So, when you first installed AdAware, how much crap was really built up on your system? Perhaps the winner will recieve a free copy of Xupiter to really test out those new-found skills or something. ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1034-new-objects-found-whats-your-personal-record-for-adaware/281902/2 "2004-12-28T10:22:21Z")
I’m a tech for a living and fix computers on the side. The record so far is over 9,000. This was on a computer in a halfway house. It was a huge mess. Slee ---
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1034-new-objects-found-whats-your-personal-record-for-adaware/281902/3 "2004-12-28T11:50:07Z")
Why just last week I got 917 hits on my parents’ computer. My friend claims to have reached four or five thousand, if memory serves, so I’ll just drop that in on his behalf. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1034-new-objects-found-whats-your-personal-record-for-adaware/281902/4 "2004-12-28T12:10:13Z")
2,995 hits on my aunt’s PC which I spent far too long fixing over Christmas. Turns out running in safe mode is the clincher. Man, I hate CoolWebSearch. Also, while I can’t remember the number of hits, but I do remember working out that my flatmate’s laptop was at least 5% spyware the last time I cleared it out for him. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1034-new-objects-found-whats-your-personal-record-for-adaware/281902/5 "2004-12-28T15:24:55Z")
Over 2,200 ---
**Author:** ![GrizzRich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ba0ec/32.png) [@GrizzRich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrizzRich)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1034-new-objects-found-whats-your-personal-record-for-adaware/281902/6 "2004-12-28T16:04:52Z")
My work computer had over 3000 according to the tech who ran the spyware-catching program. I was the lone person in my company who still used a dial-up because VPN I was using didn’t play nice with our firewall. They made this discovery when they finally were able to make the switch so I could get rid of my modem. ---
**Author:** ![Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wonko_The_Sane)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1034-new-objects-found-whats-your-personal-record-for-adaware/281902/7 "2004-12-29T05:39:06Z")
I had one person who regularly had 400+ show up in ad-aware, and I visited every month or so. Since then, I had another customer with 550. No anti-virus, and several versions of a very popular P2P program. I shudder to think what kind of viruses she had. ---
**Author:** ![Freejooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba8739/32.png) [@Freejooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freejooky)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1034-new-objects-found-whats-your-personal-record-for-adaware/281902/8 "2004-12-29T06:24:38Z")
Almost 6,000 on my in-laws’ PC. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1034-new-objects-found-whats-your-personal-record-for-adaware/281902/9 "2004-12-29T22:56:35Z")
Zero. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1034-new-objects-found-whats-your-personal-record-for-adaware/281902/10 "2004-12-29T23:46:10Z")
A certain **Cecil Adams** had [1,690 critical objects](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/041015.html) on his PC. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1034-new-objects-found-whats-your-personal-record-for-adaware/281902/11 "2004-12-30T00:03:30Z")
The largest number of instances of spyware found on my computer at the same time is three. That’s what AdAware found on its first scan, hidden in the registry. I block all cookies except for those I absolutely need, and pop-ups. After I’ve been to a new website I look in the cookies list and delete any that weren’t there before I started, and block them from reappearing. Works fine for me! ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1034-new-objects-found-whats-your-personal-record-for-adaware/281902/12 "2004-12-30T02:11:01Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > Zero. 😃 Describing yourself again? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1034-new-objects-found-whats-your-personal-record-for-adaware/281902/13 "2004-12-30T03:12:53Z")
I hit over 1600 today checking out a computer for an SP2 upgrade. And that was a faculty machine. I don’t work with student computers, but I suspect that’s nowhere near the record. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1034-new-objects-found-whats-your-personal-record-for-adaware/281902/14 "2004-12-30T07:48:50Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > Describing yourself again? Don’t be jealous. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1034-new-objects-found-whats-your-personal-record-for-adaware/281902/15 "2004-12-30T21:24:40Z")
\ That is not a small number! \ ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1034-new-objects-found-whats-your-personal-record-for-adaware/281902/16 "2004-12-30T21:42:20Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > Don’t be jealous. 😉 Jealous of a self-proclaimed zero? You gotta be kidding.