Many spyware agents do not prompt you in any way. Xupiter is the worst offender that comes to mind, using an ActiveX exploit to hop onto your browser without so much as a popup.
Ad Aware 6.0 is excellent. I’ve had no problems with it, and it’s much cleaner than previous versions.
Spybot Search and Destroy ( from http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=download ) lists eAcceleration as a Spybot :
http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=knowledgebase/threats/spybots-eacceleration
Ad aware is good, some people think Spybot is better.
Eacceleration is evil. kill it.
eAcceleration’s tactic is reminsicient of another underhanded group, Scientology. (Yes, I’m going off on a tangent. Why? 'Cause I can. :D) Scientology, whenever it’s pinned to the wall with a charge it can’t semi-legally attack its way out of, it levels charges of religious bigotry and First Amendment violations against whoever’s the most dangerous.
Which, when you think of it, is like the Mafia attacking RICO statutes with the `free association’ clause of the First Amendment.
IOW, it’s a blind by a deeply unscrupulous organization that’s so terrified of AdAware it needs you to remove it before it can proceed with its destruction of your machine.
http://xenu.net – Reliable info on Scientology.
[on a side note]
I just installed Spybot Search and Destroy… I was about to click the “I Agree” blindly, when something caught my eye… and I must say the License Agreement is one of the most interesting I’ve read… an excerpt:
"Dedication Public License (DPL)
By downloading the archive, you confirm your agreement in this license.
I. Freeware
First of all, the reasons why Spybot-S&D is free:
I.a. Dedication
Spybot-S&D is dedicated to the most wonderful girl on earth 
I.c. Conclusion
This means that I grant you the license to use Spybot-S&D as much as you like. But if you like it, I ask two things of you: say a prayer for me (and the most wonderful girl while you’re at it 
) to your god - or whatever you believe - and wish us some luck.
[/on a side note]
I run both AdAware and Spybot - they both find things the others don’t.
The latest version of AdAware is much more friendly - there’s an auto-update feature that downloads the latest signature file (=database of new spyware). No more RefUpdate bollox.
Another vote here thinking Spybot S & D is better than Ad-Ware.
It is much faster and pretty much gets everything Ad-Ware does…maybe everything now(just downloaded the new update to Spybot a few minutes ago)
Plus Spybot will immunize your computer against 185 spywares so you don’t even have to scan your computer they are never on your computer in the first place(new version of S & D also can check your registry for inconsistancies now too)
I did once have a problem with an older version of AdAware (one of the 5.xx releases) where it began deleting everything from my C: drive, starting in the root directory, the instant I double-clicked the installation program. This happened on one machine and I thought it was a random fluke, but when it happened on the second one (after having re-downloaded it from a different mirror) I knew something was wrong. The folks at LavaSoft were unable to tell me why this happened. It sure looked to me like a trojan but I was downloading from reliable sources like C|Net and Download.com. After that I assumed it was a strange, rare bug and just steered clear of AdAware. I think I’ll go back to it soon, though, as I’ve used 6.x versions and they haven’t broken anything (although the new look is ugly as sin).
As a general rule, I wouldn’t trust anything with an “e” in front of it. I was really hoping that trend would die when the dotcom bubble burst, but alas, it refuses to die.
Not at all. In fact, I ran 5.82 immediately before I downloaded and ran 6.0. It found a bunch of stuff the old version left behind.
Tommy Turtle: Anything is better than Ad-Ware. That’s why we use AdAware.
I run Spybot Search & Destroy in addition to AdAware 6.0 and between the two of them it appears to catch most of the spyware.
I use Ad-Aware 6.0, and it has worked wonderfully. I just download Spybot, and will try that out too.
I heard that eVil, from Axe, really stinks. I think it was Axe, anyway.
(Should have thought of that one two days ago.)
According to spybot http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=search&listmode=search&searchterm=adaware
adaware stole their virus definitions and he is suing them. Good luck if it true. I see alot of that sort of thing. Someone releases a free version of something (e.g. for the mac Iswipe) and someone hacks it and tries to sell it (e.g. music-download-world.com) … or perhaps it is vice-versa - one never knows
[hijack]Does adaware clash with zonealarm?[/hijack]
I have zonealarm already running on my pc, so:
a) Do I really need adaware?
b) If yes, will there be a conflict?
Yes. The two don’t fulfill the same function, although they overlap a bit.
Probably not. Good luck.
Thanks for that - I’ve now got adaware installed and running. Shall see if there are any conflicts
The link you posted does not accuse AdAware of any wrong doing. It does make claims against two different companies as well as report a spamming campaign over at download.com against both Spybot-S&D and AdAware
I have ZoneAlarm, Norton Anti-VIrus, AdAware and Spybot. Never any conflicts or issues.