I have been a huge fan of Ad-Aware for years, ever since Spybot Search & Destroy really DID search out and destroy by nuking my Windows OS. Ad-Aware, on the other hand, has never caused me any problems and I have become a huge fan of the product - I like products that work like they say they do, without any hidden surprises. But after installing Ad-Aware 2007, I may have to revise that opinion quite a bit.

The first problem was that when installing the 2007 version, it didn't automatically over-write the previous version. So I ended up with two Ad-Aware programs on the computer. So I had to uninstall both programs and delete any relevant remaining files on the hard-drive including registry entries. I then re-installed 2007 on its own and it seemed to work - for a while. But to date, I have been unable to get the program to complete a full spyware scan.

When I ask it to do a full scan, it starts off promisingly enough but 15-20 minutes into the scan, it says it has encountered an "unexpected error" and it shuts the scan down, effectively forgetting what spyware it has found and going back to square one. This has been going on every day for ten days now and I am about to search out and destroy Lavasoft (the company that makes Ad-Aware).

I am seriously considering re-installing the older version. I normally don't like to do this but hey it worked for years without a hitch! Plus the 2007 version keeps bugging me to upgrade to a paid version which is seriously pissing me off. In my dictionary, "free" means "free of any charge". It DOESN'T mean, "free but only on the condition that we bug you every day until you upgrade".

Is anyone else having problems with Ad-Aware 2007? Please tell me I am not the only one going through this crap.