There are many benefits from choosing free lightweight security software over and above the heavyweight products from commercial developers. Although we probably feel our PC is better protected when we install security software from mainstream developer, these apps can often cause our machine to slow significantly. When their brand is on the line, and bad PR would seriously affect sales, they can't afford to let a virus infect your computer. Therefore the commercial apps use all kinds of heuristic scanning to check files you download, archives you open and even local documents.

Ad-Aware 2009 'Anniversary Edition' is shipped in three different editions, with the free version suitable for most home users. The latest version is built upon ten years of security development and is said to use 20% fewer system resources than the previous 2008 edition. As it's free, it's worth evaluating on your system to see how it stacks up against your current anti-spyware application.

Ad-Aware 2000 'Anniversary Edition' link.

22 Jan 2009