Ad-Aware is freezing on scanning folders (conditional). Do you know how to fix it?

Question

I have a PC running Windows XP and WIndows Live One Care. A few days ago I uninstalled the free version of Lavasoft Ad-Aware and installed the 2007 version. After updated the definitions, I ran a scan. I came back 4.5 hours later and found the program frozen on "scanning folders (conditional)" I re-ran the scan and the same thing happened. (Although the clock on the program conditinued to run.)
Any thoughts on how to fix this? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Your first step is to remove the program and then reinstall it. When using software programs files can become corrupt. If even one file becomes corrupt, it will affect how the programs works and often it becomes unstable and has various issues such as the one you are reporting. Removing the program and then reinstalling it will often fix the issue.

Now, it is also possible that malware will attempt to stop your security solution from working correctly. Due to the fact you can't run more than one anti-virus program at a time, it becomes difficult to scan and get rid of malware if the malware is interferring in the software.

I suggest that before you remove the program and reinstall it you use one of the Online scans which are free.

There are two I highly reccomend, one is the Microsoft Onecare browser scan, and the other is by Panda. I will locate the links for you, hold on:

http://www.pandasecurity.com/usa/

Look in the list on the left for the "Free Online Scan", and click it, fill out the requested information and scan your system. I use the full featured Security Suite by Panda and trust them to do a great job.

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

It took a bit to locate this one because my system crashed a few days ago and I lost all of my favorites, and I also had to reinstall my OS. Bummer!

If these scans come up clean, then go ahead and remove the program and then reinstall it.

Good luck and much success fixing your program. Have a nice day.

Answer 2

Yes just exactly as serenity has said go and remove the program and reinstall it, this happens sometimes when an update fails or something in the software has stopped working, just uninstall and reinstall and it should be fine;

Happy Holidays;

SG