If you are anything like me, you are someone who has come to rely on programs such as Ad-aware as your best line of defense against spyware. Well, what you might not know is that programs such as this have a lot of extra functionality that is neatly tucked away inside of the settings. With this in mind, let’s start off with how one would access the settings inside the Ad-aware program.

Settings access
Assuming you are using the latest version of Ad-aware SE, all you need to do is click the big gear at the top of the program’s display. This brings up a new box that is your settings home.

General settings
From this area you can choose how long it takes before the database needs to be updated, log file settings and quarantine settings as well.

Getting to know your scan settings
Right from the default scanning display, you will see where you can make changes to drives and folders in addition to memory and registry settings. Here you can pick what is scanned and what you choose to exclude if you so desire. For the most part, you will want to leave these settings alone.

Understanding advanced settings
For the most part, you will want to leave these settings alone. However, if you are comfortable with making changes to the settings in this area, then go ahead with care.

Start-up settings
Need to keep your system scanned upon start-up, then this is the place to make it happen. Have Ad-aware start-up as the system boots up in addtion to checking for updates as the program starts.

Default settings
Another area that you will want to leave alone. For the most part, pass this one on by.

Interface settings
Unless you have downloaded skins for this program, you will want to pass this section over.

Tweak settings
Here you can make a variety of changes that are not included in the other settings. Logs, UI, the scanning engine plus a whole batch of other goodies. Only change what you understand. This is the best policy with any of the settings. Be careful and use common sense when making changes.

Conclusion
Keep track of the changes that you make and if something goes wrong, then you can revert the settings back with little effort. Hopefully this will help to breathe some life back into your favorite spyware removal program.