I have got free Ad-Aware virus program which I have had for over three years it takes about 15 minuets to load the definitions and to do a full scan over three hours when I first had the program I thought it scanned quicker then this,I just wondered if I should get a new virus program if anybody can advise me.
AdAware is not a proper antivirus prgram - it scans for spyware, trojans etc but you need an AV program as well. Free AV progs include Avast or AVG. AdAware current version loads in about 30 seconds and completes a scan in about 10 minutes on my computer so something seems very wrong on your system.
If you are looking for a free spyware scanner as an alternative to Ad-Aware, try Superantispyware which is a small download and very easy to use. It is usually very well reviewed. As Jazz has said, anti virus is a different thing altogether.
gave up on adaware long ago - other programs do the job better & it only ever found cookies with me and often had problems loading it etc mostly rely on Avast for my anti spyware - its built in to the anti virus program, along with anti-rootkit - nice to have the real time protection avast provides warning of dangerous sites that I occasionally see from search engine links etc I do an occasional scan with spybot s&d as well
AVG free does less than avast - you have to buy the pro version to get similar functionality > > back to Ad Aware --- remember it taking ages to scan with it's deep scan checked --- found what I later realised was a false positive
