Before you scan your computer with Ad-Aware SE for the first time you should run WebUpdate to make sure that you have the latest definition file. It is also recommended to have Ad-Aware set to automatically quarantine files prior to removal. Click on the "Settings" button in the quick launch toolbar to open the General settings screen. Check the "Automatically quarantine objects prior to removal" setting and then click "Proceed" to save your changes.
When this is done you are ready to perform your first scan. Click the "Scan now" button in the main menu on the left side of the main status screen or use the "Start" button in lower right corner. This will open the Preparing System Scan screen. Select "Perform Full System scan" and click "Next" to start your first scan.
After the scan is completed you will be presented with a detailed listing of the items that were detected. Please be sure to review each item that has been presented in the results screen before removing them. Ad-Aware is designed to report possible suspicious content present on your system and to allow you a simple method for removing it should you so decide. We do not suggest or recommend that everything detected by Ad-Aware should be removed; it is up to you the user to make that decision. We understand that this may be a difficult task; therefore we have developed TAC which stands for Threat Assessment Chart. More information is available in the Threat Assessment Chart - TAC chapter.
If you have decided to keep one or more items, select them from the Scanning Results lists (be sure to unselect other content you wish to remove) and right click the entry to open the context menu. Either select each item individually for each component to be ignored, or use the selection options in the context menu. Select the "Add selection to ignore list" to add this content to your ignore list. Ad-Aware will not display these items in the scan results when you perform scans in the future.
Once this content has been added to your ignore list you will be taken back to the scan results screen where you can repeat the above process as required, to not select anything more (all items are unchecked), or to remove the content as you deem appropriate.
Click the "Next" button on the Scan Complete screen to view the Scanning Results. Select the objects you want to remove by selecting them in the scan results lists or right click to select multiple items by using the context menu. Click "Next" and then "OK" in the pop-up window to confirm the removal.
