When it comes to computer security you can protect yourself fairly well for free. True enough, the full version of Ad-Aware (priced at $26) has features that this gratis package lacks, such as real-time monitoring and virus protection. However, the thrifty user can always rely on Ad-Aware Free for spyware duty, backed up by a free anti-virus program (such as AVG).

Granted, this isn't such a neatly integrated solution and it still lacks the real-time adware protection and some other useful extras (you can't customise or schedule scans for example), but that's certainly reflected in the cost. There's no skimping on the actual adware defence front here, either, as you have access to the same regularly updated definitions that paying users have.

When it comes to the scanning process itself, Ad-Aware Free gives the user two options; a smart scan or a full scan. We ran several tests on our 150GB hard disk which was about half-full. A full scan took just under half an hour, and picked up 160 threats; a thorough sweep. A smart scan only deals with the critical areas of your system, which is most of it apparently, as the time still weighs in at a shade over twenty minutes. Still, that's reasonably speedy in anyone's book.

Each threat detected is given a TAI or Threat Analysis Index score, in other words a measure of how dangerous it is (all sounds very Pentagon to us). The program categorises every issue (most of ours were tracking cookies) and gives them a TAI level out of 10. Our cookies ranked in at 3 and they were removed with a quick click and no need for a reboot. Incidentally, anything under 3 is ignored as it's deemed a benign file.

Not only does Ad-Aware Free provide a commendable scan time performance, it also runs smoothly and doesn't hog too much in the way of system resources. Under the program's custom settings it's possible to check a box to run scans as a background process, which lowers resource usage still further (but results in increased scan times).

The interface is nifty as well, with a small collection of skins to select from if you're not keen on the default theme. And that's pretty much all there is to play with: the philosophy here is definitely built around keeping it simple. While it might be small, this program isn't far off perfectly formed, especially considering it's free.

It's free, it does the job and it does it fairly quickly. Couple this with AVG and it makes for a pretty secure and extremely budget-friendly security solution.