Talk:Lavasoft

200 million?
"Ad-Aware, is used by 200 million computer users worldwide" ??? I like Ad-Aware, use it, and am grateful for it -- but I question this claim. It is possible to count downloads. It is very hard to count actual users. I think it is true that this product is very popular, perhaps even the most popular of its class. But a hard number like this begs for proof that would be hard to come by. 68.236.103.195 14:58, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Done: now citing total downloads through download.com distribution — Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.55.87.88 (talk) 14:35, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Games?
Okay, so just for laughs today I downloaded and ran Ad-Aware 3.5. After the scan was done the dialouge box said "Thanks to everybody who supports us! please visit Lavasoft HQ and check out our wicked shareware games" Also, this is unrealted but it also says "dedicated to Ann" at the bottem right hand corner at ths dialouge box. DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHO Ann IS, AND DID LAVASOFT MAKE GAMES!? Bubble 94 is bringin&#39; the JE££¥! 19:56, 9 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I think i found out who Ann is! She might be Ann-Christine Åkerlund, current head of Lavasoft.

Bubble 94 is bringin&#39; the JE££¥! 19:59, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Requested move 16 March 2018

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: no consensus to move the page at this time, per the discussion below. Dekimasu よ! 20:25, 31 March 2018 (UTC)

Lavasoft → Adaware – Company has changed its name, using the name of its flagship software. I merged the notable information from Ad-Aware, in which a header was placed to inform about notability issues. I believe merging the articles and moving to the company's name as title, is appropriate. ∫uℂρЭ ℝ 0 υĜe 20:21, 16 March 2018 (UTC) --Relisting. The SandDoctor  Talk 17:10, 24 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Support Non-controversial move. I don't see a reason why not  Vermont &#124; reply here  21:50, 17 March 2018 (UTC)

Objection Comment
I consider it controversial. It will erase the developmental history, which does not appear now either. And includes a mistake that they started with antivirus. If anything, there should be two permanent entries, referring to each other - such as Lavasoft AB and Ad-Aware. I have been using these "products" since before it became a company. A group of internet junkies, including myself, communicated in blogs - much via dialup and early dsl in the 1990's. People were upset with the development and rise of adware and spyware, especially issued by netdot.com which operated like a vpn diverting users through its servers. This is not the place for that discussion. The result was in these Europeans developing a blocker and scan eventually called Ad-aware which people in-the-loop installed to catch the spyware-like ad intrusions. It was free. The usergroup type effort resulted in the company formation, Lavasoft AB. It was still in 2005 located and marketing Ad-Aware version SE: Lavasoft AB, Lavasoft, Kronhusgatan 11, 41105 Gothenburg, Sweden. Later established was the marketing arm Nicolas Stark Computing AB which had users purchase through element5 which was the European arm of Digital River in Minneapolis, MN USA. As I read at the time of original company formation, there was an issue with naming the company similar to the dreaded "Adware" which it fought. The "product" called Ad-Aware was still free after Lavasoft formation for some time and did that single protective function. (Companies like McAfee simultaneously developed antivirus, a different need.). Lavasoft did not add in product antivirus until many years later, and not by developing antivirus but by attaching another company's antivirus through licensing and rebranding. The products were not integrated at that time, one installed both. I still use the modern Ad-Aware Total Security version myself and for business clients as we have virtually no intrusions with it, unlike when we use competing brands of paid top end security software. This all despite the sordid investors who bought the company and installed that funny marketing in Montreal (now apparently in Malta). The top paid product is still the most effective on the market as far as we can tell.

'''Therefore Wikipedia needs a page that correctly carries the origination and past of the first software, Ad-Aware then incorporated by by Lavasoft AB, that prevented surreptitious software from taking over functions and displays in users computers. A commercial company page is not it.''' I am a long time Wikipedia participant, helping edit and correct many pages, however I feel I am not the best person to correctly write the history of this software development. It is a landmark development in the progression of the early internet. And... it was not an Antivirus company. Somewhere in my 10 million email archive is documentation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Assignor (talk • contribs) 17:45, 21 March 2018 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Added Note
On examining Wikipedia Lavasoft going back to 2007, the real story of development seems there, and I recognize an entrant or two with whom I communicated at the early company. 'Much of that Wikipedia history, which is true, over time has been erased in the current page to make it a product sales page. The history should be recompiled and restored as I noted above.' Assignor (talk) 18:08, 21 March 2018 (UTC)

Working on some content for incorporation
...at User:Ceyockey/sandbox/Lavasoft. --User:Ceyockey ( talk to me ) 01:59, 21 July 2018 (UTC)

Lavasoft Web Companion "Malware"
I have recently noticed a lot of edits changing the description of Lavasoft from a malware detection/removal company to one that distributes malware. While some people may argue that Web Companion behaves like malware, the lead-in section is not the place to discuss it.

Please add constructive edits which include reliable citations under the controversies section. I am open to the idea of expanding the coverage of Web Companion in this article, as well as a general clean up of this page overall.

Thank you

C0n0r97 (talk) 08:25, 25 July 2018 (UTC)


 * I noticed a block of real-estate at the top of my browser window, providing supplemental search functions, a few days ago. After a bit of research, I discovered that this was Web Companion, a product that I never installed. Anyhow, it was present in my 'installed programs' list, so I uninstalled it; the block of real estate with search functionality went away.


 * Today, I noticed in my 'installed programs' list that Web Companion was still there. I have uninstalled it again, but it seems to be reluctant to be uninstalled.


 * The only software I have installed recently were the free, and then afterwards the paid ("donation") versions of the XMing X-Windows server.


 * I do not consider this to be the behaviour of legitimate software: surreptitious installation, failing to be removed when removed from the control panel. MrDemeanour (talk) 09:34, 5 December 2019 (UTC)

Citation 17 is a 404.
https://web.archive.org/web/20181120180304/https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2366085,00.asp is the archive page for it. I don't know how to edit Wikipedia articles properly so hopefully somebody else sees this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.33.72.105 (talk) 03:53, 11 December 2020 (UTC)