The memory usage of the Service component of Ad-Aware 2007 has caused much debate, especially among the freeware users, who do not have access to the scheduling or real-time features. The service architecture is necessary as we begin to address emerging forms of malware and you can read more about this in the thread Regarding the Service on the Lavasoft Support Forums.

Despite the fact that most of this memory is willingly swapped to the Windows page file, we have - as a direct response to the multiple concerns caused by this issue - worked very hard to find ways of actively returning the memory to Windows whenever Ad-Aware 2007 is not in use.

With the release of version 7.0.2.3, we are happy to announce that the memory consumption of the Ad-Aware 2007 Service is vastly reduced whenever Ad-Aware 2007 is not running. We are sure you will appreciate the results!

But wait, there’s more! The software update also includes improvements of the real-time monitor, Ad-Watch. The performance of the updated version has been enhanced through general optimizations of the implementation, making it faster and more resource-friendly. These optimizations, together with the removal of bugs causing resource and memory leaks on some systems, should ensure a good Ad-Watch experience for everyone.

So: go get the updates!

For a listing of the contents of the Ad-Aware 2007 software updates, please see the thread Software Updates on the Lavasoft Support Forums.