Is there a problem with Ad-aware?

A couple of days ago my husband's computer suddenly "forgot" what to do with .lnk and .exe files. Since it is still under warranty, we called Gateway, and after several repair attempts, they had us wipe the hard drive and reinstall XP. Things seemed to be working again, and my husband began reinstalling his programs. When he installed Ad-aware, he downloaded the latest definitions and allowed it to do a full scan.

Once the scan was complete, the problem with .lnk and .exe files was back!! And he recalled that Ad-aware had done a scan right before things went bad the first time. After doing some searching online, I found the fixes on Doug Knox's site (http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm ) and was able to get things going again.

My questions:

1) Is this a known issue with Ad-aware?
2) I'm now afraid to let Ad-aware clean any registry settings. How can I tell if changes Ad-aware proposes will cause this problem yet again?




(I wasn't sure whether to make this post here or in the Software forum. Please feel free to move it if you deem appropriate.)

 

Thanks for your response, and sorry for the delay getting back. Attached are two files: the results of the scan you suggested (8-12-05 scan.txt) and the contents of the previous day's quarantine (8-11-05 quarantine.txt).

This really has me confused, also. I have used the free version of Ad-aware on my computer for a couple of years with no problem. Husband is using the Plus version on his computer, and was using the Ad-Watch feature until this trouble started; he has disabled it until we figure out what is going on.