Since the subject mentions Ad aware free antivirus, then generally the answer would be NO.
Later versions of AdAware may have an antivirus module, but we don't exactly what version of AdAware you have, if it includes an antivirus module then a custom install and not installing that module would be the only way to go.
That said, I too don't feel that AdAware is anyway near what it was years ago in comparison to its competitors.