Ashampoo AS 2 still a-squared engine???

I am trialing this as it may be coming to me pretty cheap (like $4) and if it is ok I plan to use it as an on-demand scanner. Anyway, I remember the Ashampoo antispyware 1 engine/signatures was an OEM of A-squared without the IDS. Is version 2 also an OEM of A-squared? Maybe A-squared 3? Anyway Ashampoo says this about their AS2 product-

Protection against more than 760,000 threats from the internet.
Full compatibility with Windows Vista™ (32 Bit) from now on.
Windows Vista™ Gadget (Vista 32-Bit) works as information and control operation centre Users can store their personal settings into the respective folders thanks to the new multiple user support. Administrator rights are not required.
Enhanced Realtime Monitor also takes care of new Windows areas (BHO, Winsock LSPs, Windows Hosts file, Autostart entries etc.).
Newly developed as well as completely revised Vista compatible tools are now available basing on Ashampoo WinOptimizer 4, the awarded winner by the German computer magazine ComputerBILD.
Hostsfile Checker reports suspicious entries in Hosts file and allows for cleaning up.
LSP-Viewer gives support to the user to identify installed winsock attributes, by which means parasite programs can be smuggled into.
Folders, files or even „infections“ can be excluded from the search to prevent false alarms thanks to the whitelist definitions.
Due to internal encryption algorithms possible malicious threats are prevented from secretly adding themselves to the whitelist.
There is a direct online connection to a malware database which gives information on detected infections.
The integrated task scheduler has been fully integrated by now and it is possible to create, manage and perform automatically individual scanning tasks.

http://www2.ashampoo.com/webcache/html/1/product_2_0149__.htm

Sound like A-squared or something else?

 

I believe that Ashampoo still uses the A-Squared engine.

 

Well I tried it and it certainly looks as if Ashampoo still uses the A-squared engine and signatures. I had one false positive in the Ashampoo scan then scanned the same file on five different online multiple engine scans (virustotal, jotti's, virus.org, virscan.org and viruschief.com)- 121 total scans in all. It came out that that a-squared on jotti's, virus.org and virscan was the only scanner that found anything. And the name was exactly the same name that Ashampoo had for the false positive.

Now I am remembering why I dumped of Ashampoo AS last time- too many false positives from a-squared.

 

Man I can't believe how long it's been since I remember Ashampoo Media Player, and that was years ago, and back then I never recalled Ashampoo making security applications.

How long has Ashampoo been making the AS and AV apps?

THANKS