We all want to save money, but getting freeware from free software vendors is a bad idea. Lowell Heddings, better known online as the How-To Geek, says there are NO SAFE freeware download sites.
No matter how tech-savvy you are or which antivirus you've installed, it's unwise to try your luck downloading freeware. Hidden bundled software could give your computer a "crapware" infection that plants browser hijackers to redirect your search engine, change your home page, put extra ads everywhere, and install a proxy to send all of your web browsing through it.
To show you how bad it can get, the How-To-Geek did an experiment by installing ten applications from a free software vendor's most popular downloads list. Here's the gory details on why freeware download sites are so dangerous:
If you receive an email that looks like it's from a trusted vendor asking you to confirm an order, or a package shipment message that looks like it's from UPS, USPS or FedEx, resist the urge to click any of its links. Even if the email contains a logo that looks official to you, it might be a copy or a screenshot of a company's logo taken from their webpage; it's easy to make an unauthorized copy of any logo.
We all want to save money, but getting freeware from free software vendors is a bad idea. Lowell Heddings, better known online as the How-To Geek, says there are NO SAFE freeware download sites.
If you receive an email that looks like it's from a trusted vendor asking you to confirm an order, or a package shipment message that looks like it's from UPS, USPS or FedEx, resist the urge to click any of its links. Even if the email contains a logo that looks official to you, it might be a copy or a screenshot of a company's logo taken from their webpage; it's easy to make an unauthorized copy of any logo.