The Dangers of Downloading Free Software

By Bill Pytlovany

The Dangers of Downloading Free Software

Occasionally I hear from folks who report problems that sound really bizarre. It often sounds as if they’re talking about an entirely different program. It turns out sometimes they are!

I always make the newest WinPatrol available on WinPatrol.com but it’s not unusual for people to find WinPatrol on one of the free software websites or find it when doing a search. Searching on Bing, Google or Yahoo can be very dangerous, especially if you click on one of the links they allow to advertise.

The major problem with free download sites is they try hard to trick you into downloading other software. Most of the time, the other software pays the site based on how often it’s downloaded and usually includes toolbars, advertising or uses scare tactics to make you to pay for a premium version.

Let me show you examples that appear on the first search page when looking for WinPatrol.

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This post is excerpted with Bill’s permission from his blog

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