Why Download Sites Require Extra Caution
By Anand Khanse for The Windows Club
The convenience of popular online download sites is overshadowed by the rampant crapware that is attached to many downloads initiated from these sites.–PC Pitstop
There was a time when we went to some good download sites and clicked on the Download button to download software. And what we got was – software. But times have changed now, and things have gotten a bit messy. Now you have to be very careful before you click on any Download button or link, because you never know what you may end up with! You may go visit a download site to download, say our 340KB Ultimate Windows Tweaker, and end up with a bunch of other crapware you did not ask for!
Why have things come to this stage?
Over a period of time, something somewhere changed. Reputed download sites started getting a lot of traffic. Search Engines rank these sites well, so many visit them to download software. People trusted them. Then came a day when such sites decided to encash that trust – and betrayed their users! It was all about money!
They started offering Installers!
CNET is one such site. So are BrotherSoft, Softonic, FreewareFiles and Tucows. The open-source download site Sourceforge.com is yet another example! I am sure there are many more. So what are these Installers or Downloaders? They are nothing but setup files that try and first push third-party offers on to your computer before giving you access to the file you want.
What Do These Downloaders/Installers Look Like? –Article Continued Here
