FREE downloads?

[IFTB]

NAC, Inc recommended the below site in an other topic (about changing outlook sounds I believe it was)

www.simtel.net

This site has many downloadable freeware, but what does it do to your PC?
Why is it free? How can you prevent chaos on your PC, despite the trustworthy descriptions which go with it?
NAC, Inc might have experience with this particular site?

Certainly when virus scanned nothing came up on the few (free)programmes I downloaded.
But I am reluctant to launch them on my unsuspecting, new, low budget, PC.

What is the safest way to approach this type of download sites?


Your combined advise is appreciated, as always.

On-On
IFTB

[RomeoTangoFoxtrotMike]

IFTB,

Simtel has been around in various incarnations for a long time supplying freeware and shreware. However, as with any download software, you should always scan it for viruses with an up-to-date checker. Not that virus-scanning will detect the presence of trojan software [but see below].

To answer your questions:

This site has many downloadable freeware, but what does it do to your PC?

What, the site or the software ? The "site" does nothing, as far as anybody has seen. As for downloaded software, all bets are off.

Why is it free?

Sponsored links and advertising...

How can you prevent chaos on your PC, despite the trustworthy descriptions which go with it?

You can't guarantee it. You might choose to believe reviewer ratings, but if you're paranoid, you might not trus them, either.

Certainly when virus scanned nothing came up on the few (free)programmes I downloaded.
But I am reluctant to launch them on my unsuspecting, new, low budget, PC.

That's always the safest choice.

What is the safest way to approach this type of download sites?

Establish the reputation of the site amongst people you trust, like you're doing here. But at the end of the day, there are no guarantees that the software won't do harm (this is equally true of software that you have to pay money to license, of course, but people tend to forget that. Many people who quite cheerfully tell Microsoft all sorts of things about themselves and their PCs would be outraged if some "free" software tried to collect that same information -- regarding it as "spyware" -- yet hand it over to MS, because it's "commercial" software .)

If you want software that you can verify only does what you're expecting it to, I refer you to the mantra of Open Source (http://www.opensource.org/) advocates:

"Use the source, Luke".

By using open source operating systems and software, you have the opportunity to verify that the software "does what it says on the tin." With closed proprietry commercial software, you don't :rolleyes:

And open source is usually free :)

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

IFTB,

RomeoTangoFoxtrotMike answered all the questions. With these programs, always scan them before installing them. If you do install them and they do not do what you wanted, then uninstall them, if you still have problems then reinstall OLE.

If not, then you could end up needing to reinstall the OS, but the chances of that are very slim.

Take Care,

Richard

[Mac the Knife]

Gotta admit it, I'm an inveterate collector of freeware and shareware. I have zillions of files/apps. - all (fairly) neatly classified and filed. Occasionally I forget to annotate the download and can't figure out what it was, but a peek inside with a hex editor usually lets me figure it out. Everything naturally goes through an up-to-date virus scanner though it's never found one yet. In all the dross I've found some real jewels that let me do something easily that was difficult or impossible before.

I've never had anything wreck the machine or do any damage that wasn't easily fixable and that rarely. I take precautions - in Win98 I always ran ERU (and had a recent disk image) and in XP I always create a restore point (and have a System State backup elsewhere as well as on and off-site backups before installing/runnning (I also disconnect from my networks).

More often the app/utility is buggy/flakey and crashes or doesn't work properly - the machine may lockup and require a reboot (rare in XP).

So with all the provisos from the guys above and with sensible precautions I'd say it's fairly safe. And there are some genuine beauties out there.

"Prudence is a rich old maid courted by Incapacity" - William Blake, Proverbs of Hell

[Memetic]

For an introduction to some great open source software for windows users take a look at:

http://theopencd.sunsite.dk/about.php or www.theopencd.org

[IFTB]

Thanks guys, nice to have some unbiased advise.:ok:

Beginners have to begin somewhere!

On-On
IFTB