Beware of That Which Looks Free

[Jim Koepke]

Saw this about the 10 most popular free downloads for computers:

http://www.howtogeek.com/198622/heres-what-happens-when-you-install-the-top-10-download.com-apps/

jtk

[Myk Rian]

Common knowledge for a long time.
When you install ANY program, always read what those little check boxes are for.

[Mike Circo]

Common knowledge for a long time.
When you install ANY program, always read what those little check boxes are for.

Yeah... but tell my mom, father-in-law, two sisters and neighbor. All of whom have had to feed me dinner (my fee) for fixing their totally bricked Windows systems. Each has had an issue after the take over by all these potentially useful programs that act as a conduit for garbage that is essentially malware in disguise.

After 30 years using, supporting and being employed by Windows' existence, I now use Linux systems for my critical needs, and have relegated Windows to games and secondary use.

[Rich Riddle]

Members of our family also click on these types of things. They prey on the nice folks whose minds still have decency.

[Tom Stenzel]

When my daughters got their Win 8.1 boxes balled up I'd have to uninstall a bunch of junk. Nice but the uninstall would itself install yet more garbage and make it worse. The only workaround was to disable all networking during the uninstall.

-Tom

[Frederick Skelly]

Thanks for the heads up Jim!