Is it Safe to Download Computer Software from the Internet?

Is it Safe to Download Computer Software from the Internet?

I used to ask myself this question a lot of times before, having a computer at home being so “techie” can somewhat be a problem sometimes.

In my own opinion, there are quite a few things that you have to consider before sticking your USB device and begin downloading files over the Internet. There is only one thing I can tell you, BE CAREFUL!

I have had bad experiences with it before, when I had my laptop, of course I was too eager to put a lot of software in my device that I didn't bother to check if those were malwares or if there is a virus hidden underneath that software. I would get a software that is empty, or there were software that like, said contained malicious contents (malwares) and there were some that were really to obvious, that you'd have to be stupid to download it.

Before you start to download, check the site, look if it is reliable, if it is updated, or if it is a big website like ZDnet, Cnet (download.com), freedownloadcenter. Now, I mentioned this sites because I have tried downloading softwares from these sites before.

What I like about these sites is that they have a concern for the users who download from their site, you can see software reviews, you can see if it is freeware or if they would charge you if you download a particular software.

So, my answer to that question is NO, it is not safe to download computer softwares from the Internet, that is if you yourself is complacent about it, then you would be likely to get computer viruses from the Internet, and believe me, you will be having a hard time getting rid of that virus if it gets into your computer.

I would say it is not SAFE to download stuff from the computer if:

Your computer doesn't have a reliable Antivirus installed on it.

Your antivirus is not set on active, you should put your antivirus on active status all the time.

You download software from an unknown host, or from a malicious server.

You don't check for reviews, always look for comments about the software, there is always a comment, if it is a good software, people will gonna comment on it, if it is not then nobody has tried it downloading it, if it is a virus, then you are most likely to see negative comments about it. SO CHECK!

If you don't see a thumbnail on it, and it is not rated, then it is most likely to be a malware, or a virus for that matter.

(And when you find such, then you found out it is ok, then leave a comment, help other users, let them know that it is a good software, better yet make a review about it.)

So there you go, you might be thinking, so "it isn't that scary to download software from the Internet after all". Of course it is not scary, if you follow certain procedures, it's all up to you if you will not be cautious with it.