Downloading? Watch Out For These Danger Signs - Comments Page 5

Thanks Bob,
good to get your newsletter. One more thing that gals me is that the internet is full of crooks, first offering you to download the free edition. It works. Then after some time you get a notice: "free upgrade". You do that and after that your old version is deleted from your PC and the new supposedly free works only if you pay. Note: "Free download" is often a scam. Even my working paid for Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 disappeared after I downloaded a trial version of a more recent edition.

Kaarlo von Freymann Helsinki Finland

Hey Bob, just read in this that you mentioned that if system restore couldn't bail you out, you still had a full backup. I just thought perhaps you should look into a Virtual Machine so you don't have to put your main operating system through all this.

I download my software from Softpedia or MajorGeeks, and I don't have this problem.

Thank you Bob, a timely reminder to be careful when downloading freeware. My go-to site is MajorGeeks, never any problems.

I stopped using CNET years ago for the reasons you mention.
FileHippo went through a dodgy patch a while back.
MajorGeeks is my place to go.

Glad I'm not the only one commenting on an 8 year old posting, in Dec 2021. Many of these wonderful posting NEVER go out of style.

re: BaliRob comment above: I know its far too late to be of use to you, but someone might benefit from my experience.

I used Rufus to make a bootable USB Win 10 installation. Rufus makes TWO very different kinds of USB bootable USBs - one type for old BIOS computers and a completely different kind for newer UEFI computers. I have both types and love Rufus. BUT, I used a UEFI type USB on an old BIOS computer. Boot failed and computer hung. The only fix was to take out the battery on motherboard and reset BIOS.

I think takeaway here is that sometimes the only fix for issues is to remove the battery. My brother had a similar issue with his cell phone after it suddenly locked up. The only cure for him was to let the batter drain completely, then do a factory reset. Laptop computers might have a real issue trying to remove the motherboard battery. Good luck!