Are freewares and sharewares safe?

There is a lot of good free/share/open source software around. Some is even designed to help you look for spyware/adware such as Spybot S&D, which is free, but you can donate to.

You are suspecting too much. There are some people in this world who enjoys programming and just want to share what software they have developed for other people to freely use. These people are part of the enthusiast group who just want to help make others lives easier because of certain limitations they have encountered and even limitations of other programs etc, and they are not after the money at all. Examples are video codecs and some simple video encoding programs which one can find free on the web to use. Another reason could also be because these developers already have a full-time job as a high-pay programmer, and they probably do not care about profits from the programs they develop and distribute, although some do want to earn by offering trial sharewares. It can be arguable that some programs do have spywares and adwares (as I have encounter such programs before), but most are free from that. If you are unsure about the credibility of the program and its developer, then its best not to install and use.

It all depends where you are downloading these programmes from. Personally I would go to a well known website such as downloads.com they check most of the programmes that are offered there and will usually state they have been checked for viruses, spywares and adwares. I've been using that site for many years and never had a problem. I may be wrong, but most of the freeware/sharewares are either built by budding software producers or companies that want you to upgrade to their latest of fullest version of that software - almost like a taster to get you hooked. Good luck

I have been using AVG Free antivirus and Spybot Search and Destroy which is also free. I haven't had any problems so far. I do get a lot of junk mail in my Yahoo account, but I don't know if that's related.

When you download these types of software download it from nice sites. Don't download illegal softwares. Then you see the review before downloading softwares. This will also help you. The people make virus and spywares for fun but Where some make it to leak the information.

Because programmers often make 'practice' software and figure people may as well make use of them. There are some dodgy ones out there, but they are in the minority. Be selective about where you download things, and read reviews. If you're sensible you won't get any problems!

Personally, a person needs to do their homework and research on a product that is FREE before downloading unless you know it is safe, as there are issues with this, and sometimes even virus's hiding in some of them maybe as well. But there are some Good FREE things out there. Like Virus protection, etc. some of the stuff out there is just to be able to give the consumer a choice of being protected while being online even when your Finances are tight. But if you are wanting FREE games they are out there, programs for you Computer, Word programs, etc. you can find them online usually for Free. A lot of it is the average person does not know they are there, and so when they do find one to try and download sometimes run into problems because they may not be as protected as they need to be in the first place. I know it has happened to me. But like I said if it is highly rated and suggested by others, especially ones you can Trust, or companies you can trust, then you are safe. If not, maybe you need to wait and be safe. That is my theory on it all.

In fact some freewares are very good,you should not worry about it too much. If it's possible,you can find some hole of the sofeware. In my personal sense , we should perfect the sharewares using our efforts together!

There's nothing wrong in trying shareware or freeware. If you're in doubt you can search for it's feedbacks concerning it's usability, compatibility and safety. Some programmers are really generous to share their knowledge to us while others promote their program in it's beta version to be tested for free and gains information about their products viability in different platforms and environment as well, these help them plan ahead for improvements.

Most of the time there is nothing wrong with freewares nor sharewares , I can't say that all of them are legit and worth downloading, but most of them have no virus/spyware in them. Don't download suspicious ones from suspicious sites that nobody knows about!