Pc's original software can be a bit tricky to find. Unlike the Android platform where legit apps are all over the internet and the play store, the case of software is different. The internet is full of malware and spyware purpoting to be original software. I believe taking your machine to a specialist for various installation is prudent and will save you a lot of money than when you decide to download software. The reason I am saying this is that a while ago I decided to download Microsoft office on chrome. Before I could realise, a certain spyware dubbed Nova Rumbler had already crept into my machine. Whenever I searched for anything in search engines, I would get redirected to some funny sites. I decided to take my machine for cleaning and I was charged a lot of money.The spyware had corrupted all my browsers with the intention of phishing my passwords and browsing data. From then I decided to always take my machine to a specialist who will install original software, saving my cash.
Right, that's a big thing to watch out for. In fact, it might be a situation where the real companies sometimes put viruses in the unofficial stuff - to deter people. It's sort of like what they also do with certain music and textbook downloads. However, though, a lot of what seems to be pirated software could indeed be just that - private individuals trying to scam people.
Internet is full of piracy software. You may get free applications version of paid application on internet but it is too risky to download them. We may install anything from internet but it can install any bad thing on our computer. So better to find out genuine site to download them. And better to go for paid application rather than finding piracy copy of the same on internet. As it can be really risky.
To avoid such things, I always download from the manufacturer's site to ensure that it won't be bundled with some virus or spyware. If I download from a 3rd party site like Cnet then I run my anti-virus first on the installer to be sure that it's virus free before opening it.
If you do a lot of downloads, especially a software that you will be installing on your computer, you are putting your computer on danger. It is good that we can get useful software for free, however, free thing also comes with a price. If you do a lot of downloads and installation, you should use a good antivirus and internet security.
Exactly why downloading pirated softwares are dangerous. I've seen it numerous times on various occasions when a friend of mine had to reformat his laptop because it's been severely affected by a virus. Typically, you must take caution every time you run a ".exe" file because they are the ones that can cause harm to your system as you may accidentally give it access/permission to use your administrative privileges.
You are absolutely right, @Gad. Recently I downloaded an anti-virus software for my laptop from a reputed site. Since then I had about 5 trojans a day which was detected by my old anti-virus software. I had to uninstall it quickly and I had problems of malware corrupting my system. Thank god it didn't crash my entire system.
Most of the registry cleaners, spyware cleaners ad that you can get is going to be fake. You can see that any ad that says it helps you clean virus and the spyware is going to be fake. So make sure that you're checking out on this and removing some of the critical fake apps. As they are designed to cloak in the system. Add no value of any type. And that should tell you what can be the issue with the real virus. Those fake type of security programs are designed to make money.
I cannot really say that there is any certain understanding of what exactly constitutes fake software, but I can point to a couple of things that I have seen which qualify, and yes I have fallen vitim to them.
This happened to my netbook which is running on Windows 7. It kept redirecting to other sites which was ruining my work at some websites. It was frustrating. It often redirected to a penis enlargement website and the redirection had become too frequent that I was pushed to take action. I googled and found a solution, Malwarebytes, which has a one-month trial period. It was quite effective but I was annoyed at the constant pop up that says it has stopped malware from so and so sites. Eventually, however, Chrome would still redirect to other sites including a popular online shopping portal. I googled again and found Avast. It has since been quietly working on the sidelines and the browser have ceased redirecting to other sites.
