safe sites for free software downloads

[Student]

Can someone please recommend a 'safe' place to download free software other than download.com? what about toggle.com?

thanks

Gail

[FreewheelinFrank]

Snapfiles, Filehippo, MajorGeeks, Softpedia.

Look for a zero-tolerance spyware policy before trying an unknown program:

SnapFiles has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to adware/spyware/malware or whatever you may want to call it. We do not list any software that includes third party advertising or tracking components of any kind. Every program you find on our sites has been downloaded by us, installed on our machines, and (as part of the review) tested for any type of malware and viruses, using several industry leading products.

http://www.snapfiles.com/adware_spyware_concerns.html

[DavidR]

I wish you luck in downloading given your problem with IE7.

I have used Snapfiles, Filehippo, MajorGeeks and download.com on a regular basis and I found they ar fine, why the dislike of download.com ?

[RejZoR]

Imo SnapFiles is one of the best pages to look for any kind of software. FileHippo is right behind it because they also host older versions all the way back to first application release if possible.

[MikeBCda]

One of my favorites is Completely Free Software, run by Graham Pockett.  He makes a point of listing only freeware, not limited-time or limited-feature shareware, and also notes ones to use caution with because they include things like adware.  Also suggests work-arounds if there's a way to avoid including the adware.

He starting charging a nominal annual membership fee a few years back to access the download portions of the site, but it's well worth it -- the programs themselves are free.  And he runs his own payment service, so if there's any problems at that end he can (and does) quite helpfully straighten them out for you.

By all means sign up for his weekly newsletter of new acquisitions, you don't need a membership for that.

(Edit) As a P.S. note to the mods, this should probably get moved over to the General forum.

[Spyros]

How about trying my site?  It isn't download.com, but.. 

[DavidR]

Or you could check out Bob3160, a forum members shared files link, he has a lot of useful tools on there many which have been talked about on these forums.

http://home.comcast.net/~mysharedfiles/

[polonus]

Hi Student.

One thing up front, always pre-scan a download before actually downloading it. Then do not run it, just save it, then scan it again (with avast, ClamWin free anti-virus, etc., then after you sure it is malware free open it, and then run to install. A nice extension to pre-scan your download links in IE, FF, Flock, Opera is the DrWeb anti-virus link checker, to scan the link before clicking to download to see if it is clean. Also look up the software so that it is not rogue software, for searching use Scandoo.com

polonus

[Lisandro]

FileForum: www.fileforum.com (very nice features like an update alert email message).
Other good ones (as posted before): Snapfiles, Filehippo, MajorGeeks, Softpedia.