Download Safely

The best way to download safely is to make yourself into an informed consumer.

Learn what’s OK to download, and what isn’t.
Protect your PC with an antimalware product, from a known publisher.
Download only from the author’s web site.
Watch out for fake sites and associate sites.

10 Anti-Commandments of Computer Ownership

Thou shalt not place a computer on the floor. The floor is where the cat lives. Also the dog, the vacuum cleaner (also known as Sir Slam-A-Bot), and the notorious dust bunnies tribe. Thou shalt not turn off a Windows-based computer by flipping...

A PUP is a Potentially-Unwanted Program

Malware was simpler decades back. We had clarity. It was all bad. Now, we have 'PUP's. That's an acronym for 'potentially-unwanted program.' McAfee, Inc, created that label some years back, and probably did it in their legal department. I can imagine...

An Open Letter to Business Software Developers

Written for members of the Association of Software Professionals in 2004, a trade group of software developers. There's a 2023 update after the article. ©Jerry Stern 2004, All Rights Reserved. As seen in ASPects , December 2004 Does ...

Cars, Chips, Shakespeare

From the November 2000 ASPects . 2023 Update at the bottom. News from the world of technology is pretty bad. Everything falls apart; the center cannot hold. No, really. I had my car fixed. The engine was running rough. The shopping center...

Case Study: Offers and Wrappers

This entire page of "wrappers" and "offers" is from one installation of a free trial version of Microsoft Word that came from a popular download site, NOT from Microsoft. Note the generic installer provided by the wrapper program. Microsoft isn't the...

Find Software as an Informed Consumer

Written by Jerry Stern Chief Technical Officer, Science Translations Downloading apps and software is the best way to try out a product before buying it. Free trial versions and free light versions of software let you know, for sure, that a program...

Monetizer & Wrapper Glossary

If you’re trying to install one program that does one thing, and you download a free trial or a free tool, and then you see that three new programs have been added to your computer, you’ve been monetized. The program you downloaded, or the download por...

Monetizers: The Business Model

Monetizers, or monetization, applies to both programs and web sites. Basically, it's a method of making money on something free, using a third party to provide advertising (for web sites), or to bundle programs to install as "recommended" or "bonus" products...