Are you flirting with disasterware?

From...

By Tom Mainelli

(IDG) -- You use it and you probably love it. Without shareware and freeware, PCs would be considerably less useful, not to mention more expensive to operate. And most of these programs are every bit as solid and reliable as their store-bought, shrink-wrapped counterparts.

But some free or low-cost software available online suffers from design deficiencies that make it difficult to install or uninstall, and may cause problems with operating systems. Other software downloads may come packed with adware that bombards you with marketing pitches. For some users, this bargain stuff carries too high a price.

Perhaps because of the economic downturn, freeware (software you download and keep for free) and shareware (software you try for free and keep for a fee) appear to be growing in popularity. Websense, an Internet management software service, reports that the number of shareware download sites rose 500 percent from February 2001 to February 2002 -- from about 780 to 4900 sites.

At PCWorld.com, a recent informal survey of site visitors revealed that of the more than 1400 respondents, over one-third had tried out 5 to 10 downloads in the previous 12 months; another third had test-driven more than 15.

The most popular category of downloads? System utilities, cited by nearly 60 percent of those surveyed.

Half of all respondents said that at least some downloads had caused system crashes, driver overwrites, and other significant PC problems. Half of all respondents also cited problems with uninstalls.

Teacher Thomas Bailey of Kirtland, Ohio, loved Zone Labs' highly touted firewall software, ZoneAlarm 2.6 -- until, that is, he installed an upgrade. Then he encountered browser conflicts, system freezes, and disconnects, all of which made contacting Zone Labs by e-mail impossible. Since the company does not provide technical support via phone or fax, Bailey was stuck. "My last resort was to use the Dell Solutions documents and uninstall/reinstall my operating system," he wrote.

IDG.net INFOCENTER PCWorld.com home Free daily newsletters PCWorld.com: Week in Reviews TechInformer Related IDG.net Stories PCWorld.com Downloads section Ad-Aware download page at PCWorld.com Add/Remove 4Good download page at PCWorld.com Features PC World.com Product Finder An inside tour of the Pentium 4 Surviving a disk crash: A checklist Visit an IDG site Choose a site: IDG.net CIO Computerworld Darwin Dummies.com GamePro.com The Industry Standard ITWorld.com InfoWorld.com JavaWorld LinuxWorld Macworld Online Network World Fusion PC World Publish.com UnixInsider IDG.net search

Despite such headaches, a majority of respondents said that when they factored in cost, ease of use, and quality, freeware and shareware still turned out to be either "about as good" as or "a better deal" than software available from major manufacturers -- especially for users on a budget.

Daniel Leppington, a system administrator at Ecole Zenon Park in Zenon Park, Saskatchewan, Canada, says he uses shareware because he's on a budget. "Saving the school division [district] several thousand dollars each year would be appealing, even if there are a few turnover pains," he explained.

Or as another survey respondent succinctly put it when discussing the attractions of freeware: "Free is free; if it works, it works."

Net effect

Shareware -- especially if it's untested -- can be a major headache for corporate IT people, says Harold Kester, chief technology officer at Websense. "If you're managing 500 to 1000 PCs, and half are downloading freeware, you can imagine the problems that can result," Kester says.

Sam Ash Music, a national chain based in Hicksville, New York, uses Websense's service to prevent downloads. If each of the company's PCs carried different software, IT simply couldn't cope, says David Ash, chief operating officer.

Worse yet, if your work PC is on a corporate computer network, your system's freeware problem can quickly escalate to epic proportions, says Frank Gillman, director of technology for the California-based law firm Allen Matkins, which blocks all employee software downloads.

"You may not know that you are connecting to 250 other devices in the firm," Gillman says. "So if you add something to your machine that causes a problem, you can affect a much wider group."

In addition to dealing with crashing PCs, IT professionals must cope with adware -- software that displays advertising when you use a program. While many users consider it annoying, it's largely (but not always) harmless.

Sneaky software

Radiate (formerly Aureate), for example, supplies adware delivered by Radiate's GoZilla download manager and -- at one time -- dozens of other shareware applications. Microsoft's support site says Radiate's software has been known to cause severe crashes with several versions of Internet Explorer. Radiate chief executive Aaron Maedge says that the company is aware of the problem, but he points out that its software is currently licensed to only 25 apps. Radiate can do little to address problems with legacy shareware, Maedge adds.

A subset of adware, often termed spyware, transmits system and Web-browsing data to advertisers via the PC's Internet connection, sometimes unbeknownst to the person using the PC. These programs not only tie up network bandwidth, but could compromise security.

"As CTO, I could download something compelling, maybe a functional tool, but on the back end of it might be something that could upload all of Websense's financials," Kester says. "There is a risk here, and it's a very real risk."

One example of software doing the unexpected: A company named Brilliant Digital Entertainment recently acknowledged that users of the popular file-sharing program Kazaa had also downloaded Brilliant's software; when activated, this software enables the company to use customers' PCs in a distributed computing network. The company says that it will ask permission first, and that it plans to offer prizes to participants. But Kazaa's terms of service already authorize Brilliant to use your PC in this way for free.

Even if its activities are mentioned in the license agreement, spyware can take users by surprise. Cheryl Bettin, an administrative assistant in Wausau, Wisconsin -- and a savvy software downloader -- says that she didn't realize she had spyware on her PC until her firewall caught it trying to send information back to the software's vendor.

Bettin used another freeware program -- Lavasoft's Ad-aware -- to locate and remove the offending software. Although the experience has made her more wary, it hasn't prevented her from downloading shareware.

"I've found some shareware apps that are a royal pain, and I can hardly delete them fast enough," she says. "I've found others that worked so well, I could barely wait to send in the registration fee."

Worth the hassle?

The occasional headaches are also worth it to school IT manager Leppington, who is considering a free download of Linux for his school's 42 computers. He's also experimenting with Sun's StarOffice and with an open-source word processing program called AbiWord as alternatives to Microsoft's pricey Office suite.

Many top-notch shareware and freeware programs never cause users a minute's worth of extra trouble. But if you're considering downloading software from the Internet, it's clearly a sensible practice to do your homework first (to determine whether there might be compatibility problems, for example) and to discuss your proposed downloads with your favorite IT person.

Finding exactly the right piece of software online -- one that does just what you need it to do, either for free or at a price you can easily afford -- can be exciting and exemplifies the best of the Internet.

But stumbling on a program that causes system problems or that shares your personal information with somebody else can make you wish you'd never heard the words "freeware" and "shareware."

9 strategies for safe downloading

Nightmares of crashing PCs and out-of-control adware notwithstanding, some shareware and freeware options are simply too tempting to ignore. When you download software, be sure to follow these commonsense guidelines. If you hit a snag, some freeware and shareware programs may even help solve your problems.

1. Choose your download site carefully. Not all sites test software for stability, usability, spyware, and viruses. Editors of PCWorld.com's Downloads section, on the other hand, carefully screen and review each program.
2. Before you download, look for professional reviews or for comments from everyday users. The best download sites offer informed reviews from editors; others let visitors comment on the pros and cons of the software. Let somebody else's PC serve as the guinea pig.
3. Ask yourself whether you need the software. Microsoft bundles numerous utilities in each version of Windows, including hard drive scanners and defragmenters, system monitors, and data backup programs. If a Windows tool can do the trick, why bother with a download?
4. Check whether the software author or vendor offers technical support. If the software you want is a demo version of a retail package, you may find a phone number; if it's a homemade utility from a single programmer, you may have to settle for an e-mail address.
5. Read the software agreement -- yes, the whole thing -- before you download; and monitor the installation closely. These two steps are the best way to find out whether your nifty free program carries an extra, unadvertised spyware bonus pack. If you have trouble deciphering the agreement, check to see whether the download shows up on Spychecker.com, an easily searchable public database that has information on which downloads include spyware and adware.
6. If you've accidentally downloaded adware or spyware and now you want to get rid of it, start by determining whether the program's vendor offers an uninstall program. For example, you can rid yourself of Radiate's software by using a download from the company's Web site.
7. If you want to scan your PC for spyware, give Lavasoft's free Ad-aware a try; this program spots and removes most of the major offenders. Make sure that you get the most up-to-date files so you don't miss anything.
8. Uninstall with prejudice. If you run into problems with software, don't hesitate -- just get rid of it. If a program doesn't come with an uninstall feature, try using Windows' Add/Remove program. If that doesn't work, consider 4Developers' Add/Remove 4Good, a $13 shareware product that lets you completely remove up to seven programs during its free trial period.
9. Clean out the stray DLLs and leftover Windows Registry entries that uninstalled software leaves behind. Knowledgeable, confident users can do this manually; the rest of us are probably better off letting a reliable program do the job. We recommend Easy Desk Software's Perfect Companion, which is free to try and $30 to keep.