Angry Letter from a Reader

Home About Don Downloadable "Swing Era" Music Free Programs & Services How to Speed Up a Slow PC

Type in a word or phrase to search Don's entire site:

       I received an email from a reader complaining that a free program listed on my site gave her all kinds of problems. Fortunately, the problems were resolved, but she asked, "Do you have any idea of what you are referring to unsuspecting people?"

       Well, I've been listing free programs on this site for over a dozen years. They are here because of referrals from readers who have used them successfully over a period of time and wanted to share their benefits with others. However, this doesn't mean things can't occasionally go awry.

       This reader's problem appeared to be related to the fact that she installed an anti-virus program while another already resided in her system. Having more than one anti-virus program on a PC can create all kinds of problems.

       Another issue is that Internet scammers have sneaky ways of hijacking people's attempts to download a particular program and steer them onto another that may appear to be what they want, but which might actually be spyware, a phishing scam, or a virus of some kind.

       For instance, a popular free office suite is available at www.OpenOffice.org. However, if you type ".com" instead of ".org" you will land on a site that tries to talk you into paying for the program.

       If you want free help with income taxes from the IRS, typing "irs.com" instead of "irs.gov" will take you to a site that coaxes you into paying for various tax preparation services.

       Ad-Aware 2008 is a popular free anti-spyware program available from www.LavaSoft.com. However, its popularity has caused questionable imitators to urge you to download programs with names like "Adaware" and "Adware." (By the way, the generic word "adware" has become a synonym for "spyware" and tends to confuse people even more.)

       Beyond all this, many of the providers of genuinely free programs also have items for sale, and will try to coax you into buying them as you search for their "free download" button. This is not too surprising when you ask yourself, "How can people afford to give away free programs?" Bill Gates didn't get rich giving away Microsoft Office. Yet OpenOffice is totally free and is fully Microsoft Office-compatible.

       Other totally free programs I've recommended for years include Yellow Stickies, StripMail, Belarc Advisor, Irfanview, and Snippy. These useful programs were created by people who, for reasons known only to themselves, choose to give them away with no strings attached.

       Google has dozens of free programs and services, but they are subsidized by ads for various for-sale items.

       Speaking of genuinely free services, I've been putting my phone number in this column ever since I began writing it, and have given away thousands of hours of my time helping people solve PC problems. No, I don't have the solutions to all their problems, but can usually steer them to others who may have a solution. Why do I do this? Well, at the risk of sounding ridiculously hokey and perhaps self-serving, I just plain enjoy it.