By Dennis O’Reilly It should take more than glowing reviews to convince you that a free program is trustworthy. Suspicions have been raised about the source of one of the free apps a column recently listed, but there appears to be no cause for concern.

Who’s behind that ‘great’ free program?

When it comes to free software, it pays to be suspicious. Most such programs come with serious “gotchas”: some are loaded with ads, while others have many of their most useful features turned off unless you upgrade to the paid version.



And how do you know that the person or company behind the program isn’t putting your personal data at risk? Reader Sascha Timm questioned the legitimacy of one of the freeware programs Scott Dunn highlighted last week, concerned that IE7Pro may come from an unreliable source:

• “I used IE7Pro, too — and loved it, as it has features that are sadly missing in IE 7. However, I deinstalled it recently. Why? I figured out that the people behind IE7Pro are also behind Orbit Downloader (a downloader for embedded Flash, streaming audio, etc.). What is more, both domains (and more than 92 others, like iescripts.org and lyricsday.com) are registered to the same person.”
  

There’s nothing unusual about a single person registering dozens of domain names, nor one person or company offering many different programs. Still, if there’s anything about a program that raises suspicions that aren’t easily laid to rest, give it a pass and look for another that offers the same functions but comes from a source you’re comfortable with. There’s no such thing as an indispensible software program, no matter what Microsoft may claim.

The free Foxit Reader may be a challenge to find

How can you fault a company for pushing the fee-based version of its free programs? After all, everybody’s got to make a living. Still, it starts to look a lot like bait-and-switch when you see a free program promoted on one site and then, when you go to what you think is the program’s download page, you’re prompted to purchase the commercial version.

That’s what happened when readers Robert Eden and Armin Fields tried to find the free Foxit PDF Reader utility and were directed to the $35 Foxit Reader Pro Pack. Armin was even offered an odorous “bargain” from Foxit Software:

• “Foxit Reader is not free and does not belong on your list of free stuff. I just checked; they charge $35 unless I buy some product (say $29 for cigars; I don’t smoke).”
  

No need to pick up any habits just to secure a discount on a “free” software program. You can get it from Download.com’s Foxit PDF Reader page without the vendor’s runaround.

This puts a new twist on an old axiom: “If at first you don’t see the free-download link, try, try another site.”

Readers Sascha, Robert, and Armin will each receive a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of their choice for sending comments we printed. Send us your tips via the Windows Secrets contact page.

The Known Issues column brings you readers’ comments on our recent articles. Dennis O’Reilly is technical editor of WindowsSecrets.com.

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