There's a lot of free Windows software download sites, but are they safe? Every time you lot download something, there's a possibility that you're downloading malware or viruses. Certain, you lot've got the best antivirus app, but in that location'southward no sense making it do work that it doesn't have to do.

In this article, nosotros'll talk about how you can check whether a download is safe and we'll besides mention a couple of our favorite sites to download free software for Windows.

Are Complimentary Software Download Sites Safe?

In that location are only two ways to know if a download site is safe. Y'all can check its reputation and you lot test its downloads yourself.

There are businesses that rank how rubber sites are. One of the most popular sites for this is WOT or Web of Trust. WOT rates sites based on community ratings, reviews, and their own car learning algorithms. At that place are WOT plugins for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera browsers. If you have the plugin installed, you tin can cheque the download site.

Y'all can also bank check the site earlier you go to it. Go to Virus Full and enter the spider web address of the site. It'll check with a bunch of other sites that track reputations and viruses and lets you know if the site is rubber.

That does not hateful that what y'all download from the site has no malware or viruses. There are a couple of ways to test the download.

  1. Use a sandboxed web browser like Sandboxie to download it. In the sandboxed web browser, become to Virus Full and submit the download for testing.
  2. Download the plan within a virtual car and examination it there.

Safe And Gratuitous Software Download Sites for Windows

To compile this listing, nosotros researched the sites on WOT, VirusTotal, Norton Prophylactic Web, URLVoid, and ScanURL. At the time of writing this, none of the download sites showed any issues on the website checkers.

FileHippo

On the spider web since 2004 and Alexa-ranked at 625, FileHippo is solid. FileHippo states that they hand-pick the software, and test it for malware and viruses. They also don't let software that bundles other software into it or browser toolbars. FileHippo currently has over 40,000 program versions listed.

Exist careful if you do a web search for FileHippo. In that location are a lot of sites out in that location with similar names and URLs.

Nirsoft

Nirsoft is a freeware utility site that was created and currently run by a guy named Nir Sofer. He'southward unmarried-handedly written all of the software utilities that y'all come across on the site.

Each utility is completely free and usually very tiny in size. That's because each utility is designed to perform i task and one task only. For example, some of the most popular utilities on the site are the password viewers, which volition evidence you passwords stored on your computer, in your browser, etc.

Ninite

More than just a gratuitous software download site, Ninite is also a package direction arrangement. Using it as a packet direction system, Ninite can exist used to automate the installation of your favorite software and keep information technology upwardly to date, with merely one click. This is likely the safest site on the list.

The number of complimentary apps is limited. It does cover most of the software that yous'd install first on a new computer though. Chrome, Firefox, 7-zip, iTunes, VLC, Malwarebytes are amongst the free downloads Ninite can provide and manage.

Softpedia

Fifty-fifty older than FileHippo, Softpedia has been a software download staple since 2001. Softpedia hosts a lot of free downloads on their own concrete servers. That ways they have even more to gain from making certain the apps are safe. That's a lot of work when they take over 1.2 1000000 apps, drivers, and games available.

Download Coiffure

Offering some of the most well-known Windows freeware in an piece of cake to read, easy to search site, Download Crew should be on your listing. Download Crew has been around for over 10 years, boasts almost 300,000 members, and over 33 million downloads.

Its sis site is Download Crew Store, where you can get deeply discounted proprietary software. Betwixt the 2 you'll go all you need as cheaply every bit possible.

File Horse

When it comes to free software download sites, it's difficult to tell them apart. They all practise the aforementioned thing. They all offer downloads. What might prepare File Horse apart is that they also proceed athenaeum of previous versions of the software.

So if an update to your favorite app makes an unwanted change, you could download the older version here and curl it dorsum. File Horse also curates a directory of free cloud apps.

Major Geeks

Don't let the early-2000's pattern fool yous. Major Geeks is a legitimate free software download site. Founded in 2001, Major Geeks congenital a reputation by being one of the first to test all the software they offer.

Commencement, they check the reputation of the company and software, then they browse information technology with several virus scanners, including VirusTotal. If information technology makes it past that, Major Geeks really installs the software on their own VMWare Workstation to test the functionality. If it meets their standards, then the software gets listed. This thoroughness warrants their military-style theme.

Microsoft Store

Partly a website and partly an app that's probably already on your computer, Microsoft Shop does take a lot of good freeware. Being Microsoft, there's already a reputation in identify and you'd like to think they're hosting safety software.

Some of them are from the big names you already know, like Netflix, Apple, and, of course, Microsoft. Some are fabricated by smaller evolution teams but can exist very useful. Not all apps are free. There are thousands that are and it's easy to find them. Simply search on 'complimentary'.

Across that, yous should also cheque out the great Sysinternals tools that used to be a carve up site, but Microsoft purchased. The tools are all the same updated, but are geared more towards geeks.

Anymore Adept Costless Software Sites?

There are a few more good safe free software sites, simply if yous can't find what you need on the sites to a higher place, and so they're not going to help much. Over time, you'll go to know the sites you like that accept the software yous demand.

Remember to e'er bank check the downloaded file with your antivirus app or through Virus Total. If possible, test the program installation in a virtual car or sandboxed environs.