Most computer users would probably agree that the rise in recent years of adware and extras such as toolbars and other options while installing software has become a growing menace. The problem also isn’t just about inadvertently getting this junk installed onto your computer, in some cases such as the Babylon toolbar, it’s also about getting rid of it effectively again. Most people understand the need for developers to make money, but some software installers have become quite devious and all but trick ordinary users into installing their wares.

It was all the more frustrating when download portals started wrapping their software downloads in adware wrappers which means instead of you just downloading the setup installer like before, you download a small executable which offers various adware and junk before downloading the real installer for you. One of the biggest websites to implement this first was CNET and unfortunately several others have followed suit. Even the once respectable SourceForge has started using this method on open source software, which has dismayed users everywhere.

Of course, you can find other websites or the developer’s official website to download the program from if possible, but there’s no denying a website with a vast wealth of resources like CNET is still handy to fall back on every now and then. One good thing is not all software hosted on CNET is bundled with the “CNET Installer” so you’re not going to find it in your way every time you go there. If a software is being bundled with CNET’s installer, you will see a button that says “Download Now CNET Installer Enabled“.
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Steam by Valve Corporation is a very successful software to distribute games that are purchased online. This system makes it so much easier because there is no need to wait for the arrival of the installation disc after purchase and the need to care for the CD/DVD which can be easily scratched and damaged. Whenever you need to reinstall the game, simply install the Steam software, log in to your Steam account and the game is available to download.

This would not be a problem since most home Internet connections are broadband with fast download speeds, and it is also possible to backup the game files for offline installation. The only possible problem that a user can face is when Steam itself cannot be updated or fully installed. In a situation of a new Steam installation, the user will be required to download SteamSetup.exe at only 1.4MB in size and install it on their computer. Running Steam the first time will require downloading the necessary files at around 113MB in size.

If you are experiencing problems in updating Steam, a fatal error window will appear with the message “Steam needs to be online to update. Please confirm your network connection and try again“.

It is important that Steam is able to update and run without problems or else you won’t be able to download or play the games that you’ve purchased. If you are experiencing problems in updating the Steam software, here we have some workarounds to fix the problem.
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Although free file hosting websites like Hotfile, FileSonic and Megaupload get shut down from time to time, new ones will continue to surface replacing the dead ones because it is a very lucrative business with revenues generated from advertisements and paid premium membership access. A lot of files can be found hosted on these file hosting websites but the biggest problem is your computer can easily get infected by adware or spyware if you’re being tricked into clicking on a fake download button which is actually an image from the advertisement spot.

There are some free file web hosts that do not instantly tell you that the file is not available when you visit the download page if the file has been removed. Letitbit.net is a good example where you’ll need to solve a CAPTCHA, wait for a (fake) file search and then it reports that the file is not found. Turbobit.net does pretty much the same thing by faking a file search when the file is actually no longer available to download.

Another common annoyance with the download links are they don’t usually last very long. The uploaded file will be removed upon receiving a DMCA complaint or when it has stopped receiving downloads for a period of time. To prevent wasting your time when visiting bad download links, here are a couple of ways to quickly check if the links are available or offline.
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There are times when you will end up on a web page that doesn’t look like a webpage but instead looks like a folder and you can only find files being listed. This is because the webserver directory index file (index.html, default.asp and etc) is not present in the folder and the directory listings option in the webserver is turned on.

One of the reasons to offer directory listings is to provide a convenient way for the visitor to quickly browse the files in the folders and allow them to easily download the files to their computer. Sometimes directory listings are accidental due to webmasters who forget to include a .htaccess or a blank index file to prevent all the files from being listed.

To download a file, you can either left click on it or right click and select “Save link as” in your favorite browser like Firefox or Chrome. However, if you need to download multiple or even all of the files from the directory including the subfolders automatically, you will need third party tools to help you achieve that. Here are 5 different methods that you can use to download all files from a folder on a website.
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With internet connections getting faster over time, more and more people are able to upload and share larger files over the internet. While for many it used to be slow to send a few Megabytes, it’s now quite possible to upload hundreds of times that in a matter of minutes. There are many places you can upload files to, including cyberlocker file hosting services, cloud hosting or even more advanced methods like FTP.

Many file hosting and sharing services have free and subscription based options. Quite often the free service files are automatically deleted after a period of weeks or months, or after a period of inactivity. But if you want to do the opposite and make your files expire after a certain time or after a specific number of people have downloaded them, those options are not available everywhere and the choices are a bit more limited.

Some of the more well known file sharing services like DropBox offer expiring links but the feature is only available to paid subscribers. If you just want to upload some files and have them expire after a certain amount of time or number of downloads, there are some options available. Here are 10 services for you to look at.

If you want to do a similar thing with emails and messages, we have written about that before in Online Services to Send Messages that Auto Delete after Reading.
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BitTorrent peer to peer file sharing is still going strong after all these years. This is even after attempts by several countries to ban tracker sites like The Pirate Bay and others at the ISP level. Even though torrents are mostly associated with downloading pirated and copyright infringing files, there are still many legitimate uses that rely on the same peer to peer (P2P) distribution method.

Lots of free software is offered for download over torrent P2P, such as Linux ISOs. In the past, game developers have also used it to distribute game patches and updates. You can even download drivers for utilities like Snappy Driver Installer using P2P. Sadly a number of organizations can block the use of torrent software as it is a huge drain on the network because it connects to many other computers at the same time.

Even your ISP could throttle torrents and slow them to a crawl of only a few KB/s for the same reason. To get around the restriction on using dedicated torrent clients or ISP imposed speed throttling, there are a few things you can try to still be able to use torrents.

Here we have 9 options for you to look at.
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