Don't worry - Mr. Wheeler will fix it. 

I won't download from any other freeware/shareware hosting site than Majorgeeks, but then I'm fairly selective about what I download [there's only a handful of programs I'm interested in] and always heed the crapware warnings... not that I'm very often confronted with it.

As for googling homepages?  Fech Google!  For the most part I just know the site I wish to visit and I type it directly in the address bar  For anything I'm not sure of I do a search on either Yahoo or Bing, and even then I make sure the result I click on IS the home page and not some imitation.  I got caught several years ago when I was still a PC novice and knew little about online scams, etc. 

Yeah, I thought I was downloading a legitimate copy of Firefox from the Mozilla download page, but in actual fact it was one of those imitation/bogus sites and I ended up with toolbars, unwanted home pages and hijackers directing me to advertising pages for crap I'd never but in a pink fit.  Needless to say it was uninstalled pronto and replaced with a bone fide copy.

Once bitten, as they say.... and truly, one has to be on his/her guard whenever on the net these days.  There's just too many arseholes looking to do the wrong thing, and sometimes they're hiding in plain sight, not just the nooks and crannies.

There is no safe now in internet specialy for the freeware and shareware site like that.

If you're using a search engine to find the official site for downloading drivers/browsers, I'd strongly advise using duckduckgo. It doesn't track, and it doesn't use advertising ranking. It also makes quite clear the official site. That in and of itself is not a 100% guarantee since Flash (for example) offers McAfee's antiviral scan with every update and therefore, Flash player's update setting should be 'notify' and not 'update automatically'. Adding "Web of Trust" wouldn't be a bad thing.

You could try using ninite since it notifies or discards updates for software which are 'bundled'/'wrapped'.

personally on downloads first I only use the original site, then during the install I also use a program called unchecky (from http://unchecky.com/) that claims to disable the install options for the crapware(and does seem to)

Harpo, the NON-subscriber

Unchecky clears the check boxes BUT, the clever wording in some of the software installers frustrates that...some check boxes have to be checked. So, you have to understand English very well because there are double negatives and sneaky wording which not everyone understands.

There's no real choice...you have to read and understand each screen correctly...and even then, crap gets through. And even if you don't allow the installation of the crapware/adware/toolbars, etc., it's still on your machine, supposedly inactive.

There is no free lunch...    Good read Doc, thanks!

Welcome, Barb!

I'm glad you mentioned that, it crossed my mind when I read the OP, but I thought "Nah, not quite really what he's talking about."  It sounded better coming from you.  It's a pet peeve of mine, it bothers me that they're still trying to slip that in after all this time.  Seriously, enough of that Adobe.

Words to live by.

Thanks for the post.

Welcome, DaveRI...that Flash thing always bothers me as well and there's no choice "Don't offer that again, please".

It could potentially harm your security as it does demand (and receives) an elevation of privileges to scan, and I'm not at all sure about how it updates its 'definitions' which are necessary for it to 'work' but you can only alter the frequency of the scans, not the updates. Also, I don't know the "address" for updates some use http. Seriously. Some don't digitally sign files and some don't verify the whole certification chain...you can learn more from the Joxean Koret pdf below...

Finally, having one antiviral is enough...adding this McAfee won't increase your security and might very well set up conflicts which compromise your computer more.

http://promos.mcafee.com/en-US/PDF/adobe_mssp_faq.pdf

https://www.java.com/en/download/faq/mcafee.xml

http://www.pcworld.com/article/261165/mcafee_antivirus_update_causes_problems_for_home_and_enterprise_customers.html

http://www.syscan360.org/slides/2014_EN_BreakingAVSoftware_JoxeanKoret.pdf

the flash (silent) autoupdate adds mcafee?? i always assume it goes with whatever version of installer you previous installed.. ie.. if you installed without mcafee, it'll stay without mcafee.... that is.. unless you get bounced to the website to grab a new installer (new major version only? not really sure when you get bounced)... then you'll have to pay attention... again.

Won't be using BING anymore... was just told that MS sold it to Google, so have since removed the Bing search option from my browser and replaced it with Duck Duck Go.

Feching Google and its insatiable thirst for power, data and knowledge... enen that which should be privte/personal.

With a bit of luck the Nth Koreans or someone 'll blow Google's HQ and other establishments clean off the face of the Earth.

Nothing about it on duckduckgo, Mark.

There was some talk recently about a sale to face book...but that hasn't happened, and were it to be sold to Google, that news would have hit the net for sure.

Orright, maybe my source read about something that hasn't happened as yet and got it mixed up, which is quite possible, given how many sales of assets and companies are on the cards one minute and off the next.

Thing is, he seemed pretty sure of what he'd read, so I'll have to ask when next he visits at to what his information was exactly and where he got it.