Posted by H3:
We’ve separated the programs from the bad to show you the best free programs sadly for a variety of reasons. There’s the software you should avoid because it could cause more harm than good. So coming up we’ll share with you the five three programs we believe should never be installed on any computer. We’ll let you know what those programs are and why we don’t like them and show you alternatives to those programs.
Zoom:
Let’s go first out of the gate is zoom gaining in popularity over the past year as a video communication service? Lets you set up video and audio conferencing live chats, webinars, and screen sharing along with other tools for collaboration. Zoom is available for just about every operating system. Offering both free and paid plans, there are many reasons to not use zoom notwithstanding the privacy concerns. There are serious issues regarding the company’s security protections that have made it easy for hackers to interrupt video conference calls which is known as zoom bombing.
Zoom has leaked thousands of its users, email addresses, and user photos to strangers and has other issues with how it handles contacts. Its database zoom had failed to disclose a secret web server installed on millions of users max which could lead to the webcams being activated without the user’s permission and more than half a million of its user’s email addresses and passwords have been made available for sale. On the dark web, those are just a few of the reasons to not use zoom. At this time I could go on with more but that should be enough for now while no alternative is perfect. Here are a few options to consider with better track records.
First of which is Google meet discord is not just for gamers anyone can use it and Microsoft teams are offering both free and paid plans.
Next up we have CCleaner. This utility is used to clean potentially unwanted files and invalid registry items from your computer for many years. It was a highly trusted program we used and that all changed in late 2017.
In July 2017 piriform the maker of CCleaner was acquired by the cyber security software company vast it’s all been downhill since then. Since the acquisition by a vast, it was revealed that its installer was hacked to distribute malware affecting millions of users. Usually, I tell you it’s safer to download software directly from the provider’s website than use a third-party site. In this instance, the hack took place on the servers of CCleaner which makes this even more troubling in version 5.45.
They incorporated a data collection module that could not be disabled by the user. After receiving criticism they gave the user the ability to turn data collection off. In privacy settings, it should be known that data collection is turned on by default and the CCleaner also had incidents where users claim that a vast antivirus was being installed without their permission. The website techs pot-tested this out and verified a vast was installed without their consent. It appears cleaner has rectified this issue but for me, this is where I lost all trust in using this program.
uTorrent:
If you need a more trustworthy alternative to CCleaner glare utilities include more than 20 tools. To get the job done to improve your computer’s performance uTorrent is perhaps the most egregious offender in this video. This bit torrent client allows users to share or download files. It used to be one of the best and is now absolutely one of the worst. If the adware wasn’t bad enough in 2015 uTorrent got caught installing a cryptocurrency miner called epic scale. Without letting their users know this program ran in the background. Using their system resources to make their company a profit, since then they’ve been dead to me.
Bit Torrent:
If you need a bit torrent client without these shady business tactics q bit torrent is what we’ve recommended in the past. It’s free and open-source with no ads or extra garbage included in quick time.
QuickTime is a media player that can handle various audio and video formats while it’s still in active development for mac os in 2016 apple ended support. For the windows version of quick time with security flaws discovered in quick time for windows that will never be fixed. It’s best to uninstall it right now. If you still have quick time files in the move format on your computer.
The VLC media player does offer support for that file type and you can also play them on windows media player 12.
Netscape Navigator:
Now for the legendary internet explorer at one time, it was the king of all browsers but now just spends its time hanging out with Netscape navigator talking about the good old days with security and stability issues. There is no reason why this browser should be on your computer. Unless you work for a business with an outdated Microsoft enterprise plan regrettably it’s still built into windows 10 and can’t be easily removed.
Like most other programs here’s how to uninstall internet explorer. In the lower left, go to the search bar and type the control panel. Select it. Let’s now dive into programs and features you won’t find it. In this list that would be too easy instead in the left pane, click turn windows features on or off and uncheck the box. Next to internet explorer 11 you’ll get this box that shows up click yes click ok. When that’s done click the button that says restart. Now not only will this turn off internet explorer it will remove it from your computer sending it to the ash heap of history.