Although there are many sites to download free programs or software. Most of them are not trusted and full of malware bots. There are many online tools that do not require a download, there are many others that we do need to have installed on the computer, even if they are free. Tools of all kinds to watch series or movies, to clean the computer, to share files, to edit photos. That is why it is convenient to have a good list or to know the best sites to download free programs without falling into malware, computer viruses or scams.
You have to be especially careful not to download programs in advertisements that appear on the Internet or on websites you have never heard of because they can turn your computer into a complete virus. Also, always have Windows Defender or any other antivirus ready to detect any download you do since it will be in charge of blocking them if there is malware.
Use the original website itself
There are many programs that allow downloading from their own website and this is usually one of the best options if you do not want intermediaries to “spoil” what you are going to buy or download. For example, programs to compress video such as WinX HD Video Converter are free and we can download it for free from its own website without having to resort to other program websites. The same thing also happens in other specialized programs such as BleachBit to clean your PC, for example. Many softwares have their own totally reliable website, although it is recommended that you first look for information that will help us to see opinions about the website, about downloads, about malware.
This is the case of streaming services, for example. You can download its own application from the Netflix website if you want the desktop client. Or to use Telegram on Windows, for example, always do it from your website. Other examples are Dropbox, Origin, most VPN…
Use the Microsoft website
Microsoft store is the safe and best site to download free programs. You can download programs or applications from the Microsoft store. Not only can you buy them but it is a good option to download free programs of all kinds, from Netflix itself or Amazon Prime Video to specific video editing programs, photo editing programs or all kinds of classic games or modern and current games for do sudokus, to disconnect. You just have to go to Microsoft’s “Store” and choose the category you want in “Applications”. You can see free and paid applications, top rated applications, outstanding collections depending on what you need or look for, application trends…
Websites that you should not visit …
Softonic
Softonic may be the best known and one of the most popular but it is usually one of the least recommended. We include it here in order to tell you precisely that you do not believe that it is the best, the safest or the most complete but that it is usual that it includes malware or other types of problems such as bloatware or adware so it is best to look for alternatives to download programs if you want to use a website.
Websites to download programs
Github
One of the most recommended in these cases is GitHub if what we are looking for are websites to download open source programs. It is a kind of forum or community where we can enter to search for what we want and that you will usually find when you are learning about a program and you see that the link is to Github. It is one of the most complete and should always be on hand to download something.
Uptodown
Uptodown allows you to download programs for Windows or Mac if you need specific software for your computer. We find different categories that will help us quickly find what we need in the same way that you search on Google Play but now for the computer.
The different categories are: development, education, desktop, photography and design, internet, games, business, personal, sound, utilities, video…
Within each tab we can see the description, the latest version, recent screenshots of the latest versions of the program in question and an analysis carried out by an editor so we can know what it is about. At the bottom of the page you will see the type of license, the operating system, the language, the downloads, the author or the date. You will also see other previous versions in case you want to download any previous one.
FileHippo
It is one of the best sites to download free programs. One of the most widely used websites to download programs is FileHippo where we find the latest versions of the best programs and boasts more than 43,000 different versions and with more than four thousand downloads in total, with real-time updates. We can find practically anything in the different categories: browsers, desktop, games, entertainment, personalization, social and messaging, business and productivity, education and reference, file sharing, multimedia, security and BPN, system settings and utilities.
You will be able to find any program: Google Chrome, Adobe Acrobat, Ccleaner, uTorrent, Avast… Within the file of each program you will see a description, the version, previous versions and technical aspects. You will see the title, the supported operating systems, the language, the available languages, license, date of addition, author. And you can download it to your computer.
Downloadcrew
Another essential website to download programs is DownloadCrew. It has programs for Windows, for Mac, for Linux, for iPhone, for Android, for iPad… In addition, it also has different categories like the rest of the websites on this list and you can find thematic programs depending on what you are looking for. For example, “audio, video and photo” or “backup and recovery”. You can also see the latest downloads and recommended downloads.
Download crew has a more comfortable and recently renewed but interesting interface, easy to use. It allows not only accessing a category but also ordering according to what we need at all times: then ordering by name of the software, by the score of other users or clients or by the one that has been updated most recently or downloaded more times.
Within the tab itself, as in the rest, you will see all the details: operating systems, developer, category, downloads, update date, language, size. A great advantage is that it will also allow us to see the same program available for other platforms and it will be enough to touch the corresponding icon on the right side to go to its file. We can also comment, share, view photos or screenshots…
