Issue 15.14
It has been said by many wise people that there is no such thing as a free lunch (or a free computer program). While not technically true, most “free” programs come with one of two conditions and both can create problems for you if you are not careful.
The first condition is that the program may contain doorways into your computer or tracking segments that report information about you or your computer to someone else. In some cases, these are meant to be benign – to facilitate the programmers helping the program to run well or speed up communications for updates, etc. In others, they link you to advertising or are maliciously designed to damage your programs or block your ability to do normal things. This is done in order to force you to buy programs or encourage you to download toolbars or programs that may be viruses or other damaging items or links to sites you really don’t want to go to.
These programmers are paid every time your computer links to one of these ad sites or try to get you to pay for computer repairs or “upgrades”. It is a strong incentive to include these types of codes in their “free” programs.
The other condition is that they are offering a free program that is truly useful and danger free in order to introduce themselves to you and hope you will eventually buy their “professional” or “advanced” version. In that way they provide a service, get some positive publicity and name recognition, and hopefully earn a lot of money from those that upgrade to their paid versions.
This is a very useful and positive way to market programs and services and gives you a chance to try before you buy or simply use a stripped down version of something you may not be able to afford otherwise. Good examples of this are all around. Anti-virus programs like AVG or Avast have built their success on offering a free version, then encouraging you to upgrade to their paid versions. A fairly high percentage of apps for mobile phones come in a free version, but also have a “pro” or “full” version that costs a few bucks and has additional features (or levels in the case of games).
The only drawback to this approach is that these companies generally over time make it more and more difficult to find the free versions and frequently advertise that you should upgrade to get the full benefits. That is in keeping with their original intention to sell you something and is totally fair. You just need to be aware of what you agree to so you don’t unintentionally upgrade and have to pay for the privilege.
Always be sure that you don’t click on the upgrade option if what you meant to do was “up-date”. Most programs have regular updates – especially anti-virus and anti-malware programs and they are needed to keep those programs working and countering threats correctly. Once you upgrade, you may enjoy the benefits free for a 30 day trial period, but then you will be asked to pay for the option of continuing. If that is not what you want, you generally have to uninstall the program and reinstall the free version.
Just be careful and wise and remember to always back up anything on your computer that is important to you.
Shaun McCausland has worked in the computer industry for over 32 years, 23 years of it locally with Bits ‘N’ Bytes and Musicomp and currently does in-home and on-site computer consultation, service, training and repair. If you have questions you can reach him at 435-668-7118 or shaun@musicomp.net.