The following ad was sprawled across the top of my Gmail account a short while ago:
Fix My Registry Now (Recommended) Free Download. – fix-registry.winzip.com – Fix Registry Errors in 2 Minutes.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m always suspicious of ads that offer something free, especially when the offer involves my computer. And the fact that this is “recommended” does nothing to allay those suspicions. Rather, that just raises more questions, such as recommended by whom? Of course that is in addition to the usual questions these kinds of ads raise. Questions such as “what is this going to plant in my computer?” And “okay, the download is free, but how much are you going to ask for to activate the programme?”
From the various security and maintenance programmes I’ve installed, I know there are ways of cleaning the registry. That someone is offering to do it for me (“free download”) is not really very reassuring mainly because this isn’t a problem I’ve expressed any concerns over.
Once again, an offer like this might sound good, but unless you’ve specifically asked for help on fixing the registry, I’d ignore it. As I wrote above, something like this will either cost you money or allow some stranger to install something nasty on your system. And, if it does install some unwanted routine on your system, it will probably cost you money to remove it. Stick with sites you trust. Although, I must admit there have been a couple of times my securityware has detected, and blocked, keyloggers in Adobe Reader updates.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend and honour our veterans today.
Cat.
Catseyeview 