How to safely download sketchy files

If other people have recently scanned the file, VirusTotal will show you the recent scan results. This means it should be clean. In fact, not two days after publishing this article, our example file—CCleaner 5. In some cases, the opinion may be near unanimous. In other cases, only a few antivirus tools may have a problem with the file. This is often a false positive, though in certain circumstances it could be that some antivirus tools have spotted new malware before others.

You can scroll down to see which antivirus tools had a problem with the file, view more details about the file, and see community comments about whether the URL is safe or not.

In some cases, for example, it may just be flagged for including bundled crapware, which is easily bypassable. To make this process easier, the VirusTotal project offers browser extensions. Download the appropriate extension and you can right-click a link and select the VirusTotal option to quickly scan it and see the results.

If VirusTotal is unanimous that a file is dangerous, you should stay away. If the results are mixed, you should be careful, but you may want to examine the more detailed antivirus results to see why they say the file is dangerous. Customize the Taskbar in Windows What Is svchost.

Browse All Buying Guides. Just as you would take precautions for safe online shopping, you should be equally careful when you download files to your device. Viruses, malware, and Trojans misleading malware are more rampant than ever—which is why you should take caution before you download something. Here are four tips to incorporate into your daily digital routine to help you stay safe the next time you download something online. On some occasions, however, you may find SmartScreen overstepping its bounds and blocking you from downloading a file you know to be safe.

I don't recommend turning SmartScreen off completely because it is helpful in preventing you from downloading a malicious file or app, but you can disable it in Microsoft's Edge browser if you want to override its protection and go ahead and download a file it doesn't recognize. You can disable SmartScreen in the Windows Defender Security Center app in total or just for Edge, but for the latter it's faster to do so right within Edge itself, particularly if you are already using Edge.

When such high content is free, viewers get very excited and start downloading things blindly. This is like a ring of fire for all the malware activities for hackers. These are some ways you can download your files online with safety. Always use VPN! We cannot stress this matter enough. These sites that offer free content generally do not make any money, as it would be quite illegal. Their only revenue is advertisements, and some of these advertisements are a hub for viruses.

Hackers enter the devices with the help of your IP address. So, hiding this IP address is the first thing that you have to do. This guide is for educational purposes only.

In our previous article Best Torrent Sites , we have ranked ten torrent sites that are faster and safer to use in , and The Pirate Bay came out on top. The reasons lie in its reliability, usability, and popularity. Believe it or not, The Pirate Bay is currently the best torrent repository, and you can count on it to have almost everything you want, games, software, music, books, movies, TV shows, you name it.

To download from The Pirate Bay is easy. You just need to search for your wanted torrent and then leave the rest to a BitTorrent client think it as The Pirate Bay downloader. Yet, there are several caveats which concern the use of The Pirate Bay. We will walk you through how to download from Pirate Bay safely in a step-by-step guide in the next part. Read on! Tips : Want to know more about the torrent?