WARNING: JUNK AHEAD
Junk offender: Filehippo
When it launched in 2004, Filehippo ( https://filehippo. com) quickly became one of the best download sites. I can remember using it a lot to grab useful tools and free software. But I haven’t visited Filehippo for a good few years and was genuinely shocked by the way the entire website now seems geared towards tricking people into installing junk.
For a start, Filehippo seems to be flooded with adverts, many of which masquerade as download buttons for the tools you’re trying to install. It’s a minefield to navigate. Even if you’re savvy enough to make sure you click only genuine download links, you stand a chance of being tricked by a cheeky message pop-up that attempts to con you into downloading something you never wanted in the first place.
It doesn’t happen every time, but on at least two occasions, my attempts to download a legitimate program (Mp3tag) summoned a big, green ‘Download now’ button (like the one in our screenshot 1 ).
It’s easy to assume this is simply the next stage of Filehippo’s download process. In fact, click this and you’ll start downloading and installing software you didn’t ask for (in this case, Opera – a fine browser, but not what I was after). The link to dismiss the message and continue downloading the tool you do want appears in tiny text below 2 .
If that wasn’t bad enough, Filehippo also hosts a great deal of software with dodgy installers crammed with junk. As an example, one of the programs I downloaded – Prism Video Converter – installed a second tool on my PC (NCH Suite) without my permission. My advice is to stick to downloading tools from their original websites, where possible. If you have to use a download site like Filehippo, tread very carefully indeed.