downloads sans spyware?

May 19, 2006 10:19 PM

Is there anywhere I can download software shareware and cost-free software with the assurance that it's spyware free?

I've always kept my computer completely spyware free through a strategy of pretty much not downloading anything off the internet that wasn't open source or anything else I could be certain wouldn't contain spyware. But obviously I'm missing out on a lot, and there's at least one thing I need but am worried about downloading (something to convert .bin/cue files to .isos, or burn them. I have an old copy of Nero, but it doesn't recognize my DVD-R drive).

Are there any sites out there that offer 'spyware free' shareware programs? Trying to google for this gets me tons of links for anti-spyware software

posted by delmoi to computers & internet (10 comments total)

Tucows is pretty good about that kind of stuff.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 10:29 PM on May 19, 2006

Softpedia is too.
posted by puke & cry at 10:54 PM on May 19, 2006

I like Sourceforge, but it's all open-source stuff, and you probably already know about it.

I'm a little surprised to learn that there's no open-source tool to convert .bin/.cue to .iso. If memory serves, either DaemonTools (the first versions w/spyware seems to have been the 4.x ones) or DVD Decrypter (3.5.4.0 was the last version before Macrovision intervened) will do it, though. It's not too hard to find these programs, but I'll leave the actual finding as an exercise to the reader.
posted by box at 11:19 PM on May 19, 2006

Download.com is also a good site that has recently (last 2-3 yrs) has gone spyware free
posted by killa62 at 12:11 AM on May 20, 2006

I've been downloading stuff from Major Geeks for a few years now, and have never been infected. They have updates everyday and a nice clean page. And they try it all out, too.

All of the CD/DVD software is on their "Back Up" page. Silent Night Micro has worked for me. Also some of the shareware has fully functional free trial periods.

See also: Shareware Junkies, Snapfiles, and Filehippo.
posted by monopas at 3:09 AM on May 20, 2006

pricelessware.org is a good source. From there, you can get more site by looking at the acf Members' Sites.
posted by aroberge at 8:33 AM on May 20, 2006

Imgburn is spyware-free, freeware, and will burn .bin/.cue files.

cdrdao is open-source and will burn .bin/.cue files also, but it's a command-line tool, so it may not be as easy to use.

I'm not an expert on this, but I believe the reason it's hard to find tools that will convert a .bin/.cue to an .iso is that an .iso cannot hold the same kind of data that a .bin/.cue can. For instance, something as common as an audio CD can be stored in .bin/.cue, but can't be stored as an .iso.

The CD-Recordable FAQ says this:

An "ISO" is created by copying an entire disc, from sector 0 to the end, into a file. Because the image file contains "cooked" 2048-byte sectors and nothing else, it isn't possible to store anything but a single data track in this fashion. Audio tracks, mixed-mode discs, CD+G, multisession, and other fancy formats can't be represented.

To work around this deficiency, software companies developed their own formats that *could* store diverse formats. [...] Jeff Arnold's CDRWIN created them as "BIN" files, with a separate "cue sheet" that described the contents.
posted by llamateur at 8:55 AM on May 20, 2006

Thanks all :)
posted by delmoi at 10:18 AM on May 20, 2006

I believe NONAGS is also spyware, virus and trojan free. I use it regularly and have never experienced a problem. Also considerable external validation for it's safety. http://www.nonags.com/
posted by rmhsinc at 4:29 PM on May 20, 2006

I wouldn't trust Tucows at all, and Download.com doesn't guarantee all software is spyware free, but users will use the feedback if they find stuff, so be sure to read through user reviews before downloading
posted by hatsix at 6:51 PM on May 20, 2006