How can I determine when Free is not really free?

I do love free. When something is free, I would like two of them.

I went looking for a computer alarm clock, to remind me of a program on tv that I do not want to miss. I found some great-sounding ones for $20 . Then, I found others that are listed as being free. I was frightened away from the free one(s) because I wonder about whether there is a hidden agenda.

Is there a way to determine whether there is some ulterior motive, virus, malware, or agenda hidden away in this free software? Obviously, I could run a virus scan, which would alert me to a virus problem. But, what if the hidden agenda is some sort of tracking software or something else more insidious?

Particularly, I was looking at Bluefive alarm clock software.

CNET has it
http://download.cnet.com/Alarm-Bluef...-10742679.html

usually a site I do not worry about and google did not find anything bad about it.

Only way to avoid this 100% is to develop your own software;)
Or buy a fancy wrist watch.

I get all my free software from Snapfiles.com and haven't run into any issues.

Thanks guys.

I have dealt with cnet, before, and have had no complaints.

Will check with snapfiles and google the software.

(Why did I not think of googling the software, before bothering you?)

I usually google the name of the software along with the word review. If it's under 10 meg, I run the download past VirusTotal. Over time, I have decided to trust (with caution) Snapfiles and Softpedia (and also for portable stuff, PortableApps and Portable Freeware.)

As said, with every precaution known, there are no guarantees. So you do the best you can and if anything smells even slightly fishy, don't run it...

Also, while most download sites will make it clear what downloads are "Freeware" (though perhaps with a "donation appreciated" statement), some are a little unclear whether it is only the "Download" that is free or whether it is a trial.

Quote:

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some are a little unclear

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That, unfortunately, happens all too often but there are still safe sites around that don't pull that trick like snapfiles, majorgeeks, tucows and others.

Another common trick that even some of these sites do is show a large download link on the page that's for another
program.. often a trial for some crappy registry cleaner... that can be easily confused with the link you actually want to click.