Unchecky helps you avoid unwanted downloads

I’ve warned you before about sneaky downloads that can piggyback their way onto things you actually mean to download. For example, the now-discontinued Flash Player used to piggyback an automatically download of a Mcafee trial program.

add-mcaffee

But there’s a free program out there that can stop those unwanted downloads. It’s called Unchecky.

Unchecky automatically unchecks the box for unrelated offers and issues a warning if it looks like you’re going to install a potentially unwanted program. Click here to check out their website.

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To download Unchecky, just click the big Download button.

download-unchecky

Unchecky will download to your downloads file and you can run it and follow the installation wizard. Occasionally an antivirus might issue a false positive for malware.

Let’s check out how it works. Here’s an example of downloading the QIP program without Unchecky. Notice that boxes to change your homepage and your browser are automatically checked.

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With Unchecky installed, those boxes will be unchecked by default. That could save you hours of work figuring out why your homepage and search engine have been changed and restoring them to your preferred defaults.

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If you’ve found yourself on the receiving end of unwanted programs, Unchecky is a program you might want to check out.

2 thoughts on “Unchecky helps you avoid unwanted downloads

  1. Terrific option! It just so happens the example you used – McAfee – downloaded when I up dated Adobe Flash Player, I wondered how I got it! Thanks.

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