Is Shareware safe/reliable- how to tell

[Alanfc]

hello-
does anyone use any of this stuff?

http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/top20/


how do I determine if its safe for my computer or not- I don't necessarily mean virus-wise, but system or recording software crash-wise ?

any comments greatly appreciated

 

[RWhite]

Some of those - Nero, Col Edit, Acid 4 - are (I'm guessing) demo versions of well-known commercial programs. Probably crippled in some way.

ProTools Free is a 8 track freeware version of an older Pro Tools, which running on Win9X only (not 2000 or XP). I could never get the damn thing to work at all.

Most of the rest I don't know.

Speaking genericlly, most shareware I have downloaded (disk & system utilities for the most part) has worked quite well. If you want tratings, try going to www.download.com There you will find popular shareware with user comments, includeing a "Yea" or "Neh" percentage rating.