website thubmnail of Download
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Australia
1 review
9 helpful votes
Follow J J.
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I just noticed a piece of software I developed is on CNET. I never gave permission and there's no way to have it taken down. What they're doing is illegal. They're pirating software and giving it out for free. Almost as bad, they're known to package spy, bloat and malware in with their products to give the pirated software a bad rep even though it's CNET trying to make money with damaging addons. Don't download from them. They're dodgy on all sides.

Date of experience: October 8, 2021
Nevada
2 reviews
29 helpful votes
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STAY AWAY
July 16, 2014

STAY AWAY
This site no longer scans for VIRUSES for it's downloads. Many reviews on their downloads from users indicate Viruses found.
My last download was halted by McAfee and resulting in the following virus being detected:
Artemis! DC8F485C2C24 (Trojan)

Date of experience: July 16, 2014
Oregon
1 review
20 helpful votes
Follow Steve J.
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I never got the Civil War Generals II game. What I did get was a barely working computer that I will probably have to pay someone to fix.

They are lucky I can not physically find them.

Date of experience: August 18, 2011
Utah
1 review
21 helpful votes
Follow Brian H.
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For years I used download.com (now download.cnet.com) to get great products both free and paid. But the seedy underbelly of the internet has latched itself to that once great site while CNET has slept and many of the items you download have viruses or worse!

As of late I tried to download "Macgo Blu-ray Player" from their site and initially my Norton Anti-Virus said it was good. But when I installed it Norton then said that it had to trap a Trojan virus! The worse experience of the year was a trialware version of software that claimed to have many features similar to Microsoft's Viso. What I got was a hijacked computer!

So BIG SHAME on cnet for not doing a better job of policing the software that is being offered through their site. So my one-time review of 5 stars for this site many years ago has been reduced to a "You had better have GREAT defenses on your computer when you install OR ELSE!"

So stay away until CNET fixes their issues.

Date of experience: November 23, 2013
Kentucky
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow Jay F.
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Bricked my pc
November 12, 2022

So they decided to add something that shuts down my PC every time I boot it up. It's $#*!ing stupid how it's still up, scamming people out of $#*! like that.

Date of experience: November 12, 2022
Malaysia
2 reviews
38 helpful votes
Follow Ina A.
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The site is riddled with viruses and malware.
I wouldn't advise anyone to use this, you'll end up spending hours trying to clean up your computer afterwards

Date of experience: December 23, 2014
Illinois
5 reviews
38 helpful votes
Follow Lisa V.
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This is part of the CNET site, but only has software downloads. I have downloaded several software programs from it. Most are free trials, where is does something, then you have to buy the software to do what you really need it to do.

The user reviews are ify, so take them with a grain of salt.

Date of experience: March 27, 2010
Illinois
139 reviews
1050 helpful votes
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Site should be banned, along with several other freeware hawkers. You can bet most anything downloaded with have malware, or worse, so try to avoid. How-To-Geek, explains it all:
http://bit.ly/1A5x1cW

Date of experience: July 12, 2011
Illinois
2 reviews
27 helpful votes
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CNET used to be my favorite website. I would stay up all night trying different programs. Sad to see all this malware. Im cleaning out my computer as i write this.

Date of experience: February 1, 2015
Australia
1 review
26 helpful votes
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Do NOT go there unless you want malware and headaches. Anyone who gives it even one star has not used that site. Keep away.

Date of experience: April 10, 2014

Overview

Download has a rating of 1.8 stars from 24 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Download ranks 179th among Downloads sites.

service
2
value
2
shipping
1
returns
1
quality
2