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I find http://cleansoftware.org/ to be great to give to those running Windows who want malware-free third-party applications.

FTWS: "CleanSoftware.org is a resource to help Windows users find the best free daily-use software, free from nasties: adware, spyware, harmful/intrusive components, and threats to privacy. This is a small collection of software we have used personally. Most of these titles have been our favourite software for years, and highly endorsed."

CleanSoftware.org makes finding PDFCreator and many other (very) useful apps very easy to find. Many of you may recall the site was featured on an 'ask slashdot' about 2-3yrs back.

It was published on slashdot ages ago,

http://www.cleansoftware.org/

it is similar to what you are trying to do.

Switch? To what? Linux?

The OS, while it may suck a little, is not the problem. It's the fact that Microsoft bundled a whole bunch of poor quality software with Windows.

For most people, Linux is still not a viable alternative. Some distributions are easier than others to use, but all are a pain to maintain for those who do not want to go use the command line and edit sundry config files all over the place.

I used to tell all my friends, "Use Linux! Use Linux! Use Linux!" Now I say it only to tech-minded ones, because most people actually try it and come to me with a huge list of complaints.
I could solve all their problems for them, but that would only show that the Linux distro they tried is simply not good for ordinary users.

No - a better solution (for now) is to get people to use good software on Windows. I've managed to get people to switch to Open Office and they never regretted it.

Sites like Clean Software help (albeit is a little scanty now).

OMFG, you're actually using the windows media player? Go grab a better one from this site. Those players are all free. Personally I like WinAmp and VLC the best.

Issues like this are killing Windows. I learned my lesson a few years ago that almost no shareware or freeware can be trusted. This makes Windows a lot less useful and is one of the many reasons why I usually run linux on my desktop.

Potentially yes. I would favour better user education and improved software installation practices rather than a nasty, perpetual cleanup operation relying on tons of extra software. Keeping up with spyware (by scanning and recovering from it) is a losing game, as we all know after trying to clean up a family member's computer.

So people reallyshould be educated to start by finding software that is known to be free from spyware, from a site like CleanSoftware.org which was covered here earlier, rather than that awful download.com (please tell your friends and family to avoid download.com ... so many modified/infected software is distributed from there!!)

This is just a matter of being careful about what you install. It's not hard to do, but it requires that the user know that they have to be careful when installing software.

There is now a search function at that site. The webmaster has been very responsive to suggestions.

For the purposes of this site, "free software" is any software that you can legitimately use without a time limit and without an obligation to pay, as a home/non-commercial user. This rules out shareware and leaves freeware, open source (e.g. licensed under the GNU GPL or BSD license), and some trial/demo software.

The site has been updated to do what you say, more or less. There are now green icons beside almost all titles (these seem to be totally pure clean) and a yellow icon besides one requiring some attention during installation: irfanview, winamp, acrobat reader. The unpleasant stuff can be easily avoided through quite blatant options during download and install. More in the site's FAQ

The site currently allows user comments (through CGI). So for every title listed, users can can add to the related public comments. There is already lots of useful info accumulating in there.

There is also a general suggestion place under comments for the what's new section. People are suggesting software there for possible additions.

But part of the point of the site is, the admin does review the software personally so there is control in that respect over the listed contents.

The site currently allows user comments (through CGI). So for every title listed, users can can add to the related public comments. There is already lots of useful info accumulating in there.

There is also a general suggestion place under comments for the what's new section. People are suggesting software there for possible additions.

But part of the point of the site is, the admin does review the software personally so there is control in that respect over the listed contents.

That is why CleanSoftware.org links to the original sites. This is in the FAQ too under "What other tips do you have to help keep my computer spyware/adware free?"

http://www.pmail.com Excellent Free email program.

The thing takes forever to load; one might consider posting an adendum to the Acrobat post on how to liposuction Acrobat.

You can find the article here: The Inquirer

Just trying to help. ^_^

PuTTY is listed: Utilities

But they can add Filezilla and SciTE to that list

http://www.cleansoftware.org/internet/ Firefox is already listed.