Toolbar Policy

Note: Make sure to opt-out correctly to prevent unwanted toolbars from being installed. Look at these examples.

Acceptable Browser Toolbars

Many of the free software products submitted to us contain some sort of sponsored toolbar or third party add-on. In many cases, the software is either very trivial or poorly made (or both). In fact, it often appears that the software itself may not the primary objective, but merely a vessel to distribute and profit of third party product installations. While most other sites will welcome these applications with open arms, we don't.
Our policy: If a "free software" comes bundled with a toolbar or any other unrelated (promotional) product, it will only be accepted if we consider the software to be worthwhile and there aren't many toolbar-free alternatives available.

We generally do not accept trial versions of commercial products that try to install a promotional toolbar, since we believe that a "free trial" should be just that, without any strings attached (toolbars, email sign-ups etc.).

You will have the option to skip the toolbar installation and use the software without the optional toolbar (see screen sample below). If you choose to install the toolbar, you can always to decide to uninstall it later, without having to remove the software it came with.

Since installation of the toolbar is not mandatory, these products are listed as "Freeware". However, we have added a note to each listing that discloses the type of toolbar that is distributed by the software.

- Toolbar installation is fully disclosed and optional
- Toolbar is from a reputable source
- Toolbar does not trigger pop-up windows or other forms of intrusive advertising.
- Toolbar can be uninstalled at any time

The only toolbars we currently accept as third party add-ons are:

• Google toolbar
• Ask.com toolbar
• Yahoo! toolbar
• Open Candy (see below)
• Bing (Microsoft) (see below)

Example of a toolbar installation screen during the setup process

Note: Make sure to opt-out correctly to prevent unwanted toolbars from being installed. Look at these examples.

OpenCandy

OpenCandy is a new type of advertising that offers the user to download and install a sponsored product as part of the installtion procedure. You can choose whether to install the recommended product or not.
www.opencandy.com

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