I'm sure that everyone who uses the Internet has found free downloads such as programs, screen savers, and games.  A lot of these items can be fun and useful, but often they will have something hidden that comes along with the free download.  They will frequently come with spyware to track what you do on your computer, and sometimes they will include a virus that can cause many problems including loosing all of the data on your computer.

Before you download any type of software from the Internet be sure that you are familiar with the web site that you are getting it from.  If you are not, you might want to stop and think if you really need the software in the first place.  Keep in mind that firewalls, antivirus software, and anti-spyware programs will not stop everything.  If you find something on a web site that you really want but it is from a site that you are not sure of use a search engine to  check to see what people have said about the software you are about to download. 
 
If you decide that you will be downloading something off the Internet you can take some safe guards first.  Start by going to www.windowsupdate.com and make sure that your computer is up to date on all the new security updates from Microsoft.  Some of these updates are made to stop many of the problems that you can encounter when downloading from the Internet.  It will also have things that you will probably want, like an updated Internet browser that has a built in pop-up blocker.  You should also make sure you have an updated antivirus program before you download anything including email attachments. 
 
If you don’t currently have an antivirus program on your computer, or the one you have is not up to date, you can get one for free from the Internet.  I often use a program that is called AntiVir and have had very good results with it.  You can download it for free at http://www.free-av.com/.