There are many desktop apps that can prove useful for seniors. However, it is also important to make sure that seniors stay safe while using desktop apps.
Read on for five tips that seniors should take into consideration when they use desktop apps like OneLaunch.
1. Look Up Online Reviews For The Desktop App Before Downloading It
One way that seniors can figure out which desktop apps are safe to download and which are not is to take a look at some online reviews.
If a certain desktop app is not safe, reviewers will definitely point that out and are likely to caution people not to download it.
Of course, seniors should check out multiple reviews, since it is certainly possible that one review might not give them the whole picture of a certain app.
2. Talk To A Relative Before Downloading a Desktop App
Quite a few seniors are pretty good with technology and especially computers now, since such skills are even more important these days.
However, they may not have heard of a certain desktop app and may not know much about it. In this case, one thing that they can do is talk to a relative before they download a desktop app.
Their relative may know more about the app or may know someone who does.
In any case, seniors can often gather more information about a desktop app from a relative and learn whether or not it is safe to download it.
3. Check The Security of The Source of the Desktop App
Seniors should also pay close attention to what website they have to go to in order to download a desktop app.
As with desktop apps, some websites are more secure and more trustworthy than others. O
ne way to tell that a website is secure is to look at the site information button on the URL bar directly to the left of the URL.
If this button looks like a little lock, then that means the connection to the website is secured.
A secure connection means that it is more likely that the website is trustworthy.
However, this is not the only criterion that seniors can use to evaluate the source of the desktop app.
Another way that seniors can tell if a certain website is by checking the Google Safe Browsing Transparency Report. Seniors can find this by going here.
Seniors can simply enter the website’s URL and check it to see if it is safe for browsing or if the website is hosting any malware.
4. Copy and Paste The URL Of the Site Into Another Tab
Seniors should also check the URL of the site where they go to download the desktop app.
Phishing is when a website pretends to be another site that it is not, in this context.
People can trick browsers so that they display fake domain names in order to pretend that their website is a trustworthy and legitimate site.
This is known as a homograph phishing attack. However, seniors can check for a fake domain name by copying the URL and pasting it onto another tab.
The URL will appear as the real domain name prior to you hitting the Enter key and loading up the site.
5. Visit The Desktop App’s Homepage
Another thing that seniors should do before downloading a desktop app is to go to the desktop app’s homepage.
Many desktop apps, including OneLaunch, have websites of their own. Seniors should go to the homepage of a desktop app’s website if the app has a website.
After that, they should check out the homepage and see if it appears to be a legitimate website.
If so, then it is more likely that the desktop app itself is legitimate, although it is still best to exercise caution.