Software, Viruses & Downloading

[yma]

Hi, I'm a very recent convert to mac from pc. I was wondering if you download software for mac on your pc and transfer it to a mac if there is a chance to get viruses? I've seen many postings on how unlikely it is to get viruses on macs and was wondering if downloading it on a pc and transferring it to a mac made any difference?

cheers

 

[forafireescape]

It doesn't make a difference - it's still a Mac program.

 

[knockknock]

He's absolutely right.
Just in case that there would be a virus or trojan horse you should uncheck the "open safe file" option in Safari. Safari->preferences->general

 

[richard.mac]

websites where you download mac software would have no windows viruses as there is no point in hosting them there as there are no current Mac OS X viruses. so you should be fine.

on the other hand if you download windows software on a mac then transfer it to your pc your virus scanner may pick up malware in the download.

 

[aaron.lee2006]

Also if you download a file on Windows (not mac software) it can still cause problems. Although the Mac can not become infected with the Windows virus, the Mac can still harbor the virus, thus making it possible to spread throughout a LAN. It's happened on my school's network before. It isn't pleasant to deal with.