I am having problems updating or downloading some, but not all, programs: something is blocking me. I suspect that the problem is either my Internet Explorer settings or my security software. I am on Windows 8 with IE10 and Norton Internet Security. A friend told me to try disabling anti-virus auto-protect in Norton just for the download period, but I am not completely comfortable with that.
Peter
You have identified the most likely culprits, which is a good start.
Browsers and anti-malware programs are trying to protect your PC from external threats, and this can have unintended consequences.
In IE10, the old Tools menu has been replaced with a cogwheel in the top right corner. Click that to pull down the menu, then select Internet Options. When the properties sheet opens, click the second tab, marked Security. Click the Custom button and scroll down the list to the section headed Downloads.
Under File download, there are two radio buttons for Enable and Disable. Make sure the Enable setting is selected.
The Security tab shows a sliding scale with three settings, and the middle one is the best choice: Medium-high. With this setting, IE10 should prompt you before you download something that might be unsafe, without preventing you from doing it. You'd only set the slider to High if you were visiting sites that you didn't think were safe, but you could try the lower setting as a temporary fix.
Are downloads blocked from just one or two websites? If so, you could add these addresses to the browser's list of Trusted sites. To do this, click the green arrow and then the button marked Sites, and paste an address into the box that says "Add this website to the zone". This should stop IE10 from blocking it. Now see if you can download your file.
IE10's compatibility modes
Do some sites always work while others always fail? If so, it may be the website's fault. IE10 is a very good standards-compliant browser, but some sites are behind the times. The way round this, sadly, is to make IE10 pretend to be an older, inferior version.
To do this, go back to the Tools cog and pick "F12 developer tools" from the dropdown menu. This will open a pane at the bottom of the screen. Click on the words "Browser Mode: IE10" to pull down a menu that provides a list of choices. You can choose to make IE10 behave like IE7, IE8, IE9, or use IE10 compatibility mode. I mention this because it's sometimes the only way to get a website to work properly, but I don't recommend it.
If you think you might have made a mess of IE10's settings in Windows 8, you can always re-set them to the defaults by following Microsoft's instructions. (Readers with older versions of Windows can do this by clicking a single Fixit button (Microsoft Fix it 50195).
Of course, if you can't download a file with IE10, the obvious workaround is to use a different browser, preferably the latest version of Firefox. It's slightly less secure than Google Chrome because of Chrome's sandboxing, but it is more stable, and in my experience, handles more tabs while consuming fewer resources. I run it alongside IE10 all the time.
If Firefox doesn't download what you want, Mozilla has a trouble-shooting page: What to do if you can't download or save files.
Disabling Norton
When it comes to Norton Internet Security, I am somewhat handicapped by not having a copy. However, I would expect it to block some websites, and the files from those websites. I would not expect it to block a file from an unblocked website unless it reckons the file is bad. If you are sure the file is safe then you can, as your friend suggested, get around the block. A Norton community member, yogesh_mohan, has provided instructions: Excluding false positives from autoprotect.
If you do this, scan the file with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (quick scan). If MBAM says it is clean, upload the file to Symantec's website: Report a Suspected Erroneous Detection (False Positive).
Again, I'd prefer to find a workaround. Two that spring to mind are using Secunia's PSI and using a file downloader instead of a browser.
One-stop updaters
You mention "problems updating ... some programs" but there are simpler ways to get updates. One of them is to use an "app store" such as All My Apps or Ninite. The idea is to download all the Windows programs you need from the same safe store, which will update them all at once, without visiting all the separate websites. The main difference between the two stores is that Ninite has a very small selection of essential programs — of the order of 100 — whereas All My Apps has about 16,000.
Alternatively, use Secunia's Personal Software Inspector. This scans the programs on your PC and lists the ones that need updating for security reasons. PSI will then fetch and install each update. It's quick and easy, though some programs create problems because they come bundled with "foistware": they try to con you into downloading extra programs that you neither want nor need, such as a Google or Ask toolbar.
It's important to run something like PSI now that a lot of malware exploits insecure third-party programs such as Adobe Reader and Oracle's Java rather than targeting Windows. Also, running PSI means you don't have to put up with half a dozen updaters for separate programs, which otherwise get loaded in the background and run all the time.
The "community-powered" SlimCleaner 4.0 is a great alternative that I also use and recommend. It will find and remove programs you don't need (foistware, crapware etc), clear out junk data (like CCleaner), and find duplicate files. It also includes a Software Updater that installs newer versions of programs for you. It's the Swiss Army knife of modern Windows computing.
Dedicated downloaders
Finally, there are programs designed to download files as easily as possible. These used to be very popular because they could often restart failed downloads, and because they could open multiple download threads. For example, if you wanted to download a 100MB file, the downloader would download four 25MB chunks at the same time, making the download four times faster (if you had enough internet bandwidth). In those days, I used FlashGet, which still looks like a viable option. Now, I'd start with Free Download Manager
(FDM) or JDownloader
(but not Orbit Downloader) as these seem to be popular choices at the moment.
I have not used FDM but I have recently started using JDownloader.
It's designed for fetching files from "cyberlockers" such as File Factory and Depositfiles, but I use it for downloading YouTube videos.
Paste in the address of a 10-minute music video and JDownloader offers the choice of six different downloads including 3gp (for phones), flv, mp4 and WebM, with file sizes from 6.18MB to 22.80MB.
All of the above applies to the Windows 8 desktop and Windows 7 etc.
However, if you like "modern" aka Metro apps for Windows 8 and RT, you could try Vbfnet's free File Downloader from the Windows Store. It looks extremely simple but it can download multiple files from password-protected websites and FTP sites, and downloads can be paused or cancelled. Windows Store apps are easier to install, run securely and, when removed, don't leave anything behind. On technical grounds, they should be your first choice in Windows 8. And mine. But after 23 years of old Windows, it takes time to adjust.
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