peer to peer download software is it safe?

your question is a little ambiguous..

the famous bittorrent client and the Java variant of it http://azureus.sourceforge.net/ are considered pretty safe to use .. ie there is no ad-ware and there is no known hacks to mess up your computer. And when these are found, the authors fix their programs closing the exploits.

But anytime you open ports and run services, you run the risk of some hacker messing with your system.

And any time you use torrents, you can EAT all the available bandwidth on your connection .. and then you might get hassled. The torrent client allows to you set upload and download limits.

As for software you find on torrents .. if it is open source gnu ware, then sure, use a torrrent to pull it down. it is almost impossible to mess up the software, the seed is coming from a known source, and they have an md5 checksum on the files.

As for software that should probably not be shared, sometimes folks ruin it and add some viruses just for fun.

Well to begin with all of the free versions of P2P software come bundled with ad-ware that track more info than I like to give out, not to mention annoying adverts.

Then when you do download fies there is a pretty high risk of getting malicious software in any file format.

If you do decide to P2P use a good A/V software with real time scanning, and make sure your P2P settings are set to use it. I would still scan each file before opening or even moving it.

If you do insist on P2P best to assume the worst of every file, and not do it on the same machine you keep personal information or do on-line transactions.

IMHO

Downloading any application through a P2P program is done at your own risk. They can contain viruses, trojans, etc, and can harm your PC with anything from small problems (random pop-ups), to larger ones (operating system won't boot). Also, allowing file-sharing to outside sources is a dangerous way of getting caught (but that's only to worry about if you're using P2P for illegal file-sharing).

I strongly discourage downloading any .exe or application files from P2P. It's better to google it and find the official site for a demo download (or maybe it's free) and actually purchase it (oh, the horror)

my personal opinon from my own experiences is no. cause ur allowing everyone to see ur computer files. and seen u a virus and u not now before its too late.