WinFiles.com Software Developer Information

If you're a shareware, freeware, or commercial software developer, then this document should answer most of your questions about getting your software posted in the WinFiles.com 32-bit Software Collection.

Our relationship with you is the most important factor in the success of WinFiles.com, and our Webmaster and Shareware Staff always welcome your feedback. If you have any questions that are not answered in this FAQ, don't hesitate to ask us!

Software Developers and WinFiles.com: We've built our success on a mutually beneficial relationship with software developers. We provide an audience of hundreds of thousands of individuals who come to WinFiles.com every single day to find 32-bit software, and we give all software developers access to these users at no cost to them. We think that's a great benefit to developers. In return, software developers provide a constant source of new and updated software to attract users to our Web site again and again, which is a great benefit to us. By keeping this relationship mutually beneficial, we can ensure the success of the Web site and the software developers for many years to come.
Submitting New or Updated Software to WinFiles.com: Just fill out our 32-bit Software Submission Form. This form is not just for new submissions, it is also our preferred method of receiving updated information from you. The software must be truly 32-bit, and must be able to run on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, or Windows CE (or any combination of the previous). Please provide as much of the information requested in the form as possible. This will make sure your application gets updated as quickly as possible.
All download links submitted MUST be a direct link to begin immediate download of the application. We do not link to HTML pages for the download link. We do provide a link to the application's home page in our listing, as well as a link to the author email address.
We can only include your application in one category on our site. Please do not request that your application be listed in multiple categories. Choose the category that best fits your software.
If you release an update to an application that is already listed, please use the same form, and choose the Updated Listing option. We usually post the new or updated information within a day or two after receiving it. Missing information will slow down this process, or cause the software listing not to be updated.
Submitting Icons for your Shareware: If you would like your application's icon to be included in its listing, please send a 32 x 32 GIF icon (no JPGs or BMPs) to shareware@winfiles.com. When submitting an icon for your application, please include the name of the corresponding application.
Shareware Descriptions: Many of the descriptions we receive from shareware authors are far too long and detailed to be included on our pages. Our shareware staff edits the descriptions to make sure that our visitors can quickly determine if a software application fits their needs. If you do not like the edited description of your program, please inform our Shareware Staff and provide them with a better (but more brief) description. The description should not be an exhaustive listing of every single feature of the program (that's why we provide a home page link for the application). We do not list the name of any other Web sites in the descriptions. Please also do not include any information in the description that is already provided elsewhere in the submission form, such as price, expiration, your company name, and the application name. Please keep the descriptions as brief as possible.
Consent to be Listed on WinFiles.com and CD-ROM: By having your software listed on this site, you are giving your consent for the application to be included on the Best of WinFiles.com 32-bit Shareware CD-ROM, and you are assuming full responsibility for us including it in our listings. If you would like to remove your application's listing from our collection, or if would not like it to appear on the CD-ROM, please let us know.
Software Restrictions: We only accept submissions for 32-bit shareware, freeware, and demos. We do not post listings for 16-bit or DOS software, even if it runs in a 32-bit environment. We will not link to software stored in in INCOMING or UPLOADS directories on remote servers.
WinFiles.com strives to maintain the highest quality in Windows-related content, and does not endorse any programs or advertising that pertains to adult-related material, such as pornography, alcohol, and the like. We reserve the right to refuse posting an application for any reason. If an application is submitted that includes objectionable material of any nature, it will not be listed in our collection.
Can I upload my program to WinFiles.com?: Currently, you can not physically store your software on WinFiles.com. Our collection is a "virtual" software library, which means that we do not actually store the software on our servers. Instead, we provide links to software on FTP and HTTP servers across the Internet, and we prefer to point to the software's "home" location. That way, the developer has full control over the distribution of the software.
Getting a Button in Your Listing: The Register Now button gives hundreds of thousands of shareware users the chance to send you money. It's a direct link to your program's order form in our Shareware Registration System. For information on how you can include your software in our registration system, please visit our Shareware Registration System area.
Increasing Your Downloads from WinFiles.com: Obviously, there are many things that can affect download popularity. However, we think we have a rather unique perspective into what works at WinFiles.com and what doesn't - and we've definitely noticed some trends that make certain titles more popular than others. For example, software that is closer to the top of a page gets downloaded more frequently than software near the bottom. Since we list the software titles based on their release date, frequent updates of your software will place it at the top of the page more often, and will therefor increase downloads. Also, software titles with full information get downloaded more often than software with missing information. Please check your title's listing, and submit an update form to us with any missing or incorrect information. This helps us provide complete information to our visitors, and it helps build confidence in your product among users trying to make a decision between 20-30 similar programs on a page. And finally, having a , a , or a definitely increases downloads. See the paragraphs below for more information about these distinctions.
The Rating: Basically, we give a Try It to a program that we find easy to recommend to our visitors. It stands out from the others in its category with at least a couple of must have features. We pick a Try It rather quickly; when we run it for the first time, if we yell "Cool!" then it's a Try It.
The Rating: A Getit is a well-known distinction at WinFiles.com. Previously, the Getit was our only distinction, but we added the Try It in an effort to urge software developers to provide software that is easier to install. Not being able to figure out how to install a program is the number one complaint among our visitors. Therefore, a Getit has the exact same criteria as a Try It, but it must also have at least Install Support. Having Install Support does not guarantee that your application will receive a Getit. Our shareware staff awards these distinctions based on the additional criteria listed above.
And, although we don't enforce it strictly, we must admit that we give Getit preference to software that does not have an expire on date timeout. There's nothing wrong with an expire after timeout (such as software that times out 15 or 30 days after the actual day a user installs it), but we get thousands of complaints from our users each week when they try to install a program that has expired on a specific calendar date - and many times that date was weeks before they ever got a chance to evaluate it. Again, we won't rule out a Getit simply because of your timeout scheme, but if we're having a hard time making a decision, the timeout issue will usually tip the scales.
The Awards: The WINners are chosen annually by WinFiles.com Webmaster Steve Jenkins. It is an award given to the standout programs of the previous year. Perhaps your software will be a future WINner!
The difference between "Expires on" and "Expires after": If a program times out (stops functioning until it is registered) on a specific date, regardless of how long the user has been using the program, then we say that it expires on that date. If it times out after a certain number of days of use, then we say it expires after so many days. If it has no timeout, then we say it never expires. Users prefer software that expires after a certain number of days of use, rather than timing out with a calendar date. Software that expires on a certain date also poses a problem for our CD-ROM customers, since some of the software on the discs has already timed out by the time the discs are shipped to them. Whenever possible, we ask that you give preference to software that expires after.
"Install/Uninstall" Categories: In an effort to give our visitors as much information about a program as possible, we like to tell them about the install and uninstall features of each program. We have four categories: No Install Support, Install Support Only, Uninstall Support Only, and Install and Uninstall Support.
No Install Support is rather self-explanatory. The user has nothing more than a README.TXT file to figure out how to install the program.
Install Support Only means that the developer has provided some sort of installation routine for the user. We do recognize the WinZip Self Extractor as Install Support. However, most users also want a setup routine that creates a directory, copies the files into the directory, puts icons in the Start menu or on the Desktop, etc.
Uninstall Support Only is the exact opposite. The user is on his or her own to get the program installed, but you're more than happy to provide a way for them to nuke it from their system. We admit that it's highly unlikely that any developer would provide uninstall support only, but it's your software, and we never want to rule anything out!
Install and Uninstall Support is what all users dream about. It's the ability to easily install a program on a system, as well as the ability to remove it (including any registry keys and .ini files). It it's possible, we'd love for you to provide this support for all your software.
Determining the "Status" of a Program: We realize that we aren't the only authority on the matter, but for the sake of consistency, we needed to draw some pretty clear lines when it came to the status of the programs in our collection. So please don't yell too loudly at us if you don't happen to agree with our classifications ;). Currently, we categorize all the programs in our collection as one of the following: shareware, freeware, or commercial demo.
We define shareware as any software that is try before you buy. Therefore, we lump nagware, crippleware, and a bunch of other wares together in this category. If a software title has any sort of registration, then we call it shareware.
Freeware is software that is provided strictly out of the good of a developer's heart (or a desire to take over the market, whichever you prefer). There is no required payment associated with freeware, and users don't have to feel guilty for using it for months without paying anybody.
What's left are commercial demos. These are scaled down programs that give a taste of how a commercial application works, but they are rarely fully functional. Also, commercial demos are usually purchased, instead of registered. Sometimes this is a pretty fuzzy line, but we'll usually be more than happy to go with the classification of the developer, unless we think it will confuse our visitors.

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